Summarizing is important because it helps you understand and remember what is most significant in a reading. Another advantage of summarizing is that it creates a condensed version of the reading’s ideas and information, which you can refer to later or insert into your own writing. Along with quoting and paraphrasing, summarizing enables you to integrate other writers’ ideas into your own writing.
A summary is a relatively brief restatement, primarily in the reader’s own words, of the reading’s main ideas. Summaries vary in length, depending on the reader’s purpose. Some summaries are very brief—a sentence or even a subordinate clause. For example, if you were referring to the excerpt from “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and simply needed to indicate how it relates to your other sources, your summary might look something like this: “There have always been advocates of extremism in politics. Martin Luther King Jr., in ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’ for instance, defends nonviolent civil disobedience as an extreme but necessary means of bringing about racial justice.” If, however, you were surveying the important texts of the civil rights movement, you might write a longer, more detailed summary that not only identifies the reading’s main ideas but also shows how the ideas relate to one another.
Many writers find it useful to outline the reading as a preliminary to writing a summary. A paragraph-by-paragraph scratch outline (like the one on p. 530) lists the reading’s main ideas in the sequence in which they appear in the original. But summarizing requires more than merely stringing together the entries in an outline, it must fill in the logical connections between the author’s ideas. Notice also in the following example that the reader repeats selected words and phrases and refers to the author by name, indicating, with verbs like expresses, acknowledges, and explains, the writer’s purpose and strategy at each point in the argument.
Summary
King expresses his disappointment with white moderates who, by opposing his program of nonviolent direct action, have become a barrier to progress toward racial justice. He acknowledges that his program has raised tension in the South, but he explains that tension is necessary to bring about change. Furthermore, he argues that tension already exists, but because it has been unexpressed, it is unhealthy and potentially dangerous.
He defends his actions against the clergy’s criticisms, particularly their argument that he is in too much of a hurry. Responding to charges of extremism, King claims that he has actually prevented racial violence by channeling the natural frustrations of oppressed blacks into nonviolent protest. He asserts that extremism is precisely what is needed now—but it must be creative, rather than destructive, extremism. He concludes by again expressing disappointment with white moderates for not joining his effort as some other whites have.
A summary presents only ideas. Although it may use certain key terms from the source, it does not otherwise attempt to reflect the source’s language, imagery, or tone; and it avoids even a hint of agreement or disagreement with the ideas it summarizes. Of course, a writer might summarize ideas in a source like “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to show readers that he or she has read it carefully and then proceed to use the summary to praise, question, or challenge King’s argument. In doing so, the writer might quote specific language that reveals word choice, imagery, or tone.
Summarizing