Summaries, on the surface, seem easy to write. All the thinking, research and presentation has already been done for you. All you need to do now is take the best parts and present it in a more concise manner.
Despite that, most people still find it difficult to write good summaries. From poorly-written text to badly-presented ideas to missed crucial points, useful abridged versions of materials just don’t come by all too often.
Like most other forms of writing, preparation is key to a good summary. The actual text can fashioned into shape with attention, time and a good writing software, but poor preparation leads you down the wrong path from the start.
Reading The Material
Before being ready to write the summary, you’ll need to go over the material in detail. Read it carefully for the essence, making no notes or markings on the pages, with your sole purpose to understand the whole point of the text.
After you’ve read it, write down the main idea that you’ve taken away from the material in one sentence. Then, go over the text again and look for the writer’s main thesis. Compare the two, carefully revising your own main idea to better reflect the writer’s goals with the piece.
Pick Out Ideas
The next step in the preparation is to pick out the ideas throughout the work that support the main thesis (as you have determined above). I personally like to do this by underlining from the text, but you can do whatever works best for you (e.g. writing things down as an outline). Make sure to highlight “key” elements that link one idea to another (I encircle them) too as you will need them in your summary. All examples, detailed arguments and quotations can be skipped (I cross them out).
