A good summary should be comprehensive, concise, coherent, and independent. These qualities are explained below:. Skip to navigation Search Hunter. Advanced Search…. Murray and Anna C. These qualities are explained below: A summary must be comprehensive: You should isolate all the important points in the original passage and note them down in a list. A summary must be concise: Eliminate repetitions in your list, even if the author restates the same points. Your summary should be considerably shorter than the source.
You are hoping to create an overview; therefore, you need not include every repetition of a point or every supporting detail. A summary must be coherent: It should make sense as a piece of writing in its own right; it should not merely be taken directly from your list of notes or sound like a disjointed collection of points. A summary must be independent: You are not being asked to imitate the author of the text you are writing about.
On the contrary, you are expected to maintain your own voice throughout the summary. Don't simply quote the author; instead use your own words to express your understanding of what you have read. After all, your summary is based on your interpretation of the writer's points or ideas.
Text: Email: library randolph. Call: Schedule: Book-a-Librarian. Like us on Facebook. With over 24 years of education experience, he gives teachers tools to teach writing to students and works with elementary to university level students to become proficient, confident writers. Richard is a fellow at the National Writing Project. Perkins creates and presents teacher workshops that integrate the U.
There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 1,, times. Read it thoroughly and take notes on the major points you want to include in your summary. When you get to writing your summary, rely on your memory first to make sure the summary is in your own words. Then, revise it to ensure that your writing is clear and the grammar, punctuation, and spelling are all perfect.
Be sure to focus on what the author thinks and feels rather than what you do! Finally, reread your summary and check it for good spelling, punctuation, and grammar. For more suggestions from our reviewer about polishing your summary and improving transitions, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account.
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Sample Summaries. Related Articles. Article Summary. Part 1. Read the piece thoroughly. You should read it without making any kind of marks. Instead, focus on really understanding what the author is trying to say. This might mean that you need to read one sentence or paragraph more than once.
You might also want to reread the whole piece. That's fine. Write down what you think the main point of the piece is. This will help you start to put the piece's arguments in your own words. You can also ask yourself what point or points or themes come up throughout the entire piece.
The title can also give you a tip as to the main point of the piece. The author might also state their thesis more plainly by saying something like "my argument is In a fiction piece, the author will more likely emphasize themes. So if you notice that love - discussions or descriptions of it, for example - come up a lot, one of the main points of the piece is probably love.
You should always use phrases such as "the author feels," "the author points out," etc. If you happen to use phrases or sentences directly from the text, make sure you use them in quotes. However, minimize the use of direct quotes as far as possible. Answered by Editage Insights on 30 Mar, The easiest approach to create a summary of any information is to thoroughly read it and select out the elements that convey the overall idea of the content. There are several content summary tools available that can do this for you.
You may see the key or most important lines of any document or text by using summarising tools. However, if you have a long text to summarise, just utilise AI-based tools, and if you have enough time, go with your brain and choose the parts that convey the paragraph's aim. This is the ideal way to summarise any material, but AI is also our future, and we can rely on AI to perform this work for us to save time and effort.
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