Summary Skills

Why summarize?

Reading

Comprehension

The best way to understand any text is to condense it

into its main points.

Before you can summarize, you must understand the

information that you are condensing.

Research

Paper

Summarizing is important when you need to

condense ideas from sources (e.g., books, articles,

websites) for a research paper.

Summary & Analysis

Summary and analysis assignments require you to

express and analyze the main ideas of a text.

Summary

A condensed version of text that only includes the main ideas.

It may consist of

a single word

a single phrase

several sentences

and/or

several paragraphs

Summaries

Should be written in your own words

Should match the tone of the original text

Should not include any of your opinions

Should make specific reference to the author and/or title and the page(s) of the text

Steps to Summarizing

Preview

Subtitle

Other Items

First and last several paragraphs

A title usually condenses the main idea of the article.

The subtitle, caption, or any other words in large print under or next to the title may highlight important ideas

.

The first and last several paragraphs often introduce and conclude the author’s argument or main point

Bold-faced words, pictures, charts, or diagrams can “illustrate” main ideas.

Before you read the text…

Title

Headings and SubheadingsHeadings and subheadings break down the article into sections that relate to the author’s main idea.

ReadRead once through

without stopping.

Do not focus on the

details during your

first reading.

Just try to

understand the main

idea.

Evaluate

Carefully read the text a second time.

Use the surrounding context to

understand words that are unfamiliar. Or

use a dictionary!

Look for definitions, examples, lists,

tables, and graphs, which indicate key

terms.

Underline important ideas.

Circle key terms.

Note the main idea of each paragraph.

Find the author’s main point or

argument of the whole entire text.

Key Ideas and

Key Words

Look over the ideas you’ve underlined or highlighted.

Consider headings and paragraphs in particular when

looking at different key ideas.

Rewrite key phrases from these ideas, word for word,

using quotation marks (you may wish to consolidate before

you do this! A common mistake is too highlight too much).

Leave lines below each idea you’ve written down.

From these cited phrases, reword each idea in your own

words.

Make a list of key words (the ones you circled, and others

you feel are extremely important in gaining meaning of the

article)., in the order they appear in the article.

Then, cross out the original words—those that you wrote in

quotation marks. You will not use these in your summary.

Organize

1. Start the summary with the title and author of the work.

2. Write the author’s main point or argument in your own words.

3. Write the remaining important ideas in your own words.

• Do not include examples, statistics, specific details, and quotations, if possible.

4. Write the article’s conclusion in your own words.

5. Organize the summary similar to the original text’s organization.

Check List

Make sure that the summary is no more than 20% of the original (in general. For current events, you’ll do one page summaries, technically considered a “paraphrase” or longer summary).

Do not use technical words from the original; use your own words as much as possible.

Do not include too many details from the original.

Do not plagiarize.

• Cite author and page numbers

Proofread.

CreditsWorks Cited

Baez, Joan. Excerpt from And a Voice to Sing With. Inlandia. Ed. Gayle Wattawa.

Berkely: Heyday, 2006. 201-04.

Drucker, Phil. “How to Summarize.” Advanced Technical Writing. 2006. University

of Idaho. 4 Mar. 2008 <http://www.class.uidaho.edu/adv_tech_wrt/resources/

general/how_to_summarize.htm>.

Folwer, H. Ramsey and Jane E. Aaron. The Little, Brown Handbook. 10th ed. New

York: Pearson Longman, 2007.

Langan, John. College Writing Skills. 7th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2008.

Wehmeyer, David. “Summary Writing.” Wisconsin Online Resource Center. 2007. 4

Mar. 2008 <http://www.wisc-online.com/objects/index_tj.asp?objID=TRG2603>.