Transcript 'How to Summarize'

“Quick-Fix Workshop”
Communications Centre
What is a Summary?
A summary is a shortened version of an
original text. It includes the thesis and major
supporting points, and should reveal the
relationship between the major points and the
thesis.
How Long is a Summary?
It may be any length, from 25% of
the original to one sentence.
What you Need
1. A big, ugly, overwhelming text: to dissect
and shrink.
2. A Hi-lighter: to locate the text’s important
parts.
3. Paper: to write down the main point,
purpose of the text, major points and
documentation information.
4. A ruthless, but respectful attitude: to
conquer the mess.
BEGIN
Step 1: Topic
• Locate the topic.
• The topic is a word or phrase that says what
the text is about.
• Try to be as specific as possible about the
topic.
Step 2: Purpose
• What is the purpose of the text.
• Does it tell a story (narrate)? Inform?
Persuade or raise readers' awareness of an
issue?
Step 3: What is the Thesis?
• Look for the thesis (what the author is saying
about the topic).
• Look first in the introduction, then in the
conclusion; writers often write explicit thesis
statements.
• Write the thesis in your own words (and make
sure it matches your sense of the author's
purpose).
Step 4: Divisions in the Text
• Look for the major divisions of the text. In
your own words, summarize each division in
one sentence.
• (That may mean summarizing each
paragraph, but often several paragraphs go
together).
• Make a list of all major points.
Step 5: Organizing Sentences
• Work with the sentences you have created to
produce a summary.
• Be ruthless: a good summary is SUCCINCT
(you may leave some information out -- as
long as it is ‘extraneous’)
• Make sure you reveal the relationships
between the ideas. Are there
contrasts or comparisons
between some of the ideas?
REMEMBER
• Summaries are short restatements of a work's
main points.
• When writing a summary, be sure to record the
work's major ideas.
• Summaries condense a text's main ideas into a
few concise sentences.
• A summarized work is always much shorter than
the original.
• A summary of a work's thesis and supporting
points should be written in your own words.
Tips
• When summarizing, avoid examples, asides,
analogies, and rhetorical strategies.
• Only quote and paraphrase words and
phrases that you feel you absolutely must to
reproduce exactly the author's or authors' full
meaning.
• Keep in mind that your summary must fairly
represent the author's or authors' original
ideas.
Checklist
1. Reread your source until you fully understand it.
2. Write a one sentence restatement of the
source's main idea without looking at the source.
3. Use the text’s main idea as your summary's topic
sentence.
4. Pull out the text’s main ideas.
5. Write the summary in your own words. Avoid
looking at your source while writing your
summary.
6. If you must include some of the source's original
words and phrases, quote and paraphrase
accurately.
7. Document the source's author, title, date of
publication and any other important citation
The Difference Between
Paraphrasing and Summarizing
• To paraphrase means to express someone
else's ideas in your own language. To
summarize means to distill only the most
essential points of someone else's work.
• Think about how much of the detail from your
source is relevant. If all your reader needs to
know is the ‘bare bones’, then summarize.