Summarizing a story with SWBST
About this video
David introduces SWBST (Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then), a tool for summarizing any story. He tells a short story about Arabella the gnome and the Onion Blight, fills in each part of SWBST, and then turns the notes into a short summary written in complete sentences.
You'll be able to
- say what each letter of SWBST stands for.
- use SWBST to find the main character, goal, problem, action and result of a story.
- turn SWBST notes into a short summary in complete sentences.
Key words
- summarize
- To retell the most important parts of a story in a short way, leaving out small details.
- SWBST
- A summary tool that stands for Someone, Wanted, But, So, Then.
- main character
- The person or creature the story is mostly about.
Transcript
- [David] Readers, hello, have you ever struggled to summarize a story? Well, friends, I'm coming to you today with a sensational new thought technology and by jove, has it ever got a catchy name, it's. (David vocalizing) Okay, maybe not the easiest to say aloud, but it's the best we've got because it's a very useful tool to summarize what happens in a story, SWBST.
SWBST stands for someone wanted but so then. You see? SWBST. It's basically an easy way to figure out what the most important parts of a story are, who the main character or characters are, what they wanted, problems that got in their way, what they did about it, and what happened as a result.
I know what you're thinking, but David, how does it work? Great question, readers. You can use the SWBST on any story at all. Don't believe me? I'll prove it. But first, we'll need a story. Once upon a time, there lived a little gnome in the woods named Arabella, who wanted nothing more than to live by herself and eat the onions that she grew.
But one day, a crow came to Arabella and said, "Hey lady, there's a problem with the onions." This was how Arabella learned of the Onion Blight. It was a terrible disease that caused nearly everyone's onion crop to turn to dust in the fields. Arabella put on her backpack and journeyed into the Danger Lands.
There, she faced down Lord Nasty, who had come up with the evil spell that was ruining all the onions. She told him, "Knock it off, or I'll turn you into a bug." He refused to stop the Onion Blight, so she turned him into a bug. The Onion Blight went away, and Arabella returned to her home in the woods once more and ate raw onions to her heart's content.
Now that we've got our story, I'm gonna SWBST. Someone wanted but so then. Someone, well that's someone is Arabella, our gnome hero. Wanted, what did she want? She wanted to be left alone and eat onions. But her peaceful life was interrupted by the arrival of the Onion Blight.
So the Onion Blight came. So what'd she do about it? So, she went to the Danger Lands to stop it. Then, she defeated Lord Nasty by turning him into a bug and returned home to the woods. You see? SWBST. Gosh, it gets easier every time I say it. The last step in summarizing a story is to take the information from your SWBST.
and write it out in complete sentences like So. Arabella wanted to be left alone and eat onions, but the Onion Blight came. So she journeyed to the Danger Lands to stop Lord Nasty, who had caused the blight. She defeated him and returned home. If you wanna summarize the story, just remember to SWBST.
You can SWBST anything, David out.
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