Effective Summaries

When referring to the arguments, definitions, and ideas of other writers in your essay, you often need to summarize—that is, provide a highly condensed, but an accurate and objective, account of your source. For example, you may need to briefly restate an article's thesis and concisely explain the writer's evidence and argument in a few sentences. You must still clearly indicate the source when you summarize, even if you do not directly quote the writer's words.

An effective summary is . . .

• Accurate. Your summary should reflect the original author's ideas, tone, and content. Be sure that you are not misrepresenting the author by inserting your own interpretation.
• Objective. A summary should be factual. A summary is NOT the place to insert your own personal opinions or to state whether you agree or disagree with the author.
• Concise. An effective summary is brief because it includes only the most important information. Identify the author's main idea and the most important supporting details. This is the information that you should include in your summary.
• Original. When summarizing, always use your own words. If you quote directly from the original source, be sure to cite the source appropriately and enclose the quoted material within quotation marks. Otherwise, you are plagiarizing.