How to write a summary essay well?
Summarizing skill is really important for your academic career as it is needed as for writing separate summary essay so for completing coherent research papers and dissertations. In fact, you will have to summarize for every academic work if you have to take information from sources or provide a literature review. Generally, summarizing means condensing the text to its main points and major support of them omitted the ideas, which are not essential. Our article will teach you how to write a summary paper but do not hesitate to use these pieces of advice for any type of summarizing in your life.
1. Things to consider before you start.
Before you begin writing you should ask yourself how detailed your essay should be and which points from the original text can be omitted.
Pay attention to the major and minor supporting details to the essential points, and examples.
Your summarizing manner will differ if you have to elaborate the fiction text. Sometimes sceneries and descriptions play important role in them, even if you would take them in account in other genres.
Usually a well-written summary of a chapter or poem is no longer than the third or fourth part of the original.
2. Find the main idea.
The core idea of the non-fiction texts can be found near beginning of the chapter.
If you summarize a fiction chapter – pay attention to the events which move the story forward and uncover character’s features.
First of all, review the chapter and one sentence about the main idea of the chapter. It will be the topic sentence for your paragraph.
Do not use odd words and general phrases. Dedicate all the attention to the ideas expressed in the text you work on.
Do not include too many citations. Remember that summarizing means condensing. However, if the original passage has a very bright sentence or phrase you can include it as a citation.
Create a topic sentence to each chapter, part or paragraph, depending on the size of the paper, which you summarize.
Sometimes you cannot just review the chapters but also need to read them carefully line by line in order to find a main idea.
After you have reviewed the chapters and have a topic sentence for each it is time to fill the framework.
Write a paragraph for every topic sentence you have using the information, which you have read in a source.
If after finishing a paragraph you found out that your main idea was misunderstood – do not hesitate to rewrite a topic sentence and make it correspond to the real plot of the chapter and paragraph.
Usually a paragraph takes about ¼ or 1/3 of the page and has enough details in it in order for the idea to be clear to the reader.
4. Organizing your paragraphs and revision.
When you finished drafting the paragraphs you should set them in a coherent order and use transitions for putting them all together. Transitions establish and explain the linkages between the ideas and details.
Re-read your paper and make sure that your essay presents the details of the original passage correctly.