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How to Summarize

When you summarize effectively, you are condensing the writer’s ideas into their essence using your own words. Summarizing works well when you want to discuss briefly an extended section of a text: a paragraph or two, several pages, a whole chapter, or an entire book. A summary, then, is your sum of the writer’s thinking, usually not more than 1/3 the length of the original text and often less, depending on your purposes. The following strategies will help you:

1. Read the pertinent section one time straight through from beginning to end. Look up unfamiliar words. Make sure you understand what you are reading. You cannot translate into your own words information you do not understand.
2. Minimize the screen, or turn the text over. Without looking at the original, write your summarized understanding of the pertinent section. (Not looking directly at the text forces you to use your own words.)
3. Read the original section a second time to check the accuracy of your rewording. Your new sentences will become the body of your summary.
4. Without looking at the original text, but using your new sentences, write a first draft of your summary.
5. Begin your summary with the original writer’s name. For example: According to Deford (2000),.... (See How to Quote for examples of using the author’s name in various formats.)
6. Check your draft against the original source:

Have you communicated accurately the main idea and supporting points?
Have you followed the same order or sequence of ideas that the original writer used?
Have you both reworded and kept important terms?
Would your summary make sense to a reader other than yourself (in particular, an interested reader who has not read the original source but wants to understand what it says)?

7. Revise and recheck against the original. Record the page number(s) in case you need them later. Realize you are speaking for someone who cannot be present to speak for himself or herself.