How to write a summary for Gretchen Himes’ ESL 262:
1.
Read to the assigned passage and take notes - focus on understanding the
main idea.
2.
If a passage is too hard:
a. Try to find written articles or other videos about the same topic even if they
are in your own language.
b. Ask another person to discuss the passage with you. This does not mean
having the other person translate the whole story for you. Instead, tell the
person what you think it means first and then ask for his or her opinions.
Discuss the meanings of words and phrases with the other person.
c. Talk with your teacher about the passage.
3.
Pick out the main ideas of the passage. Decide which information is just details
and can be left out.
4.
Shorten the passage to just a few sentences. Most assignments can easily be
summarized in three to ten sentences.
5.
DO NOT change the meaning, bring in information from other stories, or give
your opinion.
6.
Organize the information in a logical order (chronological, compare & contrast,
order of importance)
7.
Start the summary by giving the title of the article and/or the book as well as the
page number in the first sentence of the summary. State the author’s name if it is
given.
a. Use italics for book titles and quotation marks around article and passage
titles.
b. In titles capitalize all nouns, verbs (including two-word verb particles like
wake up and the to in infinitive verbs like to go), adjectives, and adverbs
as well as the first and last word and all prepositions five letters or longer.
Do not capitalize short prepositions (over, in, to) or articles (a, the).
Example: In the passage “The Wisdom of Crowds” in Inside Reading 4 (pp 104106), James Surowiecki describes how under certain circumstances, a group can
make the best decisions.
Example: In the novel Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (pp 1-5) we meet
the main character Abilene Tucker, a twelve-year-old girl who has been sent by
her father to live with strangers in the town Manifest, Kansas where her father
Gideon had grown up.
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8.
Write the summary double-spaced in paragraph form. Don’t just make a list or
an outline.
9.
Use transitional phrases such as first, second, ‘then,’ ‘next,’ ‘after that,’
‘therefore,’ and ‘due to’ to tie the ideas together. Avoid just sticking sentences
together without such transitional devices.
10. Retell the story in your own words. Do not copy special words or phrases if you
can avoid doing so. You will need to use some specialized words from the stories
that cannot easily be restated another way. (‘Cat,’ ‘bake sale,’ ‘rappel,’ and ‘sticky
notes’ are examples of words that you cannot easily change.) But most words and
phrases you must say your own way using your own words, no matter how much
better you think the original words are. (For example, in the CNN news report, “Cat
Saves Life, Thwarts Dog Attack’” Woods’ husband said that the dogs “hit her high
in the left thigh and took her down.” Yes this shows vividly what happened, but you
have to retell it in your own words. You need to change it to something like, “the
dogs bit her in the leg and knocked her down.”)
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