Tips for Summarizing

A summary is a concise restatement, in one’s own words, of another, longer document.

A good formal summary will have the following characteristics:

• It must maintain and communicate the meaning of the original.
• It must not contain your opinion or views on the original.
• It must stick strictly to what the original had to say.
• It must contain all the main points of the original.
• Usually it will not contain the supporting points, unless one or more of them is of unusual importance.

When starting to contemplate the summary, ask yourself a few questions about the original document:

• What is the subject covered in the original?
• What problem or situation is the original author addressing?
• What are some of the original main points of the original?
• What conclusion does the original reach?

Guidelines for Writing a Summary:

1. Read through the entire piece once in order to completely understand the writing.

It may help to write, in your own words, what you think is the main idea of the original. (This can normally be found in the introduction.)

2. Reread the original. While going through, underline or highlight phrases that help to express the main idea of the piece.

It is a good idea not to highlight supporting facts, UNLESS there is one or two that are very striking or otherwise important.

3. Write the introductory statement of your summary. Explain in it what the original is about. Try to keep the statement to one or two sentences at the most.

4. Decide on the order in which you want to cover the main points. You can either stick with the author’s original format for ideas, or you can rearrange the main points in a way that you want to cover them.

5. Write the body of the summary. Use your own words and make sure to cover all of the main points of the original.

6. Write the last part of the summary making sure to express the author’s original conclusions. Leave your opinion out of the conclusion.

7. Proofread the final draft of your summary. Check for correctness of the original title and facts.

A few main points to note when writing a summary are:

• Keep your opinion about the original completely out of the summary.
• Only express the conclusions and main points of the author.
• Make sure to cover all the main points discussed in the original.

All of the information contained in this hand out was taken from Texts and Contexts, A Contemporary Approach to College Writing by William S. Robinson and Stephanie Tucker.

Last Modified: October 20, 2005