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HOW TO WRITE A SUMMARY
Summarizing consists of two important skills:
- identifying the important material in the text, and
- restating the text in your own words.
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.
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Licensing & Attributions CC licensed content, Shared previously Writing a Summary. Authored by: Elisabeth Ellington and Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer. Provided by: Chadron State College. Located at: http://www.csc.edu/. Project: Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License: CCBY: Attribution
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Rhetorical Précis
According to Bean, Chappell, and Gillam, a rhetorical is different from a summary in that the writing is less neutral, more analytical condensation of both the content and method of original text (65). It is primarily used to document, not only what the text says, but what it does. It helps you understand an argument by trying to evaluate your understanding of the text and how the text works rhetorically.