How to Tie in All the Points Made Throughout a Paper Together
High school and college students learn to distill and synthesize large amounts of information as they research and write term and research papers. Learning how to "tie in all the points" means to summarize everything the student has researched and used in her notes and in her paper. Rather than writing down and "regurgitating" everything verbatim, the student needs to learn to pick out and summarize only the high points of what she is reading.
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Instructions
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1
Read the paper from beginning to end, then read it a second time.
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2
Underline the most important statements and ideas in your paper and circle the key terms you used.
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3
Write down the main point or thesis statement of your paper. Separate each section or topic, then write down each topic in the margins. If, for instance, you wrote a paper about Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," find the thesis statement you chose and write this down on your sheet of paper. Jot down the topic of each section of your "Mockingbird" paper in the margins of the paper itself.
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4
Expand on each section's topic and write out short summaries of your "Mockingbird" report. For this step, use a separate sheet of paper for each summary.
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Using your own words and thoughts, write down the main point of your paper in one sentence.
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Write up a rough draft of your summary on your paper. Include the information you gathered from the earlier steps and combine the information into separate paragraphs.
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Tips & Warnings
To "tie in all the points," or summarize, you need to learn to understand everything in your paper that you are reading. As you write your summary, try to capture the high points of what you have read.
Don't forget to cite every source from which you draw material. If you do not and someone else's ideas appear to be your own, this is plagiarism.
References
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