Summarising Two Sources with Conflicting Numbers
For an assignment, students must write a 200-word summary combining two sources on student sleep. Source A is a school newsletter: 'A survey of 120 of our Year 12 students found that 68% get less than seven hours' sleep on school nights.' Source B is a national report: 'Across 4,000 secondary students nationally, 41% reported sleeping less than seven hours on school nights; the figure was highest among Year 12 students.' A student, Dev, drafts: 'Most students in Australia get too little sleep. One survey found 68% and a national report found 41%, so the real figure is probably about 55%. Year 12 is clearly the worst year, and schools should start later.'
1. Identify the errors of comprehension and reasoning in Dev's draft, and explain what a valid combined summary would say.
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Errors:
- Overgeneralising the sample. 'Most students in Australia get too little sleep' treats a single school's 120 respondents as national. Source A is one school; it cannot support a national claim.
- Averaging incompatible figures. 'Probably about 55%' invents a midpoint between 68% and 41%. These come from different populations (one school versus a national sample) and different sample sizes (120 versus 4,000). Averaging them produces a number that describes nothing.
- Overstating Source B on Year 12. Source B says the figure was highest among Year 12 students; it does not say Year 12 is 'clearly the worst year' in any comparative ranking beyond that. Dev's wording is close but adds certainty the source does not give.
- Adding a recommendation. 'Schools should start later' is Dev's opinion, not a finding of either source. A summary should report, not advocate.
A valid combined summary would state: a single-school survey of 120 Year 12 students reported 68% sleeping under seven hours on school nights, while a national survey of 4,000 secondary students reported 41%, with the highest rate among Year 12. It would note the different samples and avoid merging the figures. It might add that the school figure is higher than the national one, without claiming to know why.
2. Dev has 200 words and two sources. Suggest how he should allocate his words and signal the relationship between the sources.
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Allocation: roughly 60 words on Source A, 80 on Source B, and 60 on the relationship between them. The national report deserves more space because its sample is larger and it supplies the comparison; the school survey is a local illustration.
Signalling the relationship is the part most students omit. Useful moves:
- Contrast of scale: 'Whereas the national report surveyed 4,000 students, the school newsletter reports a single survey of 120.'
- Consistency: 'Both sources point in the same direction: a substantial minority - and in the school's case a majority - report short sleep.'
- Caution: 'Because the school sample is small and drawn from one Year 12 cohort, its 68% should not be treated as representative.'
Structure suggestion: sentence one states the shared finding; sentences two to three give each source's figure with its sample; sentence four explains why the figures differ in size without averaging them; sentence five states the one point both sources support (short sleep is common, and Year 12 is most affected). This keeps Dev inside 200 words while demonstrating the synthesis the task rewards.