SUMMARY DEFINITIONSummarizing is an essential skill for academic writing. You summarize lab or lecturenotes, reading assignments, articles you have read in your library research, and individualand group activities. Summaries often accompany other kinds of writing, but they canalso stand alone as documents.

A summary presents in condensed form the substance of another piece of writing. Itusually begins with a nutshell statement, or overall summary, then presents the essentialpoints of the writing, not necessarily in the same order as in the original. Related to asummary is the abstract, or precis, which gives a concentrated essence of the largerpiece of writing. An abstract usually covers the main points in the same order as theoriginal and usually does not begin with a nutshell statement. An abstract is usuallywritten from the same perspective as the original, whereas a summary is often writtenfrom the perspective the summarizer.

PURPOSE OF A SUMMARYDocuments can be hundreds of pages long, and those who must act on information needto rapidly identify what is most important in a document, and thus the reason forsummaries. From a good summary, readers can get enough information to decidewhether or not they should read the entire document, part of it, or none at all.

Whether you summarize someone else's information or your own, your job is tocommunicate the essential message, which is to represent the original documentaccurately and in the fewest words. The principle is simple: include what your readersneed and omit what they don't.

SUMMARY AND ABSTRACT EXAMPLESSummary

In "Friends, Good Friends - and Such Good Friends," Judith Viorst classifieswomen's friends according to varieties and levels of intensity. She identifies eightvarieties of friends: convenience friends, special-interest friends, historical friends,crossroads friends, cross-generational friends, part-of-a-couple friends, men whoare friends, and best friends. Only best of friends share total trust and love arecompletely honest with one another. All other varieties of friendships are at alower level of intensity.

Abstract

The varieties of women's friendships are convenience friends, special-interestfriends, historical friends, crossroads friends, cross-generational friends, part-of-a-couple friends, men who are friends, and best of friends. Only best of friends, atthe highest level of intimacy, share total trust and love are completely honest withone another.

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DISCUSSION OF EXAMPLESThe summary is written from the perspective of the summarizer: Judith Viorst classifiesand identifies. The response tells what Viorst does, as well as what she says. Theabstract, by contrast, does not refer to Viorst; rather it reports the content of the essayas if Viorst were writing. It reports only what she says. Also, the summary begins witha nutshell statement, whereas the abstract beings with Viorst's first classification, whichis the varieties of friendships. Notice too that the nutshell statement of the summarynames the source of the summary but that such information is not included in theabstract.

WHEN TO USE A SUMMARY OR ABSTRACTWhether you write a summary or an abstract depends on your purpose. As a part of alarger piece of writing such as a report, a summary is more effective. One reason is that,stylistically, a summary is written from the same point of view as the rest of thedocument and as the writer, you can select as much information from the original as youneed for your purpose.

Abstracts usually stand apart from the original, but they give readers a quick overview ofthe entire entity. Both summaries and abstracts accurately reflect the meaning andsense of the original, however summaries can be more selective in concentrating onparticular aspects of the original rather than giving a complete overview.

SUMMARY COMPONENTSThe main ideas of the author should be included in a summary. These could include anyor all of the following: objective, methods, results, and conclusions. The summary writer,however, should omit background details, descriptions, illustrations, explanations,literature review, detailed description of methods, and referenc,.esto other documents.

In revising, make sure to cut all unnecessary words. Notice how the second sentencebelow says the same thing as the first but in fewer words:

Wordy

Almost all of the reading that people do is a single form of information processingthat takes place when the person's mind selects information from the page andthen stores it away in the mind: in the process, the mind relates the newinformation to what the reader already knows.

Concise

Most reading is a form of information processing in which the mind selects andstores new information, relating it to what the reader already knows.

STYLE OF A SUMMARYThe style of a summary should be concise and clear. Readers do not expect the

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summary to have the same sentence structure flow of a paper. Rather, the summary'swording should be very direct.

SUMMARY WRITING METHODSThere are two ways to go about preparing a summary, and which method you chooseusually depends on the length and nature of the original passage. For shorter passages,determining and listing the main ideas and then writing the summary may be the way togo. For longer passages, however, underlining and additional editing may be needed toensure you are including the author's main ideas. Below are commentary and examplesfor both of methods.

Method One: Main Ideas

The lack of technical knowledge among owners of television sets leads to their suspicionabout the honesty of television repair technicians. Although television owners might befairly knowledgeable about most repairs made to their automobiles, they rarelyunderstand the nature and extent of specialized electronic repairs. For instance, thefunction and importance of an automatic transmission in an automobile are generally wellknown; however, the average television owner knows nothing about the flybacktransformer in a television set. The repair charge for a flyback transformer failure isroughly $150; a large amount to a consumer who lacks even a simple understanding ofwhat the repairs accomplished. In contrast, a $450 repair charge for the transmissionon the family car, though distressing, is more readily understood and accepted.

Main Ideas: What three main ideas comprise the essential message?

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Remember, length is less important than informative value: an effective summary givesreaders all they need. In meaning, as well as style, your summary should stand alone as aself-contained message. Readers should have to read the original only for more detail,not to make sense of your message.

Method 2: Underlining and Editing

Read the entire original. When summarizing another's work, read the whole thing beforewriting a

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word. Get a complete picture in order to understand the original before summarizing it.Reread and underline. Reread the original and underline significant points.Edit the underlined data. Condense the underlined info into key words and phrases thatcan later

be put into sentences. Delete extra words and any background information not essentialto the

main ideas.Rewrite and Edit. Include all-important data in the first draft, even if it's too long becauseyou can

trim it later. When you have everything readers need, edit for conciseness.

• Cross out all needless words without harming clarity or grammar. Usecomplete sentences.• Cross out needless prefaces.• Combine related ideas in order to order emphasize relationships (hint: usetransitions) .

Document your source. Make sure to include a works cited page for the original article.(NOTE:Some may opt for placing the citation at the bottom of summary itself.)