English

Within the next decades education will change more than it has changed since the modern school was created by the printed book over three hundred years ago. An economy in which knowledge is becoming the true capital and the premier wealth-producing resource makes new and stringent demands on the schools for educational performance and educational responsibility. A society dominated by knowledge workers makes even newer – and even more stringent – demands for social performance and social responsibility. Once again we will have to think through what an educated person is. At the same time, how we learn and how we teach are changing drastically and fast – the result, in part, of new theoretical understanding of the learning process, in part of new technology. Finally, many of the traditional disciplines of the schools are becoming sterile, if not obsolescent. We thus also face changes in what we learn and teach and, indeed, in what we mean by knowledge.

- Peter F. Drucker, The New Realities

1. Quoting: Identify and quote one notable sentence from the passage. Explain why you find the quotation notable and why you might want to use it in a paper.

2. Paraphrasing: Write a paraphrase of one or two sentences in the passage. Use your own language to capture what the original passage says without parroting its wording or sentence patterns. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your paraphrase? Where might you want to reword or freshen the language?

3. Summarizing: In one or two sentences, write a summary of the passage. Concentrate on capturing the essence of the passage in your own words. What are the strengths and weaknesses of your summary? Where might you want to simplify or clarify it?

4. Which of the above methods – quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing – is most challenging for you? Based on your experience, write out some specific tips for yourself about how you might make that task easier, faster, and more successful in the future. Compare your tips with those of your classmates so that you all gain fresh ideas about how to quote, paraphrase, and summarize effectively.