College Writing 3-1

Chapter Essay Assignment
63
Summarizing
Summarizing is retelling something in fewer words.We summarize all
the time in our everyday life:when we quickly retell a movie plot to a
friend, when we go over our qualifications during a job interview or
when at a party we sum up the highlights of our latest vacation'
Academic work often includes summaries. lnstructors often
summarize the main points of a lecture at the beginning or end of
class, and most textbooks include section andlor chapter summaries.
Students are often asked to write summaries. For instance:
ln a history course, students may be required to summarize
the major events that led to a war.
A civil engineering course may require that students
summarize the main characteristics of modern suspension
bridges.
A computer science course may ask students to write an
abstract (summary) of the program they will create as their
senior project.
The topic of each summary may vary gteatly, but an effective
summary usually follows these guidelines:
1. It retells only the main ideas of the original source.
2. It is considerably shorter than the original.
3. It is complete. It reflects all the main points of the original text.
4. It is objective. It does not include the summary writer's comments
or evaluations.
5. It is balanced. It gives each idea the same value given by the author
of the original.
Here are strategies for writing an effective summary:
1. Read the text once to get the general meaning.
2. Read the text again, and mark the most important ideas. You may
want to circle or highlight the kepvords that refer to these ideas in
the text.
3. Read the text a third time to review the main points and the
key terms.