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How to Write a Summary

November 13, 2023 by admin Category: How To

You are viewing the article How to Write a Summary  at Tnhelearning.edu.vn you can quickly access the necessary information in the table of contents of the article below.

Writing a summary is an essential skill that can be applied to a wide range of academic and professional contexts. Whether you need to condense a lengthy article, summarize a book chapter, or provide a brief overview of a project or presentation, the ability to effectively capture the main points and key details is crucial. In this guide, we will explore the step-by-step process of writing a summary, including techniques to identify the most important information, organize it coherently, and present it concisely. By the end of this tutorial, you will gain a solid understanding of the principles behind writing a successful summary and be equipped with practical tips to create concise, informative, and impactful summaries in any setting.

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This article was co-written by Richard Perkins. Richard Perkins is a writing teacher, academic English coordinator, and founder of the PLC Learning Center. With more than 24 years of teaching experience, he provides teachers with the tools to teach students to write and guides students from elementary to college in effective and confident writing. Richard is a member of the National Writing Project. As a teacher trainer and consultant at California State University, Long Beach’s Global Education Project, Perkin develops and presents at teacher workshops that integrate 17 goals. UN Sustainable Development into the K-12 curriculum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in media and television from the University of Southern California and an MEd from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

There are 7 references cited in this article that you can see at the bottom of the page.

This article has been viewed 63,243 times.

Write summaries and a great way to process information you’ve read, whether it’s an article or a book. If you’ve been assigned to write abstracts at school, the best way to start is to re-read the work. Read it carefully and make notes on the main points you want to include in your summary. When starting to write, you should first rely on memory to make sure you write in your own words, and then revise it so that it is clear, correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Table of Contents

  • Steps
    • Read the work again
    • Write a summary in your own words
    • Edit drafts into coherent summaries

Steps

Read the work again

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Image titled Feel Good About Yourself Step 14

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Read the work carefully. Initially you should just read without marking. Focus on the concept the author really wants to convey. This means you have to read a sentence or a paragraph more than once. You may also have to re-read the entire work. That is also a good thing. [1] X Research Source
Image titled Feel Good About Yourself Step 13

Image titled Feel Good About Yourself Step 13

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Write down what you think is the main idea of the piece. This will help you start rewriting the author’s arguments in your own words. You can also ask yourself what ideas or themes run through the work. The title of a work can also give you a clue as to its gist. [2] X Research Source

  • Authors can also state their point of view more clearly through sentences such as “My thesis is….” or I believe…
  • In works of fiction, the author often emphasizes the theme more. If you notice that the theme of love – such as a discussion or description of love – comes up a lot in the work, then one of the main ideas of the work must be love.
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Image titled Write a Speech Introducing Yourself Step 5

Image titled Write a Speech Introducing Yourself Step 5

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Reread and note the main ideas of the work. Once you’ve firmly established the author’s main idea, reread the work, noting the techniques the author uses to support that idea. You can find evidence by selecting details mentioned in the title, surprises in the argument or plot, repetition or attention-grabbing details, such as features. Description of the characters (if any). Record these details as they appear. [3] X Research Sources

  • To express something in your own words, imagine that you are explaining or describing to someone. So you won’t just repeat verbatim what the author wrote. Do the same when you write the main ideas in your own words.
Image titled Write a Book Report Step 6

Image titled Write a Book Report Step 6

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Don’t focus on the evidence the author uses to support the points. You just need to know what the author is arguing about. Thus, assuming that the author’s main thesis is: “The civil rights movement in the United States really started in the 1950s”, they could point to the black women’s bus boycott movement to evidence for this argument. You only need to pay attention to the boycott movement of black women, no need to take the example of the boycott that the author mentioned. [4] X Research Sources

  • For works of fiction, you should avoid rewriting each event that occurs in the work. Instead, you need to focus on the main ideas of the plot and the main motives for those ideas. Do not state everything that happens to the character throughout the story.

Write a summary in your own words

Image titled Start a Letter Step 5

Image titled Start a Letter Step 5

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Start with source information. You should start every abstract by mentioning the author and the title of the work. This will let the reader know that you are summarizing someone else’s work. [5] X Research Sources

  • For example, you could start with something like “George Shaw’s play ‘Pygmalion’ deals with class and cultural issues in early 20th-century England.”
Image titled Apply for an Entrepreneurial Grant Step 8

Image titled Apply for an Entrepreneurial Grant Step 8

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Use memory to write down the main idea of each section. Write a first draft without looking at the notes, including the main idea of each section in your own words. An abstract doesn’t just repeat verbatim what the author has written, so it’s important that you use your own words. [6] X Research Source

  • If you must use the author’s words verbatim, you need to put them in quotation marks so that the reader knows that they are not your words; otherwise you will be considered plagiarism and may get in trouble.
  • Remember to use the correct format when quoting!
Image titled Start a Letter Step 1

Image titled Start a Letter Step 1

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Present the content from the author’s point of view. When writing, be sure to summarize only the original work, and not to interfere with your own opinions about the work or the events in it. Summarize the content of the work, keeping the author’s voice and point of view. [7] X Research Sources

  • For example, if you think Hamlet spends a lot of time thinking and rarely acting, you could write “Hamlet is a man of thinking instead of acting”, don’t write “Why Hamlet sometimes doesn’t act.” something?”
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Image titled Start a Letter Step 4

Image titled Start a Letter Step 4

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Use language appropriate to the summary. You need to let the reader know that you are summarizing someone else’s arguments. Therefore, you should occasionally use phrases such as “the author argues that,” or “the article asserts” when presenting those arguments. This will remind your audience that this is not your work, but someone else’s. [8] X Research Sources

  • In works of fiction, you might write “Shakespeare’s Hamlet spends much of his time on the castle walls contemplating.” This lets the reader know that you are referring to Shakespeare’s play, not composing your story.

Edit drafts into coherent summaries

Image titled Start a Letter Step 7

Image titled Start a Letter Step 7

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Reread the draft you just wrote from memory. Take out your notes and compare them with a draft written from memory. If there is an important point you forgot to include, add it in a second draft. [9] X Research Source
Image titled Write a Speech Introducing Yourself Step 7

Image titled Write a Speech Introducing Yourself Step 7

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Present the summary in chronological order. Instead of jumping around from one part of a story or an article to another, you should interpret the content in the order in which it happened. This is especially important when summarizing works of fiction.
Image titled Start a Letter Step 6

Image titled Start a Letter Step 6

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Eliminate repetitions. Sometimes, in an article or book, the author may mention a certain point more than once to emphasize the main points. The summary doesn’t need that. When you reread your summary, omit repetitions – even if the author says it many times, you only need to mention it once. [10] X Research Source

  • However, if you find a certain point repeated by the author, it is very important and you should definitely include it in the summary.
Image titled Conduct Research Step 2

Image titled Conduct Research Step 2

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Add transitions as needed. When you are focusing on writing the main ideas, you may not notice how the paragraphs in the summary are connected. When editing, you need to remember to connect each paragraph with the next and get back to the main idea. [11] X Research Source

  • For example, when summarizing an article about the causes of the American Revolution, you might write one paragraph that summarizes the author’s argument about taxes, and another paragraph about religious freedom. You could write something like this: “Although some colonists believed that taxes would give them representation in parliament, the author has argued that others supported the revolution because they believed that they have the right to represent in heaven in their own way.”
Image titled Write a Grant Proposal Step 9

Image titled Write a Grant Proposal Step 9

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Check for grammar and spelling errors. Once you’ve edited the content in the draft, you need to check the other details. Make sure the article has no spelling and grammar errors. Look for inappropriate, redundant or missing punctuation marks and correct them.

  • Don’t use a spell checker. It can detect when you misspelled a word, but not when you misspelled one word for another. For example, it won’t correct “where” when you mean “here”.
Image titled Get a Job Fast Step 9

Image titled Get a Job Fast Step 9

{“smallUrl”:”https://www.wikihow.com/images_en/thumb/f/f7/Get-a-Job-Fast-Step-9.jpg/v4-728px-Get-a-Job-Fast- Step-9.jpg”,”bigUrl”:”https://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/f/f7/Get-a-Job-Fast-Step-9.jpg/v4-728px-Get- a-Job-Fast-Step-9.jpg”,”smallWidth”:460,”smallHeight”:345,”bigWidth”:728,”bigHeight”:546,”licensing”:”<div class=”mw-parser -output”></div>”}
Check the length of the summary. After you’ve added to your summary anything you’ve previously forgotten, it’s important to double-check its length. With school summaries, you must follow the instructions given by your teacher.

  • Typically, an abstract should be about a quarter of the length of the original work. As such, if the original work is 4 pages long, your abstract should not be more than 1 page long. [12] X Research Source
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  • Image titled Conduct Research Step 10

    Image titled Conduct Research Step 10

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    Have someone proofread your post. Others may see an argument or point of view in a completely different light than you, giving you a new perspective on your work and work.

    • In addition to checking for accuracy, you should also ask them to evaluate the flow and succinctness of your summary. Readers must understand the content of the work or story even just reading your summary. [13] X Research Source Don’t be afraid to ask for criticism; You can then consider their comments and make adjustments accordingly.
  • X

    This article was co-written by Richard Perkins. Richard Perkins is a writing teacher, academic English coordinator, and founder of the PLC Learning Center. With more than 24 years of teaching experience, he provides teachers with the tools to teach students to write and guides students from elementary to college in effective and confident writing. Richard is a member of the National Writing Project. As a teacher trainer and consultant at California State University, Long Beach’s Global Education Project, Perkin develops and presents at teacher workshops that integrate 17 goals. UN Sustainable Development into the K-12 curriculum. He holds a bachelor’s degree in media and television from the University of Southern California and an MEd from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

    There are 7 references cited in this article that you can see at the bottom of the page.

    This article has been viewed 63,243 times.

    Write summaries and a great way to process information you’ve read, whether it’s an article or a book. If you’ve been assigned to write abstracts at school, the best way to start is to re-read the work. Read it carefully and make notes on the main points you want to include in your summary. When starting to write, you should first rely on memory to make sure you write in your own words, and then revise it so that it is clear, correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.

    In conclusion, writing a summary is a valuable skill that can enhance reading comprehension and the ability to convey information concisely. By understanding the main points and organizing them in a clear and coherent manner, a summary can effectively communicate the essence of a text. The key to writing a good summary lies in actively engaging with the material, identifying the main ideas, and avoiding unnecessary details. Additionally, practicing paraphrasing and using your own words can help maintain the originality of the summary. Whether it is for academic purposes, professional presentations, or simply for personal enjoyment, mastering the art of writing a summary can greatly benefit individuals in various aspects of their lives.

    Thank you for reading this post How to Write a Summary at Tnhelearning.edu.vn You can comment, see more related articles below and hope to help you with interesting information.

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