The term summary refers to a brief, concise or that which is presented in a condensed form. For example: a “stand-alone” summary refers to that summary that is produced to prove to a teacher that something has been read and understood. It is very common in 100 and 200 level classes to be given assignments that require them to read a given number of articles and thereafter summarize them. It is also a major type of writing assignment that is given in graduate school.
HOW TO WRITE A SUMMARY?
A summary can be easily written by simply following the guidelines below:
- Start by reading the article that should be summarized thoroughly. Make sure that that you completely understand the article.
- Outline the article. Make sure that you take note of the major points in the article. Based on the title of the article, you will be able to give importance to certain points in the article.
- Try to make a first draft summary without having to look at the original article.
- Make sure to make use of paraphrase in the summary writing. In case you copy a phrase from the article (original), be sure that this phrase is very important, very necessary and also cannot be paraphrased.in such a case, you just put “quotation marks” before and after the phrase.
- The target of the first summary draft should be approximately a quarter of the original article’s length.
IMPORTANT FEATURES OF A SUMMARY.
- The start of the summary should give a clear identification of the title, the type of work, the author as well as the main point that should be in the present tense. For example: the “Four Kinds of Reading”, Donald Hall, the author, gives his opinion concerning the different types of reading.
- Make a comparison of the original and the article that you have summarized and make sure that every important point in the original article is covered in the summary.
- Never put your own opinions, interpretations or ideas into the summary. You should therefore be very careful in the words that you choose to use.
- You should write the summary by using a “summarizing language.” It is also very important to often remind the reader of the summary that this is not the original work but the summary by making use of phrases like the author suggests, as the article claims and many more.
- At the beginning of your summary, make sure to write a complete bibliographic citation. A complete bibliographic citation may include at least, the work’s title, the source and the author.
- Make sure to write a last sentence that “wraps” it all. It can be done by simply rephrasing the main point.
