How to do a summary? The complete guide

Write a summary seems like a simple thing, but it really is not. Not everyone has a remarkable ability to synthesize but learning how to write a good resume you can! Follow these tips …

From primary school to university, going through middle school and high school, knowing how to make a summary is always a useful capacity and acceptable. Important to be able to impart concepts and notions in mind, the summary is a type of text that will be asked to do several times in your course of study. Not all students, however, know the proper techniques or possess the gift of synthesis : if you fall into this category, please follow our guide to avoid mistakes!

Table of Contents

1) What is a summary?

When we speak of summary, we refer to the elaboration and synthesis of a larger text, you enter all the information that we believe are fundamental and eliminate the superfluous instead. Writing a resume is one of the tasks that a student is facing since the beginning of his school career, in elementary schools, and which follows the entire course of study, even at the university. The reason? The summary has not only the task to test the student’s ability to understand the text and to synthesize it, but can offer concrete help in the study: as well as for concept maps, it allows you to bring the most important concepts of what we need to store and have them stamped in our minds in an almost indelible. Not everyone, however, have the gift of synthesis and students who manage to perfectly summarize the basics of a text are not as many as you would expect. This guide will give you the tools to learn how to write a perfect resume, that will help you not only to get a good grade, but to teach you how to use a really good study tool.

2) How to write a summary: The getting started

Write a summary means taking an original text and deprive it of its content superfluous, leaving only what can be considered essential. In short, it means practically write the same things, though more briefly, using about a third of the words. No, it is not something impossible or restricted only brilliant minds: each student – you too! – You can succeed in this “enterprise.” To do so, however, we must follow some practical advice, a kind of route that will help you in writing a perfect summary …

1. Read carefully the text in question

is not a trivial and insignificant step: read carefully the passage that we must summarize it is crucial to make a good job. Do not limit yourself to a cursory reading, but try to fully understand the meaning of what you are reading and, if needed, read it again several times.

2. Stresses the important parts of the text

As you read, it is important that you understand what the information needed to understand the text. To help you can resort to so-called rule of the five W, which is usually used in writing a newspaper article but which in this case can come in handy. What you have to do is then, reading the text, answer these questions: Who, what, when, where, why, and underline text in the corresponding answers.

3. Divide the text into sequences

After reading the text break it down into sequences, that is, in those minimal narrative units, and concluded in itself autonomous in content, which make up the song in its entirety. On the sidelines of the text tries to give a title to each sequence that summarizes the content.

3) Tips to make a summary

Once these preliminary steps you will be ready to write your resume. Armed with paper, pen and a little patience and, above all, do not be discouraged: it is a summary; the text that you write will not be that long. The right size is less than 1/3 that of the original song, so the work that you do not rob you too long or it will cost too much effort.

Start writing your resume referring to what you have pointed out in the text and noted in the margin after splitting into sequences. You can even think of making a ladder, which will form the backbone of your summary. It will be, in this case, easier than usual: the key concepts of your lineup will consist, in broad terms, precisely those titles that previously have given the division in sequences.

Now you can transform your ladder in a real summary, developing the various steps (not too widely, remember that it is always a synthesis) and trying to give the text it’s consequential. This means that you will have to pay attention to create a discourse that follows a logical thread linking together the different parts of speech through the use of temporal markers (in the beginning, first, then, later, after finally) and connective (prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs) to correctly mark the speech.

In order to properly write a summary, we recommend that you follow these simple rules …

Delete adjectives, examples, the engraved and everything that is not absolutely necessary to the understanding of the text
Lift up direct talks indirectly
Speak in third person
Create short sentences, not too complicated
Use simple language, lacking in terms difficult to understand
Always use the same tense throughout the summary
Not post your opinion and your judgment about the text

Once the summary complete, all you have to do is read it: your job is to check that there are no spelling mistakes and that the conversation flows smoothly, with a distinct logical meaning and do not miss any steps.