Summarizing a written text
A-10
Your goal in summarizing a text is to state the work’s main ideas and key points simply, objectively, and accurately in your own words. Writing a summary does not require you to judge the author’s ideas; it requires you to understand the author’s ideas.
In summarizing, you condense information, put an author’s ideas in your own words, and test your understanding of what a text says. Since a summary must be fairly short, you must decide what is most important.
If you have sketched a brief outline of the text, refer to it as you draft your summary.
To summarize a written text, do the following:
- Find and state the author’s central idea, the thesis.
- Divide the whole piece into a few major and perhaps minor ideas.
- State any important findings, conclusions, or recommendations.