summary writing a skill required for all students at all levels of education

Summary Writing

A skill required for all students at all levels of education.

What is a Summary?

Taking a large quantity of information, understanding what it means and condensing it into a shorter version.

Why Summarize?

Shorter version allows for you to have an easy reference without having to memorize long passages or complex statistics

For example, notes you take in class are a summary of the class

WHY is this so hard?

The Big Decision: What do you include and what do you leave out?

Remember, when you are writing a summary, it is important that you keep the intent of the author as well.

You will need to read the entire article or passage first prior to summarizing.

Strategy One

Look for main ideas or topic sentences and key words used throughout the article

Make sure to read the entire article and make sure you understand everything the article talks about.

If you do not understand something, what can you do?

Strategy Two

Cross out information that is useless and underline or highlight the most important points (these could be just words or phrases)

Here is where the KEY WORDS and MAIN IDEAS are important

Strategy Three

Write in YOUR OWN WORDS

No opinions should appear in the summary

Plagiarism is illegal and can get you kicked out of college! (In High School, you will earn a Zero.)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Summary Length:

¼ of the original article, paper, or passage

Approximately how long would a summary be for a three page article?

Summary Practice

POORLY WRITTEN SUMMARY

WHY?

Well-Written Summary

Why?

¼ length of original piece

Keeps in the same order

Has same tone of piece

Is cited properly