How to make a good summary of a text or a book. Guide with directions to get started and do the synthesis. Developed examples of summary.
HOW TO MAKE A SUMMARY
How to make a good summary – Source: Istock
How do you write a good summary ? But above all, how to write a summary that is really effective , without getting lost in the text? It may seem like a breeze, but summarizing is not a task to be underestimated: creating a good summary of a text or book is not as easy as it may seem. The summary, however, is an exercise that will accompany you throughout the school years and that will also be useful in the future, perhaps at university. It is true that not everyone has the gift of synthesis, but it is also true that to make a good summary it is enough to follow simple rules and indications.
- What is a summary
2. How to write a summary: the preliminary operations
3. Tips for making a good summary
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1. WHAT IS A SUMMARY
When we talk about summary , we are referring to the re-elaboration and synthesis of a larger text , in which to insert all the information that we believe to be fundamental and instead eliminate the superfluous. Writing a summary is one of the tasks that a student has to face since the beginning of his school career, in elementary school, and which accompanies him throughout the cycle of studies , even at university. The reason? The summary has not only the task of testing the student’s ability to understand the text and to synthesize it , but it can offer concrete help in the study: as well as for concept maps , it allows to report the concepts more important than what we have to memorize and imprint them in our mind in an almost indelible way.
Not everyone, however, has the gift of synthesis and the students who manage to perfectly synthesize the fundamental concepts of a text are not as many as one would expect.
In this guide we give you the tools to learn how to write a perfect summary , which helps you not only to get a good grade but which teaches you to use a really good study tool.
2. HOW TO WRITE A SUMMARY: THE PRELIMINARY OPERATIONS
Writing a summary means taking an original text and depriving it of its most superfluous contents , leaving only what can be considered essential. In short, it means writing practically the same things, but more briefly, using about a third of the words . No, this is not something impossible or reserved only for bright minds: every student – even you! – can succeed in this “enterprise”. To do this, however, you will need to follow some practical advice, a kind of itinerary that will help you in writing a perfect summary:
- Read carefully the text in question
This is not a trivial and negligible passage: carefully reading the passage that we must summarize is essential to be able to do a good job. Do not limit yourself to a summary reading, but try to fully understand the meaning of what you are reading and, if necessary, read it again several times. - Emphasize the most important parts of the text
As you read, it is important that you understand what information is needed for understanding the text. To help you, you can use the so-called English five W rule , which is usually used in writing a newspaper article but which can also be useful in this case. What you will have to do then, while reading the text, answer these questions: who (who), what (what), when (when), where (where), why (why), and underline the corresponding answers in the text. - Divide the text into sequences
Once you have read the text, divide it into sequences, that is, into those minimal narrative units, in themselves concluded and autonomous in terms of content, which make up the piece in its entirety. In the margin of the text, try to give a title to each sequence that summarizes its content.
3. TIPS FOR MAKING A GOOD SUMMARY
Once the preliminary steps are done you will be ready to write your summary . Arm yourself with paper, pen and a little patience and, above all, do not be discouraged: since it is a summary, the text you will have to write should not be that long. The correct amplitude is less than 1/3 of that of the starting piece , so the work you will have to do will not take you too much time, nor will it cost you too much effort.
Start writing your summary by referencing what you underlined in the text and jotted down in the margin after dividing into sequences. You can also think about making a ladder, which will form the backbone of your summary. In this case, it will be simpler than usual: the key concepts of your lineup will be made up, roughly, of those titles that you previously gave in the division into sequences.
At this point you can transform your lineup into a real summary, developing the various passages (not too broadly, remember that it is always a summary) and trying to give the text its consequentiality. This means that you will have to pay attention to create a speech that follows a logical thread , connecting the different parts of the speech together through the use of time markers (at the beginning, before, then, after, later, finally) and connectives(prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs ) to correctly articulate the speech.
To be able to write a summary correctly, we recommend that you follow these simple rules:
- Eliminate adjectives, examples, incidentsand everything that is not strictly necessary for understanding the text
- Turn direct speeches indirectly
- Speak in the third person
- Make sentences short, not too complicated
- Use simple language, free from difficult to understand terms
- Always use the same tensethroughout the summary
- Do not enter your opinionand judgment regarding the text
Once the summary is complete, all you have to do is reread it: your task will be to check that there are no spelling errors and that the speech flows smoothly, with its own logical sense and that no passage is missing.
