How to Write a Summary of an Article?

What is the Purpose of Summary?

One of the most popular tasks for modern students is writing a summary paper. A summary is the condensed version of a text. It reduces this text to its core and reproduces its structure by presenting its main ideas in the same order and proportion. It strictly contains information that is provided in the original text—it does not add information that is provided in related texts. The article summary comes right after the title. It`s an important element of an article because it can assist in leading the reader to read the rest of the article.

The summary is indispensable in preparing for and writing an argumentative essay. The summary contains only the most important information of the original. It does not have to follow the organization or order of the original. As a condensed version of the source material, it can range anywhere from a couple of sentences to a short collage summary article, depending on the length of the source and your purposes for writing.

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In writing a summary, you need to select the most important points of the source text and report on (vs. react to) them using your own words. You can combine several important points from the source into a brief general statement, or go more in depth and relate minor points as well, again depending on the purpose of your professional summary.

How do you write a summary?

To write a good summary, it is important to understand the material you are working with thoroughly. It should focus on the central idea and indicate all the main points in the passage that support the central idea, as well as the relationship between the ideas, including their order and emphasis. Three techniques – selection and deletion, note taking, and miniaturizing – can help you shorten the material.

Here are some tentative steps in writing a summary.

• Read, think about, and understand the text. Review the material to make sure you know it well. Use a dictionary or context clues to figure out the meaning of any important words that you don’t know.
• Take notes. Write down or underline the one-two sentences that convey the main ideas and important details of the article.
• Write a thesis statement (the idea in your own words). In a single sentence, state the main idea of the article. The thesis statement should mention the underlying meaning of the article, not just the superficial details. Ask yourself, “what is the most important idea the author wants us to know and remember?”
• Organize and outline ideas. Once you have identified the main points, create an outline or concept map to organize the main idea and major supporting points visually. Be sure to paraphrase these points by using your annotations. Write down the important details you need to include in the summary. Put them in a logical order.
• Using your outline or concept write your summary. Include one sentence to put the main idea of the entire passage in your own words, followed by one sentence for each of the major details using transition words to make the summary flow and read clearly.

Here are some tips in order to make your writing easier:

• Your summary should be about one-third of the length of the original article.
• Focus on the main point of the article and the most important details.
• Avoid plagiarism as it will destroy the uniqueness of the paper. Try to use your thoughts.
• Use transition words to connect the sentences and the paragraphs.
• Avoid technical language. Write in simple and understandable English.
• It must be objective.
• Replace long phrases with single words and use practical clauses instead of full clauses.
• Proofread and revise. Try to brush up the paper and make it perfect without mistakes and misspellings.
• Write your draft. Use blue or black ink. Skip lines. Write on one side of the paper only. Include a title on the top line.
• Read your summary one last time before you turn it in. Look for careless spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors, especially omitted words or letters. Cross out errors neatly with a single line and write the correction above.

Summary essay outline or how to determine the main elements of an essay?

There are several essential elements to any successful summary essay. This handout will define those elements and show you how to put them together using an outline. What is the outline? If to speak briefly, it is the type of the skeleton for the paper. It means that you create the steps that you will follow in order not to miss the essential facts. It will help you to organize your thoughts.

1. Introduction

An introduction is an extremely important part of any speech. If you interest the listeners in the beginning, they will listen to carefully further words. It should state the problem, as in summary but with more background information. You can indicate here your basic method of approach to the problem, stating in English what you plan to share with the client. In other words, it is a brief comment leading to the subject matter.

2. How to write the main body of summary essay?

After writing your introduction, you need to discuss the main points that you will cover to answer the essay question. This section is a chain of paragraphs, and each paragraph is dedicated to one point that you make. A good rule of thumb is to have at least three points to support each topic sentence. An effective essay of your opinion will show the connection between paragraphs with transitions. These can be the final sentence of each body paragraph or can be integrated into the next topic sentence with transition words.

3. Conclusion

A conclusion is a part of the article where the writer can summarize all his ideas concerning the topic. The conclusion looks back over the experiment and analysis and can serve as a springboard for questions and suggestions about the future investigation. You can end your summary in many different ways. On the one hand, you can finish your creation with the interesting quotation or funny statement. It will be the type of the attractive ending. On the other hand, you can use your imagination and analytical skills and add some your assumption regarding the controversial issue.

We also recommend you to try to use some predictions and state the hypothesis about the possible development of the central question.

If you correctly determine your focus and then scan and read your research articles, you can manage to write and edit your summary paper in a great way that will come nothing short of perfection.

Summary essay examples

It is rather complicated to submit the summary of the paper in order to clarify its peculiarity. The writer should use the analytical skills and compare two writings and find the differences. Especially, those things will be the distinguishing feature of the summary. Surfing the Internet, you can come across various examples that will inspire you. We are intended to set the right direction for your writing because the bigger part of the work is your duty.

We induce you to cast a glance at the plan of the summary that will convey the main thoughts of the original paper.

Part 1: Submit the name of author and title of the original source. You can use the direct quotations from the biography, but do not forget to cite in order to avoid plagiarism. Your task is also to attract the reader’s attention that is why we highly recommend you to grab their time with the interesting statement or rhetorical question. The winning introduction should be interesting and informative at the same time.

Part 2: Your main body should contain the statements. Nevertheless, each fact should be proved with the quotation from the primary writing. Do not confuse the reader with extra and new facts. Try to divide the main part into some sections in order to make the structure clear and concise. The summary is such type of paper that should be understandable; it means that it is the lite version of the complicated composition. That is why make an effort and help your target audience find the answers to the questions after the first reading.

Part 3: The final part is the conclusion. Make the brief overview of the submitted material and help the readers recollect all the necessary information. The biggest mistake is to make the conclusion too wordy; such feature will distract the readers’ attention. The third part of the summary is your assumptions about the topic and issue. That is why your task is to estimate the original text and do a logical thesis. It is always more interesting to read the personal thoughts rather than the copied one.

Now you know everything about the summary. Believe in your skills and surprise your supervisor. Good luck!

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