English Grammar and Composition chapter 20: Writing Summaries

20 Writing Summaries

A summary is a restatement of someone else's words in your own words. There are many different kinds of summaries, and they vary according to the degree to which you interpret or analyze the source. Some are pages long, while others are just one or two sentences. However, for all types of summary, the writer is responsible for generally stating, in his or her own words, the main information or argument of another writer.

Purposes of the Summary

Summaries benefit the reader because they offer a concise, general version of the original information. For a busy reader, summaries provide quick overviews of material. Summaries also show readers that you have understood the general point of a text, and in this way, teachers can test your knowledge. The process of summarizing someone else's material enables you to understand that material better.

What and When to Summarize

Many student writers tend to quote when they should summarize material. Quote only when the author expresses a point in a particularly telling or interesting language. Otherwise, simply summarize. Use a summary to restate an entire argument. Use a summary to present information.

Printed page 278

How to Summarize

• Read the original passage or text very carefully.
• Use a pencil to highlight or underline what you take to be the main point/points of the original text, or make notes in the margins or on another sheet of paper.
• If you're summarizing an entire essay, outline the writer's arguments.
• These notes and outlines should be brief. Using this list of points, you write down the summary, referring to the original text only when you want to make sure of some points. This will help you to reproduce the substance of the passage in your own words.

Summary Conventions

• Summaries can range in length from two sentences to several pages. What you have to remember is that when you write a summary of something you have read, you make your summary shorter than the original. Usually a summary is one third of the original in length, i.e. if a passage is of 150 words, the summary of it would be about 50 words long.
• In any case, use complete sentences to present the main points or information of the text when you are describing an author's general points to the reader. Don't quote extensively. If you quote, use quotation marks and document the quotation. If you fail to document the quotation, even one word that the author used, you are plagiarizing material (presenting another person's information as if it were your own).

Printed page 279

Example Summary

The following is a well-known fable by Aesop. After the fable, a typical summary of it is given.

The Lion and the Mouse

A lion was sleeping in his den one day, when a mischievous mouse for no reason at all ran across the outstretched paw and up the royal nose of the king of beasts, awakening from his nap. The mighty beast clapped his paw upon the nose thoroughly frightened little creature and would have made an end of him.

"Please," squealed the mouse, "Don't kill me. Forgive me this time, O King, and I shall never forget it. A day may come, who knows, when I may do you a good turn to repay your kindness." The lion smiling at his little prisoner's fright and amused by the thought that so small a creature ever could be of assistance to the king of beasts, let him go.

Not long afterward the lion, while ranging the forest for his prey, was caught in the net which the hunters had set to catch him. He let out a roar that echoed through the forest. Even the mouse heard it, and recognizing the voice of his former preserver and friend, ran to the spot where he lay tangled in the net of ropes.

Printed page 280

"Well, your majesty", said the mouse, "I know you did not believe me once when I said I would return a kindness, but here is my chance." And without further ado he set to work to nibble with his sharp little teeth at the ropes that bound the lion. Soon the lion was able to crawl out of the hunter's snare and be free. (254 words)

Now read the summary:

Once, a playful mouse ran across the paw and up the nose of a sleeping lion. The lion awoke, caught the mouse, and was about to kill him when the mouse begged forgiveness, saying he might one day return the kindness. Amused, the lion released him. Soon afterward, the lion was caught in a net set by hunters. The mouse heard the lion's roar, recognized his friend's voice, and came to help. His sharp teeth cut the ropes, setting the lion free. (82 words)

Note: The writer of a summary must be able to tell the difference between a main idea and a minor idea. In the above fable, the idea that the lion was caught in a net is essential to the story, and is therefore, a main idea. But it is not necessary or essential to know that when the lion was caught, or that he had been ranging the forest for his prey.

Here is a one sentence summary of the fable:

A mouse, whose life had once been spared by a lion, later returned the kindness by freeing the lion from a hunter's net.

Activity 1

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.

There are many different reasons for reading. Sometimes we read for pleasure, i.e., just to be entertained. Sometimes we read for information, or for direction or instruction. Often we read to find out about the people around us and the world we live in.

Printed page 281

We read different kinds of material in different ways. We don't always read everything at the same speed. With certain kinds of material we need to read slowly and carefully, for example, when we are trying to understand difficult ideas in a text like science or economics books. We also read directions and instructions slowly and carefully. We usually read stories, magazines, newspapers, where the material is usually written in an easily understandable way, at a normal speed, neither too slow nor too fast. Whereas, when we read something we have read before, or we know about, we usually read very rapidly. A good reader suits his or her speed to what he or she reads.

Skimming and scanning are additional ways of helping us read more efficiently. They save time. When we want to get the overall idea or the gist of a text, we do not need to read every word in it. We can skim or look over the text quickly, often read the first paragraph, then the first and last sentences of the other paragraphs quickly. The final paragraph often summarizes the content. This kind of reading is called skimming. On the other hand, when we want to find specific information in a text, we scan the text searching for words or phrases that would give us the information we need. This is called scanning.

1. Choose the best answer from the alternatives a, b, c, d given after each question.

i) A good reader

a) reads novels and poetry.

b) reads before sleep.

c) reads different kinds of material with ease.

d) knows when to stop.

ii) You are preparing a dish from a cook book. You'd read the recipe.

a) carefully.

b) loudly.

c) for fun.

d) with a friend.

Printed page 282

iii) To find out the time of your favorite programme from a television guide, you'd

a) skim it.

b) scan it.

c) see it.

d) recite it.

iv) To get the gist of a text you'd

a) read it slowly.

b) scan it.

c) skim it.

d) discuss it.

v) You'd read a letter from a friend

a) by scanning.

b) by skimming.

c) half-heartedly.

d) normally.

2. Match a quotation from A with a reading purpose in B.

3. Write a summary of the above passage. Give the main ideas only.

Printed page 283