Skim the piece. Don’t take any notes this time — just take in the bare minimum to wrap your mind around the basic plot of the book or article. You’ll be able to concentrate on the smaller things later.

• Think of the focus while you’re reading. Get down the most basic of questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? This bare bones thinking can help you to effectively and quickly write a pertinent summary. [1]

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Read the piece thoroughly. In order to write an accurate summary, you must understand what you’re reading. Try reading with the author’s purpose in mind.

• Take notes and highlight as you read. Take note of the subheadings, even if there aren’t any. Dividing it into sections in your mind will help you organize your summary.
• Consider why you have been assigned the text. Write down the author’s main point and the main points of each section. Look for the writer’s thesis and underline it. This is the main idea of the work. [2]

Outline the article. This serves as the skeleton of your summary. Write down the support points of each section, but do not go into minor detail.

• It’ll benefit you to write it in your own words now; that will save you time translating later. If you can’t get around copying from the original, put quotation marks around it. Only do this with incredibly important sentences that cannot be reworded. [3]

Start with a clear identification of the work. This automatically lets your readers know your intentions and that you’re covering the work of another author.

• Clearly identify (in the present tense) the background information needed for your summary: the type of work, title, author, and main point. Example: In the featured article “Five Kinds of Learning,” the author, Holland Oates, justifies his opinion on the hot topic of learning styles — and adds a few himself. [3]

Summarize the piece as a whole. Omit nothing important and strive for overall coherence through appropriate transitions. Write using “summarizing language.” Your reader needs to be reminded that this is not your own work. Use phrases like the article claims,the author suggests, etc. [3]

• Present the material in a neutral fashion. [4] Your opinions, ideas, and interpretations should be left in your brain — don’t put them into your summary. Be conscious of choosing your words. Only include what was in the original work. [3]
• Be concise. This is a summary — it should be much shorter than the original piece. If you’re working on an article, give yourself a target length of 1/4 the original article.

Conclude with a final statement. This is not a statement of your own point of view, however; it should reflect the significance of the book or article from the author’s standpoint. [2]

• Without rewriting the article, summarize what the author wanted to get across. Be careful not to evaluate in the conclusion or insert any of your own assumptions or opinions.

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

• You should try to include all the main ideas if you can, but some things may have to be left out to save space. If you think a point is important to the piece you’re summarizing, add it to your summary. However, keep in mind that your summary should be concise rather than perfectly detailed.

What if the book has a lot of characters that are only mentioned once or twice?

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

• If they are minor characters then you shouldn’t include them in your summary. Decide on whether the character is important to the storyline. You’ll probably just need to focus on the main characters to write an effective summary.

Do I include headlines in a summary?

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

• Yes it is obligatory, because readers of your summary must have a possibility to easily find and read the original text, that you have summarised.

Must all the essential information be summarized in one sentence in the introductory paragraph?

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

• No. An introductory paragraph should only include an explanation of the situation as it stands. The essential information or thesis you will be discussing should be placed after the introduction, but before body paragraphs.

When summarizing an article consisting of many paragraphs, should I summarize it into one?

Answered by wikiHow Contributor

• It depends on how your instructors/assessors want to see or be presented. Sub-topic wise paragraphs can be included in a summary.