16 What is Summarizing?

Another skill that enhances critical thinking is summarizing. While paraphrasing is used to restate the sentence or idea of another author, summarizing is used to determine the main point and key ideas of an entire text, such as an article or book.

As a reader, summarizing the text helps you to recall the key points that the author has presented in an article. When you are done annotating a text, you could write a summary to help you to remember what you have read.

As a college writer, you will often be asked to summarize an article that you have read.  Once you have determined the main points through reading and annotating, you can construct a paragraph summary by introducing it, explaining the central idea, restating the main points in your own words, and ending the paragraph with a sentence that emphasizes the author’s central point.  A summary should be concise, objective, and accurate.

Concise

You must have a clear understanding of the text so that you can sum up the article briefly.  The length of your summary often depends on the length of the article or book you are attempting to summarize. A summary is not a retelling of the material with details about everything that is mentioned. So, you have to ask yourself, what are the most significant points that the author wanted to articulate? Leave out the details and include only key ideas presented in the same order in which the article was written.

Objective

When you summarize, you must not change the meaning of the article or include your opinion about what the author wrote.  A summary is a straightforward description of the text.

Accurate

To be accurate means that you aren’t including anything false.  Your comprehension of the article is key if you want to accurately portray what the author’s main points are. It is important not to add anything that isn’t true to the author’s work you are summarizing.

Here are the basic steps to writing a summary:

Step 1: Make note of the main idea of the reading. Create a main idea statement from what you have read.

Step 2: Identify the author’s purpose for writing. Do this by asking yourself, “Why did the author write this? Did they aim to persuade, inform, instruct, or entertain the reader?

Step 3: List the key points that support the main idea. Note that it is important to maintain the order of these points.

Step 4: Write a brief clear paragraph using your notes. Start with the main idea statement, including the title of the work and the author’s purpose. Then, write the key points that support the main idea.  Finish with a concluding sentence.

Template to help you write a summary:  Summary Template