When you feel that you have read and understood the text, summarize the contents in your own words. A summary is a significantly shortened version of a work that captures only the main ideas of a text, omitting information that is less important.

Try to identify the key points in the text, find the essential evidence supporting those points, and explain the contents concisely and objectively, so that a reader unfamiliar with the original can make sense of it all. Deciding what to leave out can make summarizing a tricky task, but mastering this skill can serve you well in all the reading you do in your academic, professional, and civic life.

See more about creating summaries and get help integrating summaries into your own writing.

Student Writing: Summary of an assigned reading (Sarah Lum)