LESSON 4.8
The Summary Statement
Grade 3 (optional grades 1-2)
Review
A summary statement consists of a What Statement and a Why Statement.
The What Statement tells the reader what the subject is.
The Why Statement tells the reader why it is true or important.
True Why Statement
What Statements that show why something is true are usually joined to Why Statements with the word because.
A Why Statement with our aye-aye lemur sample essay might look like this:
If I could be any wild animal, I would be an aye-aye lemur, because I like studying animals that use echolocation.
Task 4.8.1 – Tandem
Answer the following:
- What is the tie line in the summary sentence above?
- What is the Old Idea in the summary sentence above?
- What is the New Idea in the summary sentence above?
- What is the Why in the summary sentence above?
Important Why Statement
What Statements that show why something is important usually are a separate sentence.
If I could be any wild animal, I would be an aye-aye lemur. They are important to me because I like studying animals that use echolocation.
The Word because
Don’t start a sentence with the word because. You will end up writing a sentence fragment, which is an incomplete sentence.
Therefore, if you are going to make your summary sentence into two sentences, make sure the second one does not start with because:
Incorrect:
If I could be any wild animal, I would be an aye-aye lemur. Because they are important to Madagascar tourism.
Correct:
If I could be any wild animal, I would be an aye-aye lemur. That is because they are important to Madagascar tourism.
Task 4.8.2 – Tandem
Answer the following:
- What is the maximum number of sentences a Summary Sentence should be?
- What is the most important word in a Why Statement?
- How many ideas are in a What Statement?
- What is it called when a Why Statement repeats part of the What Statement?