How to write a summary

Writing a summary

Why summaries?

The summary was not invented to torture students. Instead, it is something very useful. Summaries of the essential contents of longer texts can be found in

• surveys summarizing the most important information of longer reports,
  
• blurbs giving a brief overview of the content of a book,
  
• dissertation abstracts containing short information about scientific theses,
  
• minutes recording the main results of a meeting.
  

What does a summary do?

In a summary, you tell the reader (or the teacher, if he doesn't know already)

• what a text talks about in general (the topic)
  
• what exactly a text talks about (the sub-topics of the text) and what it says about these things (the messages of a text)
  
• what is the overall message of the text.
  

A topic is one word or expression that a text or a paragraph is about. It can normally be found somewhere at the beginning of a text or paragraph. What is the topic of the following short paragraph?

Mike's house was so comfortable and warm! He really didn't want to leave, but he couldn't afford the rent, you know. And it had such a nice garden in the back!

What does the text say about this topic, __________________? That's the message of a paragraph. You should be able to express this message in one sentence or two. Sometimes, the author has done this bit of work for you and has put the message at the beginning or at the end of a paragraph / text, but sometimes you have to make it up yourself. Unfortunately, it's not always that clear what the message is.

A longer text will deal its topic by talking about different subtopics.

How do you write a summary

1. Take a first look at the text, try to understand what it is about (this might be the general topic of the text)
   
2. Read through the text, try to understand what it is really about (general topic), which things it talks about (subtopics), and what its overall message is. Underline the corresponding expressions in three colours. Colour pencils are expensive, so use the colours sparingly!
   
3. Read through the text again, try to find sections that talk about the same subtopic and mark them.
   Hint: Most of the time, a new topic will be treated in a new paragraph. Also watch out for adverbials that express a distance in time (a few years later), a logical contrast (however, nevertheless, on the other hand), a new development of the argument (therefore, consequently), or a new topic (As far as XYZ is concerned /As to XYZ,). You can underline these signal adverbials when you read through the text first.
   
4. Read through the text again (if you don't know it by heart yet) and try to understand which messages the text gives about its different subtopics. If you're lucky to find a key sentence, underline it, otherwise write down the message at the margin of the text.
   
5. At the same time, try to understand the logical connection between the different messages of the text. If you're lucky, the author has helped you with some nice adverbials of time or reason.
   
6. Congratulations! Your summary is finished. All you have to do now is write it down, in the following order:
   

• Overall topic of the text (XYZ's text ABC talks about X // deals with the question as to whether / why…)
  
• Subtopics and messages, connected logically or, if there's no logical connection to be seen, with First, second, third / Moreover / In addition.
  
• General message of the text (In general / On the whole, the author shows / makes it clear that… // Thus, the bottom line of XYZ's text is that…)
  

1. The tricky thing about a summary is its style. You're not supposed to just copy the text, because then your teacher would have nothing to correct. Instead, you're required
   

• to use your own words as far as possible
  
• to avoid repetitions, especially as far as the connections between the different ideas are concerned. Vary your choice of words.
  
• to be short and snappy: In general, a summary has about a third of the length of the original text.
  

1. Remind the reader time and again that you are summarizing. Moreover, if the author expresses his opinion, make it clear that it is his opinion, not yours, even if you happen to agree with him. You can do this by using the following expressions.
   

 

The author…

says, states, points out that ... claims, believes thinks that ... describes, explains, makes clear that/why … uses examples to confirm/prove that … doubts, asks the question as to whether ... agrees/ disagrees with the thesis/ view that … contradicts the view/ opinion that … criticizes/ analyses/ comments on … concludes that … shows that it is important to consider … contrasts X with Y / compares X to Y… tries to express … tries to convince the reader argues that … suggests that sth. should be done to/ against/ for … appeals to the reader/government/ ? to …