Lesson 1: Critical Reading and Summary Writing—Foundations for Course Success
Writing A Summary of a Source Article
For this lesson’s assignment, you will be producing a summary of the article you have just read. A written summary is a brief version of a text that accurately preserves the focus of the article, its main points, and the order and emphasis those points are given in the original text. But because it leaves out most of the examples, minor points, and details, a summary is considerably shorter than the original. Depending upon the purpose for writing the summary, its length can range from a single sentence to a few paragraphs or a few pages. The language of the summary is independent of the original text: this means that when you summarize, you write in your own words. You restate the writer’s ideas, but reproduce none of the phrases in which those ideas were presented.
To write a summary, you have to be able to identify the argument or claim the writer is making. You have to distinguish between the main points, supporting details, examples, and counter arguments. Perhaps most challenging, you have to recognize not only what is being said in each paragraph, but how each paragraph functions in relation to the whole. Put another way, you need to understand the shape of the argument.
A well-written summary will have the following traits:
- Thesis—The thesis in a written summary is a sentence at the beginning of the summary that mentions the author and title of the source being summarized and gives an overview of the content and purpose of the source. It makes clear to readers that what follows is a summary.
- Complete—A summary should represent all the main points, but eliminate minor details
- Accurate—An effective summary accurately reflects what the author has written. There is no misreading or misrepresentation of information. The order and emphases that ideas were given in the original should be reflected in the summary. An accurate summary should reflect the intent and tone of the source as well.
- Objective—The purpose of a summary is to represent as neutrally as possible the ideas in the source—free from analysis, interpretation, commentary, or evaluation. The focus remains entirely on the information and does not shift back to you as the writer (I) or to the reader (you).
- Original—An effective summary is independent of the language of the source. As a rule, you should not use quotes in a summary. The goal is to restate the ideas of the source in words that are entirely your own. That does not mean you have to avoid all words used in the source, but you cannot “borrow” whole sentences or parts of sentences. To do so is technically plagiarism.
- Coherent—An effective summary is well-organized, logical, clear, and easy for a reader to follow. Sentences connect smoothly. Ideas are presented in the same order as they are presented in the source. Transition words or phrase are used to signal the relationships the ideas had to each other in the original.
- Concise—As a rule, a summary should be one-fourth to one-third of the length of the original. Eliminate wordiness and repetition.
- Quality writing—An effective summary is well-written. As with any other academic writing you will do, sentences in a summary should be complete and clear. Incomplete, run-on, and awkward sentences are eliminated. The summary is carefully edited to eliminate errors in grammar, spelling, and usage. Word choices are precise and accurate.
