The Summary – An Overview

Many students often ask “Why do we have to learn how to write a summary?” The answer is summary writing is a very common and valuable skill that is used in both academic and non-academic settings.

Summarizing is a common academic activity. According to studies done among hundreds of university professors in virtually all departments, the most essential language skill is reading, and the top category of writing assignments is the summary of and reaction to a reading. Thus, it is an academic necessity for students to be able to summarize what they read. Summary is inherently a reading skill, even though it is a piece of writing. When we summarize, we recap, we share what we learned. If you had difficulty understanding a text, you will have difficulty summarizing it.

Summarizing is also a common activity in our daily lives. We are continually reconstructing and retelling what happens to us and those around us. We regularly summarize events, news, dreams, what we’ve seen, heard, felt, read, or done. We selectively summarize those parts that are the most important to us and that we think are of interest to others. We condense. We clarify. We point out only main events, ideas, and characters. Unimportant details and nonessentials are left out.

Summarizing is also an excellent way to record our understanding of a reading passage. If we can clearly write a summary of a story or article, it is obvious we have interpreted and understood it. This is one reason teachers and professors often require summary papers- they want to see if we have understood the reading assignment.

In short, it’s easy to see how important and useful it is to know how to summarize. It’s one of the most effective ways to remember information and share the information with others.

Adapted from The Readers’ Journal by Mark Rentz

How to Write a Summary

A summary is when you write out in your own words the main and supporting points from a text. It is a concise restatement, in one’s own words, of another, longer document, usually an article or a report. Summaries are often used in committees or small groups, so that every person won’t have to read every single document. Thus, summaries must be accurate as well as brief.

Summaries are also handy study tools for students. Summarizing the chapters of a textbook or articles you have read can help you make sense of, remember, and review the material.

A summary has the following characteristics:

It must contain and communicate the meaning of the original text.
If you are writing a summary only, there is no personal opinion of your own. Your job is merely to recap the author's ideas and opinions, not share yours.
It must stick strictly to what the original author had to say.
It must contain the overall main point and the main supporting details of the original and state the thesis paraphrase, with the title and the author clearly stated.
It should not contain too specific of information from the article.

Think of a good summary as answering the following questions:

What is the topic of the original?
What is the author saying about that topic, and what is the main point?
1. You’ll want to identify a few of the supporting points and details.
What conclusions does the original reach?

How to produce a summary:

Read the article to be summarized and annotate it extensively. Get in the habit of underlining main point (s) and putting a check mark (v) by the supporting details. Figure out, in your own words, the point of the piece. (We’ve already been doing this with out thesis paraphrase).
Outline the article, identifying the main point and supporting points. U
Decide on the order you want to present the ideas. Typically, summaries use the same order as the article.
Write the body of your summary, using your own words and making sure to cover all the key points. Make sure you don’t include your opinion when you explain the original author’s conclusions.
Don’t forget to proofread and edit your work.

The features of a summary:

1.Start your summary with a clear identification of the type of work, title, author, and thesis paraphrase in the present tense.

Example: In the article "Four Kinds of Reading," the author, Donald Hall, explains his opinion about different types of reading.

This includes the thesis of the article. This is stated in your own words in the first or second sentence of the summary. Includes some major supporting details, but doesn’t cover any or all of the minor supporting details.Remember - this is the author's thesis that you are identifying and paraphrasing. It is not your personal thesis or a thesis that you would include in an essay.
Includes the author’s ideas, but does not include your own opinion, feelings, counter arguments, etc.
Uses multiple paragraphs, typically structured around each of the major supporting details.
Covers all of the major supporting details and some of the minor (like examples, or specific details).
Typically, is 1/3 of the original. Our summaries will have their own length requirement, however.

Prefer to watch?

This video, which is about 5 minutes, walks through some helpful tips and tricks to writing summaries. Remember, summary is truly a reading skill, as it's evaluating your comprehension of the text. If you're struggling with figuring out what to write in a summary, you may need to return to the text.