It’s more difficult than it seems Writing a Summary It’s more difficult than it seems Text Read Annotate Write

Why Write a Summary? To locate and understand key points from an article or chapter To help you study for a test To take notes for a research project To demonstrate to your teacher your understanding of a text Writing a good summary demonstrates that you clearly understand a text AND that you can communicate that understanding to your readers. A summary can be tricky to write at first because it’s tempting to include too much or too little information.

Read and Annotate Read the article the first time to get a sense for the author’s position. Then, read the article a second time to: Identify the thesis (author’s main point) and the reasons for why s/he holds that position. Sum up important ideas in your own words Note relationships between concepts (cause & effect, comparison, contrast) Identify examples and connect with the main point they refer to (examples always support) Note passages that you don’t understand with a

Important Pieces of a Summary Assume that your readers won’t have read the article. Your job is to give them enough information to understand the author’s point without overloading them with info. Put the author’s ideas in your own words. You’ll need to: Introduce the author by first and last name Identify the title, where the article was published and when it was published (if known) Use present tense Summarize objectively. Do not add your own opinion Be concise—the summary should be shorter than the original article Cite with quotation marks if you use the author’s words

Capturing Authorial Action Authors often cite other people or add examples to illustrate points. As you write your summary, point out that the information is coming from the original author, not you. For example, an author might cite a study. You wouldn’t want to write, “a study from Harvard says…” Readers might think you are adding the information. How do you separate the author’s ideas from yours? You show the action— “The author uses research from Harvard….. X acknowledges that _________. X agrees that _________. X argues that _________. X believes that _________. X denies/does not deny that _________. X complains that _________. X concedes that _________. X demonstrates that _________.

Suggestions—Plan Before You Write Write a one sentence summary of the entire reading—that will help you focus your writing. All other information should be related to that main point Write a one sentence summary for each paragraph or section of the text Add significant details from the passages Generalize minor details Don’t be too wordy—boil the author’s ideas down to the most basic points Add transitional words and phrases to connect ideas for better understanding

Check for Accuracy and Revise Reread your summary and make certain that you have accurately represented the author’s ideas and key points. Make sure that you have correctly cited anything directly quoted from the text. Also check to make sure that your text does not contain your own commentary on the piece. Once you are certain that your summary is accurate, you should (as with any piece of writing) revise it for style, grammar, and punctuation. If you have time, give your summary to someone else to read. This person should be able to understand the main text based on your summary alone. If he or she does not, you may have focused too much on one area of the piece and not enough on the author’s main idea.