Sample Summary
Writing the Summary
• Summaries range from 100-250 words
• Follows the order of arguments in the original
source (usually)
• Always written in objective tone
• Direct, clear, concise
• Acknowledges source clearly (to avoid plagiarism)
• Uses your own words (to avoid plagiarism)
• Focuses on points, not particulars
• Possibly includes quotations, but USED SPARINGLY
• Can stand alone as a unified, coherent piece of
writing
Sample Summary
In “On Teenagers and Tattoos,” published in the Journal of the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Dr. Andres
Martin advises fellow psychiatrists to think of teenage tattooing not as
a fad or as a form of self-mutilation but as an opportunity for
clinicians to understand teenagers better. Martin examines three
different reasons that teenagers get tattoos. First, he argues that
tattoos help teenagers establish unique identities by giving them a
sense of control over their evolving bodies and over an environment
perceived as adverse and domineering. Second, he believes that a
tattooed image often symbolizes the teen’s relationship to a significant
concept or person, making the relationship more visible and real.
Finally, says Martin, because teens are disturbed by modern society’s
mobility and fragmentation and because they have an “intense
longing for rootedness and stability” (120), the irreversible nature of
tattoos may give them a sense of permanence. Martin concludes that
tattoos can be a meaningful record of survived teen experiences. He
encourages therapists to regard teen tattoos as “self-constructive and
adorning efforts,” rather than as “mutilatory and destructive acts”
(121) and suggests that tattoos can help therapists understand “another
level of [teenagers’] internal reality” (121).
Features of the summary…
• Directly introduces source material
• Acknowledges source’s credentials and
publication information
• Remains objective
• Creates fluency with transitions
• Creates in-text attributive tags
• Clearly states source’s ideas, not writer’s ideas
• Uses quotes sparingly
• Includes MLA format for citing sources
Summarizing
“The Forgotten”
Articulate the topic and the thesis
• Topic:
– “the universal pain of transitioning athletes”
• Thesis:
– Glanville writes of his own experience leaving
his baseball career and transitioning to a life
outside of the sport he loved. As with other
athletes, this transition was difficult for him,
and though most people don’t recognize this,
an athlete leaving his or her sport behind faces
multiple problems in adjusting to “civilian”
life.
Main Points
• Failed marriages
• Failed business ventures
– poor advice
– poor preparation for business ventures
• No worthwhile way to spend time
– high level of prior activity
• No practical skills
• No fame/no recognition
• Public has little sympathy for former athletes
Assignment:
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Write a summary of the article
200-300 words
Identify the author’s name AND credentials
Summarize thesis of article
Incorporate main points
Use transitions
Include a concluding sentence