Integration
Tasks that need reading, reformulation, register and attribution together.
Nothing new is taught here. What is new is that each task needs two or three of the phase’s skills at the same time, which is how they occur outside a lesson: you unpack a dense sentence in order to summarise it, and you choose a hedge because of who will read the summary.
Work in that order: understand, then decide the register, then write. Choosing the wording before you have understood the claim is what produces confident summaries of things the source never said.
| Task | Skills it needs |
|---|---|
| Dense sentence → plain prose | unpacking + verbal style |
| Informal note → report sentence | register + nominal style |
| Source claim → your text | attribution + hedging |
| Two sources → one sentence | synthesis + connectives |
| Officialese → instruction someone can follow | verbal style + audience |
| Spoken stance → written summary | pragmatics + neutral paraphrase |
Die im Frühjahr vorgelegte Untersuchung nennt im Mittel 59 Monate.
The study submitted in spring gives an average of 59 months.
dense source sentence
Der Untersuchung zufolge dauern die Verfahren im Mittel 59 Monate.
According to the study, the procedures take 59 months on average.
unpacked and attributed — one move for comprehension, one for distance
Die Verfahren dauern 59 Monate.Der Untersuchung zufolge dauern die Verfahren im Mittel 59 Monate.
Two things were dropped: the source and the word im Mittel. Either one alone turns a finding into a fact.
Words from this topic
- die die Stellungnahmethe statement, the formal comment
- der der Vorbehaltthe reservation, the caveat
- die die Tragweitethe significance, the implications
- abwägento weigh up
- nachvollziehento follow, to understand someone’s reasoning
- zuspitzento sharpen, to overstate for effect