Summary writing

Summary writing is primarily concerned with starting so much in very few words by remouing superfluous and expanded details.

Also, summary writing is concerned  with producing a bridged versions of a given text or passage so that all the salient issues are brought out. It also involves writing down a brief and concise account of a long passage.

There are four main things students have to note in order to write a good summary. These are:

1. Brevity: this demands that the student must be brief and concise in their answers. There is no room for the use of flowering language or any other additional information aside from the main points.
2. Relevance: thus calls for a candidate’s answers to be relevant to the points mentioned in the passage. Students are not expected in summary writing to give any fact or point outside the passage, however relevant they think the fact or point is
3. Proper courage of the passage: this demands that students must read and understand every aspect of the passage.
4. Clarity: this means that students are expected to put down their answers clearly.

Answering summary question in page 66 of new oxford secondary English course for senior secondary schools (2).

pronouns

The pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to avoid repetition and monotony in speech or writing.  In replacing the noun however, the pronoun must reflect gender and number of the noun.

TYPES OF PRONOUN

Pronouns replace noun perfectly and perform the roles the nouns they replace and perform.

1. PERSONAL PRONOUN: These refers to the person or thing that is involved in the action either as subject or object. The pronouns also have singular and plural forms while they also reflect the first person, second person and third person.

Singular                                                                plural

First person                       I, ME                                                      WE, US

Second person                  YOU                                                       YOU

Third person                      HE/SHE/IT                                           THEY

HIM/HER/IT                                        THEY

Example:             She scolded them

I kicked him

They surprise me with their conduct.

1. POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS: These show possession or ownership of items. These pronouns also have two forms. One form functions as adjectives and are known as pronominal adjective while the other functions as pronouns and are known as such.

Pronoun                              adjective             pronoun / adjective

1^st person            MINE                     MY                         OURS           OUR

2^ND person          YUORS                  YOUR                    YOURS         YOUR

3^RD person         HIS/HERS             HIS/HER/ITS       THEIRS

Example:             This pen is mine (pronoun ‘mine’ is subject complement)

This is my pen (adjective ‘my’ modifies the noun ‘pen’).

1. REFLECTIVE PRONOUN: These pronoun refers to reflect the subject of the sentence and also shows emphasis. They have ‘self’ ending for the singular and ‘selves’ for the plural.

Singular                                                                plural

First person                       MYSELF                                                OURSELVES

Second person                  YOUSELF                                              YOURSELVES

Third person                      HIMSELF/HERSELF/ITSELF                             THEMSELVES

Example:             The man killed himself

I did the work myself

People sometimes talk to themselves

1. RELATIVE PRONOUN: The relative pronoun are used to describe or modify an antecedent noun and also to introduce the subordinate clause to the main clause. The pronouns include WHO, WHOM, WHOSE, WHICH, THAR, WHERE, WHEN AND HOW.

Example:

1. The man who helped him has come.
2. The boy whom I told you about is crying.

• The girl whose father died in an accident wanted to assist me.

1. I saw the book which he wrote.
2. She knows the boy that stole the money.
3. We suspected how it must have happened.

• That was the time when I came in.
• Mama went to the place where she first met father

1. DEMONSTRATIVE NOUNS: These pronouns incudes THIS, THAT, THESE, AND THOSE. They are used to point out specific persons, places or objects.

‘THIS” and “THAT” are used for singular, while ‘THESE’ and ‘THOSE’ are used for plural. ‘THIS’ and ‘THESE’ are used for object that are near ‘THAT’ and ‘THOSE’ are for object that are far.

Example :

This is my sister.

These are my sisters

That is my school

Those are the goats he bought.

EVALUATION: Use the following pronouns in two sentences each

1. Whom
2. Me
3. Yours
4. These
5. I
6. Myself

ASSIGNMENT: NEW OXFORD FOR SS2 PAGE 30 EXERCISE 1-5

SPEECH WORK: – RHYMES

Rhymes is the basic and paramount to determine the quality shared by words/syllables that have or end with the same sounds as each other be it vowel or consonant sound.

Examples:

Great /seat, cow/how, bend/send, fight/bright.

Rhyme is very important in spoken English because it is related to good pronunciation; stressing of the correct syllable and intonation.

Note

That if two words end with the same letters if does not always mean that they rhyme as in close/lose, death/health, rough/bough, said/laid.

The above pairs do not rhyme because they end with different sounds although they end with the same letters. In this wise, there are two features in rhyme which are of great importance to bee noted and understood. They are homophones and homographs.

HOMOPHONESS: these are words that have the same pronunciation but spell differently with different meanings. This feature has a lot to do with rhyme.

Examples:

PREY      /prei/                    and        PRAY     /prei/

AIR         /eacd/                  and        HAIR      /ea(r)/

KEY         /KI:/                       and        QUAY    /ki:/

AURAL  /ᴐ:ra/                    and        ORAL     /ᴐ:ral/

BUY        /bai/                      and        BYE         /bai/

HOMOGRAPHS: These are words spelt identically but pronounced differently with different meanings

Examples:

BOW/bau/                          and        BOW/bau/

LEAD/li:d/                            and        LEAD/led/

WHAT MAKES GOOD RHYME

1. The vowel sounds must be the same e.g pay/lay, bee/see, high/buy
2. The consonant sounds must be the same. E.g. laid/paid, beat/seat, height/bite, thought/port.
3. The syllables that rhyme should be those that bear a stress as in city/pretty, seven/heaven, mountain/fountain, and weather/feather.