Unlocking summaries
Tips to writing an effective summary

Why write a summary?
Think of summaries as a note-taking skill. You are summarizing an original document in order to help you express ideas in your own words and to avoid plagiarism.

Create a paper trail
Summaries and paraphrases help you to create a paper trail between evidence used in your essay and the original source.

Matching notes to documents
Each piece of evidence used in an essay must be found on one of your note cards. To not provide such evidence can easily lead to plagiarism.

Establish your credibility
Summaries and paraphrases help you to establish credibility. You are, in a sense, showing your work to your reader.

Respond to challenges
As a researcher, you should expect others to challenge your work.
Providing a paper trail lets the opposition see how you came to your conclusions regarding some issue.

Show fairness in rebuttals
Taking good notes lets the opposition see that you have been fair in your rebuttal (as well as your overall approach). This establishes credibility for the conclusions you draw.

What goes into a summary?
The author’s main ideas should be included in you summary. Look for the topic ideas in each paragraph.

Delete unnecessary words
When writing a summary, you want to remove all words that are not needed to express a concept. Be concise. Use as few words as possible without losing meaning.

Use your own words
Say what the author says in your own words. Do not merely mimic the source.

Write objectively
Write summaries in the third person so as to avoid subjectivity.
You do not want to reshape the source’s intention. Capture the essence of the original idea.

Be accurate
Strive to be accurate when you write a summary. Stay true to the author’s original intent.

Don’t leave out details
Do not merely use information from sources that only agree with your viewpoint. This is not research. You need to confirm the good ideas of an opponent.

Keep a record
Your summaries and paraphrases should include the author’s name, the page numbers, the topic, and the type of card you are writing. If the author is unknown, use the title of the document.

Use complete sentences
Your notes should be written in complete sentences. Also, use correct grammar when writing summaries and paraphrases.

Check for plagiarism
It is a good idea to conduct a mental check to see if the notes too closely resemble the material as expressed in the original document.

Strategies to avoid
Do not merely change word order, use synonyms, or use derivatives of words. These are poor strategies for writing summaries and paraphrases and can lead to plagiarism.

Don’t overwork summaries
You must not include too much information in a summary. Avoid writing a summary that covers too many paragraphs and pages when summarizing an idea.

When in doubt - document
While common knowledge does not have to be documented, it is often a judgment call. When you have a doubt about a need to document, be safe and do so.

Author, page number on left Topic on the right
As you keep records, you need to learn the proper format for taking notes on your cards. Check your textbook for other examples. See the next slide for another example.
Type of card goes in the bottom corner

Brown 12 Censorship lawsuit
If this were a summary of a note taken about a lawsuit that relates to censorship, the note card could look this way. This summary would be for a book or a magazine article. Of course, the text on the card would actually summarize the original document.
Summary

Internet notes
Keeping records of Internet sources requires a slightly different format. It features the abbreviation par. (for paragraph).

Paragraphs, not page numbers
You must count the paragraphs and use the abbreviation par. when citing sources found on the Internet.

Author and paragraph Topic on the right
Documentation of Internet sources require you to keep track of paragraphs. You must cite the placement of the paragraph within the Internet source from which your information was taken.
You will need to do some counting.
Type of card goes in the bottom corner

Smith, par. 3 Censorship example
If you present an example of censorship from an
Internet source, your summary could look similar to the presentation on this slide. Of course, the text on the note card would be the actual summary of the source document.
Summary

Number consecutively
Paragraphs must be numbered consecutively. Do NOT note that you are citing, for example, paragraphs 4,
5, 8 and 10 when you write a summary. See example on next slide.

Smith, par. 4, 5, 8 and 10 Censorship example
A summary should be consecutively numbered. It should include all main ideas in the original document in the passage from paragraphs 4 to
10. To not do so indicates the researcher may be leaving out key information.
Summary

Summaries now unlocked
Those are the keys to writing a good summary. Now, be sure to write notes cards first before you write the actual research essay. Do not skip this important step in formulating ideas.

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