How To Write A Summary? A Step-By-Step Easy Guide
Summarization is the process of extracting key details from a long text and shrinking them into a short piece while maintaining clarity and accuracy. For example, Romeo and Juliet, a legendary novel, is often summarized as
“A tragic love story between two young lovers from feuding families…”
Whether you’re a student condensing research, a teacher explaining a concept, or a researcher reviewing literature, knowing how to write a good summary helps you communicate ideas clearly and concisely. Let’s learn that in this article.
When to write a summary?
Summarizing isn’t just for academic papers. It’s a versatile skill that is helpful in various situations.
Reviewing books or stories: When analyzing a novel, summarizing helps distill main themes, plot points, and character arcs without unnecessary details.
Understanding complex research papers: A summary points out the main findings of the paper without dense information.
Writing bibliographies: Bibliographies are short explanations that explain how each source has contributed to the new study that is written.
Writing abstracts for research papers: Abstracts are concise summaries of research papers that provide an overview of the study’s objectives, findings, and implications.
How to write a summary in 4 steps?
Writing a good summary can be broken down into 4 steps.
1. Reading or watching the source
One of the most important tips for writing an effective summary is starting with reading or watching the target. It could be a research paper. It could be a movie. It could be a book.
When reading a text-based source:
Pay close attention to the headings and subheadings. These give a structured overview of the main topics covered.
Read the introduction and conclusion necessarily. Often, the core message is found here.
Skim through the supporting details like examples, data, or arguments that support the main idea.
When watching a video:
Look at the opening statements. These often set the stage for the discussion.
Switch the speed to 1.5x and turn on captions. This allows you to sift through the video quickly while also analyzing the important parts of the text.
2. Identifying main points
Once you have thoroughly read or watched the source, the next step is to extract the key themes. But how to identify the main points in an article or research paper? The easy solution is to break down the content into different sections.
There are different approaches for different types of content. For research papers, you should make sections like methodology, findings and conclusion and list down relevant points under each heading.
There’s no need to include every experiment detail. Instead, highlight the hypothesis, main findings and conclusion. And that’s it!
For articles and essays, pay close attention to the introduction, topic sentences in each paragraph and the conclusion. These areas hold the most valuable information.
For books or stories, divide them into characters, conflict, relationships and resolution. For example, if you’re summarizing ‘The Great Gatsby,” you wouldn’t list every party Gatsby throws, but you’d focus on his pursuit of Daisy, the theme of wealth and the novel’s tragic ending.
For news reports, look at the who, what, when, where, why and how to pinpoint the essential details. This allows you to get to the point quickly without unnecessary background.
Some of the tips for pulling out key points include:
Looking for action words like “what happened,” “what was discovered,” “it was deducted,” and “after running the experiment.”
Ignoring fillers or repetitions like avoiding subjective details of multiple experiments done or opinion by a certain person.
Asking, “If I remove this, does the meaning change?
3. Writing summary in your own words
The next step is writing the summary in your own words, using the key points you drew out in the previous step. You can use direct quotes from the author here and there, but make sure to cite them properly, otherwise, it will be considered plagiarism.
The best way of writing in your own words is to keep the source away and only look at the key points while writing the summary. That way, you won’t copy anything from the original text.
If you’re having difficulty putting the main points into deliverable language, get help from paraphrasing tools available online. These tools can improve the flow, language and structure of your text.
One of the burning questions here is how to start a summary. Well, you should take the author’s name, title of the source and then write an introductory sentence. For example,
In the article “The Urge to Explore,” David Dobbs claims that the desire to explore our world is essential to human nature (Source).
After this, look at each section one by one and summarize their info, either manually or by using a summary generator. It uses AI-driven algorithms to understand the crux of the text and present it in a concise form, just like shown below.
During all this, ensure you’re using reporting verbs like:
This article presents, explains, addresses…
The author decodes, argues, criticizes…
The use of these verbs shows that you’re reporting the author’s ideas rather than your own. When you’re near the conclusion, mention the name of the author once again and then add the concluding sentence that gives the summary a sense of ending.
Summary writing format
The format of the summary is as follows:
Start with the introductory sentence that includes the name of the author, title of the source and the introductory sentence. Then, using the key points from each section, summarize each by writing a single line. After that, compile them all before adding a concluding line to give a sense of closure.
Summary writing example
Below we have given one example of the summary from a PDF by Habib University.
Sample Text:
What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus. Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others believe that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world. Whatever it is, the coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.
Summary:
The author mentions the various theories that have been put forth for the origins of the virus. Some talk about it in scientific terms, while others chalk it up to Chinese conspiracy theories. Whatever may be the cause, Arundhati argues that there is no doubt that the virus has significantly altered and shaken the foundations of our world as we know it.
4. Review and edit for clarity and correctness.
Before finalizing your summary, take a step back and review it with a critical eye. Does it capture the author’s main argument without adding unnecessary details? Have you included only the essential evidence that supports the key points?
Start by checking for clarity. Read each paragraph to ensure it flows logically and stays true to the original message. Next, eliminate redundancy and unnecessary details. If a fact or phrase doesn’t contribute to the reader’s understanding, remove it. Finally, proofread for grammar, punctuation, and coherence.
Common mistakes in writing summaries
Adding unnecessary details: It dilutes the effectiveness of the summary. Neol, A PTE expert trainer stresses this point by saying, “Keep all the irrelevant data outside. Stick to only the main points.”
Restating information instead of summarizing: Merely repeating the source material doesn’t create a summary; condense and rephrase the content.
Not conveying the tone: Ignoring the original text’s tone and intent can lead to misinterpretation. Reflect on the author’s purpose accurately.
Failing to proofread: Neglecting to review the summary can result in errors.
Bottom line
Mastering how to write a summary is an important skill for students, teachers and researchers alike. By carefully reading the source, identifying key points, writing the summary draft in your own words and reviewing for clarity, you can create a summary that is compelling and understandable.
FAQs
How long should a summary be?
A summary’s length varies based on the original text and its purpose. Typically, it ranges from a few sentences (10-40 words) to several paragraphs (200-300 words), ensuring brevity while conveying the important information.
What are the 5 W’s in summarizing?
The 5 W’s are Who, What, When, Where and Why. They are fundamental questions that guide summarization and help identify the main character, events, timing, location and reasons. Together, answering these questions ensures a complete understanding of the text.
What should a summary not include?
A summary should exclude personal opinions, interpretations and extra details. It must focus on the original text’s main ideas and essential points.
