Rules for Writers Chapter 46

In chapter 46 from Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker, she talks about the differences between a summary and an analysis at the same time that she explains some of the keys that would help write a better summary and/or analysis of either a visual or written text. According to Hacker, reading actively, such as asking questions about the reading, highlighting or underling main ideas or information that could be relevant, etc., could help to create a better understanding of the reading. She also suggests doing more than just one reading since it’s not always easy to catch all the important details on the first attempt. Sketching an outline of the text could also be helpful as when trying to identify the thesis, and main ideas of a text. Hacker highlights how visual texts are not much different to written text and can also be examine the same one. Both visual and written texts have main ideas that are being transmitted by either by either illustrations on case of the visuals or words on the written texts. Finally, Hacker describes a summary as a brief piece in which only the main ideas and important points are stated and not personal opinion should be included; whereas, in an analysis your opinion is very important and should be supported by some sort of evidence, and will also normally included a brief summary of the reading.



I remember how my teachers and even my parents never allowed me to write on my textbook, even if they were old. So when I first heard about annotating, I confessed thinking that my teacher was crazy, “I can’t do such a thing”, it was like committing a crime. Although now, I honestly find annotating really fascinating; perhaps because it was something prohibit for me for such a long time but also because I find it very useful. Among other things, summarizing as well as analyzing is something that I’ve always had problems with. When I do summaries it is hard for me to extract only the main ideas from a text; I consider everything of vital importance that I normally struggle while choosing what has to be included and what can be left out. Probably because I simply don’t know how to make summaries so, this chapter will be very helpful on future assignments.