In an academic or professional setting, the ability to effectively summarize the main points of something we have heard or read is a valuable skill. Here are some things to consider before attempting to write a summary:
- Purpose: To reduce a text or lecture down to its main points
- Audience: The audience has not read the article/essay you are summarizing.
- Goals:
- to demonstrate that you have understood the key points of the text or lecture.
- to show that you can distinguish between key information and non-essential details, figures, dates, etc
- to paraphrase the main points without changing or losing key information
Here are a few tips for writing a successful summary:
- Your summary must maintain good paragraph structure, with a topic sentence identifying the title/author/speaker/etc.
- A good summary is clear and concise, not wordy. Avoid overly complex or flowery language.
- The information in a summary should be presented in the same order as the original, if possible.
- A summary is objective. Do not include your opinion unless specifically asked by your instructor to do so.
Exercise
You are going to read and summarize an article from the BBC. Click the link to the article and open the exercise