Summary writing

Summary writing

For summarizing any work, no matter the length, follow these four simple steps:

After reading the source once through, write in your own words what you believe represents the essence of the piece. Write this (preferably in one sentence) including both the author and title of the piece.
Review the essay and divide it into sections by subtopics. (If the source is yours, you can draw a line between the sections on the source page.)
For each section, decide what the point of the section is and compose a sentence that summarizes the main idea of that section. Keep this subtopic summary to one sentence.
Polish the final product by linking all the sentences together with transitions where appropriate, and be sure the thesis statement is clearly articulated at the beginning.

That's it. Just check to make sure that the summary:

names the author and title of the source;
states the main point of the source at the beginning;
omits lengthy details, examples, quotations, anecdotes, and other less important material; and
states the author’s important subpoints clearly and seamlessly, and in the order in which they occur.

Remember, as a note-taking strategy used to understand difficult texts, summaries should reflect your interpretation of the essay. However, aim to compose an objective summary and omit evaluations and judgments. For a sample summary, using the E.B. White essay, check this summary to see how a rather large essay can be condensed to five sentences.

Summary Writing Process for Understanding Expository Essays on College Education

1. Reread the essay, annotating in and reflecting on the text

Use a scratch piece of paper, the text itself, or an empty Word document. The goal here isn't to be comprehensive, but to understand the essay--jot down the important points

2. From your rereading inventory, create a brief outline

Create this in Word to give yourself some text. For the Prof. Neusner essay, you might reduce the high points to the following:

I. [Thesis:] Brown University education has failed its students
    A. Faculty take no pride in student graduation (paragraph 1)
    B. Measuring by grades is false (2)
    C. Faculty pretended to treat students as sincere (3 - 4)

II. Why did they do this?
    A. Didn't want to be bothered (5)
    B. Expert testimony from another professor (6 - 7)

III. Send-off to students: go undo the harm we did to you (8 - 9)

3. Flesh out each main point, writing a sentence for each, in the order each occurs

This is your summary, so these are your notes, your ideas. But remember: you're not writing an opinion piece. Your main goal is to understand the essay as best as you can. So, write these sentences in an attempt to capture what you think is being said in the essay. For Neusner's essay, consider the Roman numerals to be the main points.

4. Be sure you have author, title, and thesis identified at the outset

You should have identified a single theme in the writing as the thesis of the piece. Write that as your leading sentence, together with author and title. There may be a number of competing ideas, but use what you think is most important (based on your own reading) and use that as your thesis-identifying sentence. (If you used a quoted thesis in your outline, paraphrase that thesis in your summary.)

Now, to summarize:

1. Did you include author, title, and thesis at the outset?

2. Is each main point identified in a sentence, in the order each occurs in the essay?

3. Are all sentences linked together so that the summary reads as a seamless whole?

4. Are there no quotations or evaluation passages?

If you answered "yes" to all four, you're done.

Here's one suggestion for a summary of Neusner's article.