Writing Summaries
INSTRUCTOR: SARAH WARFIELD
What is a summary?
 A summary is a long text that has been reduced to
only include essential parts:

Main ideas, without examples and details
 In a summary the form, sentence structure, and
vocabulary has changed

but the main ideas are the same
Why are we learning about summaries?
 Summarizing is not a natural skill.
 Writers often copy verbatim (word-for word), write
summaries that are too long (with too many details),
or write really short summaries that are missing
important information.
 Writers don’t know what a summary is or how to
write one.
 Summarizing is a specific and technical skill.
Why are we learning about summaries?
 Important skill that you will use throughout your
academic careers
 Improves reading skills

picking out the main ideas of a reading
 Helps with vocabulary skills

paraphrasing
 Helps with critical thinking skills

decide on the main ideas of the reading to include in the summary
 Writing and editing skills

drafting and editing your summary
 Cooperative learning

work with peers throughout the writing and revision process
How to write a summary
Read the entire text.
2. While you read, underline main ideas.
3. On a separate piece of paper, take notes about your
main ideas.
1.

Your notes should be words and phrases—not sentences
4. Use your notes to write a summary.
5. Write a summary.
6. Compare it to the original.
Summary 1
Students today think college is a broadening experience that involves
much more than academics. This is what Michael Moffatt, a professor
of anthropology at Rutgers University, discovered after conducting an
anthropological study of college life. Moffatt examined and observed
Rutgers students by living in the dormitories for two years. Then he
reported his findings in the Journal of Higher Education in an article
entitled “College Life: Undergraduate Culture and Higher Education.”
Moffatt wrote this article to show administrators and professors how
students view college. He pointed out that students saw college as more
than a center for higher academic learning; instead, they viewed their
college years as a time when they learned how to balance work and
play. The students claimed that they learned just as much outside the
classroom as they learned inside. College was also valuable because it
exposed them to a diversity of people (Moffatt 44-46, 60). On the
whole, my views on college are similar to those of the Rutgers
University students whom Moffatt studied.
Summary 2
In “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” Nicholas Carr argues that
Internet activity, which is based on speed, is not only
changing the way we read (turning us into skimmers), but
changing the way we think. Carr gives a brief history of how
technology (writing, the printing press, the clock) has altered
the way we think and act. Historically, people have always
warned that new technologies would undermine to our
capacity to think; while Carr admits that they ultimately gave
us more than they took away, he thinks the Internet is
fundamentally different. Although the Internet offers the
ability to find an incredible amount of information, there is
little room for contemplation of that information. Without
the skill to read deeply, we cannot think deeply, and thus we
will become a culture of no depth.
Summary 3
After forgetting to use tickets he had for a Rolling Stones concert, Washington
Post sports and humor columnist Tony Kornheiser lamented another aspect
of getting old--memory loss--and made some tongue-in-cheek suggestions
about how to deal with the problem. He cited some suggestions he had read in
his paper’s "Health" section. The suggestions were "rehearse-repeat" and "use
cues." Rehearse-repeat wouldn’t seem to work because if you have memory
loss you might forget why you’re trying to remember whatever it is. And cues
wouldn’t work because you can forget what the cues stand for. His examples
of how these techniques might fall apart were very funny because they were
gross exaggerations. One example resulted in a fictional person being
committed for continually babbling "I’m out of Feen-a-Mint," while trying the
rehearse-repeat technique. He also pointed out that using cues such as
HOMES to remember the names of the Great Lakes might not work if you
can’t recall that the E stands for Erie and not Evelyn. He joked with a friend
about whether she was going to use contraband drugs at the Stones concert
for old times sake, but she chose to use ginkoba, a memory improvement
drug.
Summary 4
In his essay "Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation," psychotherapist Carl R.
Rogers presents two main ideas: that the individual's tendency to evaluate, from her own
point of view, another's statement is a major block to interpersonal communication; and
that this problem may be solved if the individual listens to and genuinely tries to
understand the statement from the other's point of view. This solution is powerfully
effective in psychotherapy, the whole task of which is to deal with failures of
communication. While Rogers' solution seems simple, there are many reasons why it is
difficult to achieve empathetic understanding of another's frame of reference. One
challenge is finding the courage to risk changing ourselves when we undertake this
process, especially when our emotions are strongly engaged in our own positions. In such
cases, Rogers explains, a sympathetic, disinterested third party can help the antagonists
achieve mutual understanding, especially if they can be induced to approach the task as
partners trying to solve a problem together, rather than as opponents attacking each
other. This "test-tube" solution to communication failures could be successfully applied
to large groups worldwide, Rogers believes, if Western civilization had enough faith in the
social sciences to invest in projects like his. In fact, he asserts that our continued survival
may depend upon such an investment.
What should be in a summary? (Please tell me)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.