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>.