Those who have passed an oral test of knowledge of a foreign language clearly realize how important it is to be able to analyze the proposed text. This is logical, since with the help of such a tool the examiner can make a conclusion both about the ability to understand what has been read and about the skills of expressing his thoughts in the language being studied. Learning to summarize and annotate is a rather complicated and lengthy process, however there is a good way to simplify it. To do this, it is enough to simply analyze the finished example of abstracting an article in English and figure out which main parts such work should include.
Initial acquaintance of the reader with the object of study
Readers who have studied the article up and down during the analysis tend to forget that they themselves also work for the public, and therefore have the obligation to make a small presentation of the article under study. This will avoid misunderstanding of the future reader or listener, who will immediately have an approximate idea of what he is dealing with. So it is necessary to indicate the name of the author and, if necessary, to voice some of the most important milestones of his biography. A standard example of abstracting an article shows that it is necessary to give the full name of the work, as well as make an indication of its style.
If the name is allegorical, metaphorical or difficult to perceive without prior preparation, it must be clarified. One cannot also ignore the question of what problems the author raises in his article, since they are, as a rule, the main goal of its creation.
What tools does the author use to convey his thoughts
However, not only “what” is important, but also “how”. Everyone who at least once tried himself in writing, had to look for a delicate balance between form and content. A very beautiful, but meaningless article will turn out to be useless and empty work. However, even the wisest thoughts will be ignored if the author talks about them in violation of grammatical and verbal norms. Professional creators, as a rule, are able to advance further than others along this difficult path using special expressive means. If the referent manages to note these techniques, his work acquires great expressiveness and depth.
References to the original text
Undoubtedly, it is very important to carefully read the contents of the analyzed text. However, the most unfortunate example of abstracting an article is an option in which a brief retelling of the author’s thoughts and conclusions is simply made. This work is absolutely useless, since it does not allow us to draw a conclusion about the depth of understanding of the issue by the referent, and most importantly, about the ways in which he came to this understanding. If the analysis refers to the fact that the author describes something, touches or depicts, then there must be an explanation of why he does it or why.
Attitude of the author and his conclusions
A great help in this matter will be the realization that the author is primarily a person and has his own characteristics of the perception of the world around him. However, this does not mean at all that his worldview must be shared by the researcher, who undertook to abstract the article in English. An example of those situations where the referent critically evaluated the analyzed work, rather indicates the opposite. Adherence to the views of the author can cause one-sidedness of judgments, their scarcity and limited scope of the given concept.
Attitude of the analyst and his conclusions
Understanding what is a well-known fact, and what is only the subjective point of view of the author, will help to abstract and draw independent independent conclusions. The abstract of a scientific article is an example of a situation where the distortion of the truth of judgments is absolutely unacceptable, since in this case all its practical meaning can be lost. But even if we are talking about works related to art or philosophy, it is difficult to find an example of abstracting of an article in which the objectivity of judgments could be neglected. Rather, on the contrary, the analyst needs to learn how to boldly express his opinion.
So a simple example of abstracting an article is a good example of how to build an analysis, and helps to take a big step towards native speakers.