Summarizing

 

Another key strategy for learning and remembering the ideas in a text is to summarize what you have read. This means rewriting the important parts in a much shorter form, using some words from the text and some of your own words. Summarizing is especially useful for reviewing and memorizing information in textbooks for exams and preparing information or ideas from different sources so you can include them in a report or paper.

Definition

Buckley (2004), in her popular writing text Fit to Print, defines summarizing as reducing text to one-third or one-quarter its original size, clearly articulating the author’s meaning, and retaining main ideas. Diane Hacker (2008), in A Canadian Writer’s Reference, explains that summarizing involves stating a work’s thesis and main ideas “simply, briefly, and accurately”.

To summarize is to put in your own words a shortened version of written or spoken material, stating the main points and leaving out everything that is not essential. Summarizing is more than retelling; it involves analyzing information, distinguishing important from unimportant elements and translating large chunks of information into a few short cohesive sentences. Fiction and nonfiction texts, media, conversations, meetings, and events can all be summarized.

Purpose of a Summary

·         - It helps to judge the understanding of an individual about the given passage.

       - Helps to build the comprehending capability of the students

·         - Helps curate the essential components from the passage without causing a confusion

·        -  Help to remember the passage and its important details i.e helps build memory.

Framework to Write a Summary

Before writing a summary, one must ask themselves the following questions:

§                  > What is or are the main ideas given in the passage?

§           > What the passage is about.

§           > What type of writing it is.

§           > What are the crucial details and points that   support the ideas?

§                   > Are the parts relevant to the passage?

§                   >What is the irrelevant information in the passage?

§            > If you were to write a headline or heading for the passage in your own words, how would you begin?

A summary is always very simple and easy to understand and doesn’t contain any idioms, metaphors, sayings and complicated English style. The summary is almost always in the writer’s own words. However, keywords can be used directly from the passage.

Steps to Summarize a Passage

o   After reading the passage once, re-read it but slowly.

o   - As you read the passage, note down important points and keywords which you can include in your summary.

o   - Once your summary is ready, read it to check its similarity to the original passage given.

o   - Summarize each part, paragraph or segment in one to two sentences.

When summarizing is useful?

Summarizing is useful in many types of writing and at different points in the writing process. Summarizing is used to support an argument, provide context for a paper’s thesis, write literature reviews, and annotate a bibliography. The benefit of summarizing lies in showing the "big picture," which allows the reader to contextualize what you are saying. In addition to the advantages of summarizing for the reader, as a writer you gain a better sense of where you are going with your writing, which parts need elaboration, and whether you have comprehended the information you have collected.

You can summarize:

Ø - Results of studies you are reporting on

Ø - Methods or approaches others have taken in an area you are describing

Ø - Various researchers’/authors’ viewpoints on given issues

Ø  - Points you have made in an essay at any juncture or in a conclusion

Ø  - Contents of a text you are reviewing

Ø - Issues peripheral to your paper but necessary for providing the context for your writing Historical events leading to the event/issue/philosophy you are discussing.