A summary should include which of the following

And, if you truly learn the subject, you will still be able to summarize it months or years from now. Proficient students may monitor their understanding of a text by summarizing as they read. They understand that if they can write a one- or two-sentence summary of each paragraph after reading it, then that is a good sign that they have correctly understood it. If they can not summarize the main idea of the paragraph, they know that comprehension has broken down and they need to use fix-up strategies to repair understanding.

Skip to main content. Module 2: Using Sources. Use of the same keywords or technical expressions is probably unavoidable. However, be careful to express the ideas in your own way, using your own vocabulary and expressions as much as possible, rather than copying or just rearranging. Do not include too much detail. Part II What is a good summary? A good summary should give an objective outline of the whole piece of writing.

It should answer basic questions about the original text such as "Who did what, where, and when? It should not be a paraphrase of the whole text using your own words. A reference should be made to the original piece either in the title "A Summary of You should not give your own ideas or criticisms as part of the summary. However, if you want to comment on a piece of writing it is usual to begin by summarizing it as objectively as possible.

A good summary should not include selected examples, details, or information which are not relevant to the piece of writing taken as a whole. A good summary of an essay should probably include the main idea of each paragraph, and the main evidence supporting that idea, unless it is not relevant to the article or essay as a whole.

A summary does not need a conclusion, but if the original ends with a message to the reader this should not be left out. A good summary of a chapter should probably include the main idea of each group of paragraphs or each section; a good summary of a book should probably include the main idea of each chapter, or perhaps the main idea of each section of each chapter. A good summary may use key words from the original text but should not contain whole phrases or sentences from the original unless quotation marks are used.

Quotations should only be made if there is a reason for using the original words, for example because the choice of words is significant, or because the original is so well expressed. Rearranging the words used in the original, or keeping the same structure but just substituting different words is not enough.

You must express the sense of the original using your own words and structures. How to write a summary of a short piece of writing: 1. If there is a word or words that are repeated throughout the passage, this is likely to be related to the topic.

For example, you might find that an article provides an example that opposes its main point in order to demonstrate the range of conversations happening on the topic it covers.

This is the place to put those. This is also a good place to state or restate the things that are most important for your readers to remember after reading your summary. Skip to content Drafting. Why Summarize? You might summarize a section from a source, or even the whole source, when the ideas in that source are critical to an assignment you are working on and you feel they need to be included, but they would take up too much space in their original form.

For example, technical documents or in-depth studies might go into much, much more detail than you are likely to need to support a point you are making for a general audience.

These are situations in which a summary might be a good option. Summarizing is also an excellent way to double-check that you understand a text—if you can summarize the ideas in it, you likely have a good grasp on the information it is presenting. This can be helpful for school-related work, such as studying for an exam or researching a topic for a paper, but is also useful in daily life when you encounter texts on topics that are personally or professionally interesting to you.

What Makes Something a Summary? Significantly condense the original text. Provide accurate representations of the main points of the text they summarize. Avoid personal opinion. This approach has two significant problems, though: First , it no longer correctly represents the original text, so it misleads your reader about the ideas presented in that text.

How Should I Organize a Summary? In summary-focused work, this introduction should accomplish a few things: Introduce the name of the author whose work you are summarizing. Introduce the title of the text being summarized. Not all texts will have this component—for example, when summarizing a book written by one author, the title of the book and name of that author are sufficient information for your readers to easily locate the work you are summarizing.

State the main ideas of the text you are summarizing—just the big-picture components. Give context when necessary. Is this text responding to a current event?