Summarizing

Taken from Lumen’s English Composition course page:

How to Write a Summary

Summarizing consists of two important skills:

Since writing a summary consists of omitting minor information, it will always be shorter than the original text.

A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main thesis or subject.
A summary contains the main thesis (or main point of the text), restated in your own words.
A summary is written in your own words. It contains few or no quotes.
A summary is always shorter than the original text, often about 1/3 as long as the original. It is the ultimate “fat-free” writing. An article or paper may be summarized in a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs. A book may be summarized in an article or a short paper. A very large book may be summarized in a smaller book.
A summary should contain all the major points of the original text, but should ignore most of the fine details, examples, illustrations or explanations.
The backbone of any summary is formed by critical information (key names, dates, places, ideas, events, words and numbers). A summary must never rely on vague generalities.
If you quote anything from the original text, even an unusual word or a catchy phrase, you need to put whatever you quote in quotation marks (“”).
A summary must contain only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
A summary, like any other writing, has to have a specific audience and purpose, and you must carefully write it to serve that audience and fulfill that specific purpose.

From Hunter College’s Reading/Writing Center:

A good summary should be comprehensive, concise, coherent, and independent. These qualities are explained below:

A summary must be comprehensive: You should isolate all the important points in the original passage and note them down in a list. Review all the ideas on your list, and include in your summary all the ones that are indispensable to the author’s development of her/his thesis or main idea.
A summary must be concise: Eliminate repetitions in your list, even if the author restates the same points. Your summary should be considerably shorter than the source. You are hoping to create an overview; therefore, you need not include every repetition of a point or every supporting detail.
A summary must be coherent: It should make sense as a piece of writing in its own right; it should not merely be taken directly from your list of notes or sound like a disjointed collection of points.
A summary must be independent: You are not being asked to imitate the author of the text you are writing about. On the contrary, you are expected to maintain your own voice throughout the summary. Don’t simply quote the author; instead use your own words to express your understanding of what you have read. After all, your summary is based on your interpretation of the writer’s points or ideas. However, you should be careful not to create any misrepresentation or distortion by introducing comments or criticisms of your own.

Write a one-sentence summary of each paragraph.
Formulate a single sentence that summarizes the whole text.
Write a paragraph (or more): begin with the overall summary sentence and follow it with the paragraph summary sentences.
Rearrange and rewrite the paragraph to make it clear and concise, to eliminate repetition and relatively minor points, and to provide transitions. The final version should be a complete, unified, and coherent.

Outline the text. Break it down into its major sections—groups of paragraphs focused on a common topic—and list the main supporting points for each section.
Write a one or two sentence summary of each section.
Formulate a single sentence to summarize the whole text, looking at the author’s thesis or topic sentences as a guide.
Write a paragraph (or more): begin with the overall summary sentence and follow it with the section summary sentences.
Rewrite and rearrange your paragraph(s) as needed to make your writing clear and concise, to eliminate relatively minor or repetitious points, and to provide transitions. Make sure your summary includes all the major supporting points of each idea. The final version should be a complete, unified, and coherent.

English Composition 121