Essential Summary Techniques: Capture Main Ideas and Key Points
Summary writing is the process of shortening a long text by only highlighting the main ideas and information of the text. The summary of a long text or a book gives the reader an idea of what information is there in that long text or book. Every book has a small paragraph written on its back, which is the summary of the book, providing an idea of the contents of the book. Similarly, a summary is used in many places, including a person's work-life as well. Here, we will discuss how to write a summary in detail.
Summarizing a Story!
A summary is considered as a brief write-up that is used for summing up the whole story in one short paragraph. This short paragraph will contain all the main ideas and essential information about the story. This paragraph is used to give a quick overview of the story or its gist. The summary is responsible for informing the reader about the main points and the actual theme of the story. By going through this write-up you will learn how to make a summary of a given story.
The only objective of the summary is to save some valuable time for the reader by giving him an instant short overview of what the whole story is all about. Despite being the shorter version of the story, the summary will contain all the main ideas that will help a reader understand what exactly is the story about.
How to Write a Summary?
Before attempting to write a summary, a student must have a basic understanding of it. Without any knowledge, a student is incapable of creating a good summary that can give a good overview. Summary writing seems easy, but it is not until you have understood all the rules and regulations of writing a summary, that you can write one. To write a summary you must follow the following predetermined steps.
Read the Assigned Text or Story Carefully
The best way to summarize a larger text or a story precisely is by understanding the text of the story properly. For understanding a story correctly, a person has to read that piece properly with full focus and sincerity. The reader must read the piece thoroughly without skipping anything. The reader might need more than one reading to be thorough on the piece assigned.
Make Notes of Important Points
After reading the whole piece, the next step is to jot down the main points of the larger text or the story for future reference. This is a crucial step in summarizing as the reader has to identify the points which are important enough to be jotted down. Jotting down points that are not important can affect the quality of the summary, and it is not necessary also as we are not giving a detailed overview through a summary.
Begin Writing Using Your Memory
After jotting down the main points, the next step is to elaborate and expand those points. At this stage, it is suggested that students should elaborate on the points using their memory that they have gained while reading the piece. This will ensure that students will use their own words in the summary despite reading the words that are there in the original piece, which are written by the author. Go through some summary writing examples for Class 10 to get a better insight into it.
Avoid Giving Personal Opinions
While summarizing a text or a story, one must avoid using his or her personal opinions in.The summary must contain all the facts and figures that are in the assigned text or the story. There should not be any alterations in the writings of the author. One should not interpret the work and add his or her reviews in the summary since he or she is not the critique for that work. One must simply summarize it without any changes.
Review
The last step is to review and evaluate the summary that has been written to identify the mistakes and rectify them to make the summary appropriate. The summary must be reviewed thoroughly before submitting it. While doing the final edit of the summary, there are some points to keep in mind which are as follows.
If the assigned piece is a story, then one must ensure that the summary is written following the correct chronological order of the facts as given in the story.
One must ensure that a particular point is not repeated twice. Any repeated information must get deleted during the review.
The length of the summary must be short. A long summary defies the purpose of the summary.
Check for grammatical errors.
Summary Writing Format
The following summary format should be followed while summary writing in English.
The introductory part
A view on the main points of the story or text
A conclusion on the whole part
Difference Between Summary and Precis?
A summary is a concise statement or repeat of key themes, usually at the end of work: a chapter summary.
Precis writing is a summary or essence of a long section that is designed to cover all of the text's intricacies and key characteristics while using the fewest words possible.
The Difference Between the Two is Mentioned Below:
Conclusion
If you wish to have more knowledge on how to go about Summary writing, you can follow Vedantu and ace the summary game.
FAQs on How to Write a Summary: Step-by-Step Guide for Students
1. What is a summary and what is its primary purpose in English writing?
A summary is a brief, concise statement that presents the main ideas and key points of a longer piece of text, such as a story, article, or chapter. Its primary purpose is to provide a quick overview or the gist of the original content without getting into minor details. It allows a reader to understand the essence of the text without having to read the entire piece.
2. What are the key steps for writing an effective and concise summary?
To write an effective summary, you should follow these essential steps:
- Read and Understand: Carefully read the original text multiple times to fully grasp its meaning, main arguments, and overall theme.
- Identify Key Points: Note down the most important ideas, topic sentences, and supporting details. Ignore trivial information, examples, or repetitions.
- Draft in Your Own Words: Write a first draft using your notes, ensuring you rephrase the ideas in your own language to show your understanding.
- Ensure Objectivity: Stick to the facts and ideas presented by the original author. Do not include your personal opinions, interpretations, or criticisms.
- Review and Edit: Check your summary for accuracy, clarity, and conciseness. Ensure it is significantly shorter than the original and free of grammatical errors.
3. How is summary writing different from précis writing?
While both involve shortening a text, a summary and a précis have key differences. A summary is a brief restatement of the main ideas for general understanding. In contrast, a précis is a more formal and structured 'miniature version' of the original text. A précis must retain the original author's tone and proportion of ideas, and it often adheres to a strict word limit (typically one-third of the original).
4. What are the essential features of a good summary?
A well-written summary is defined by the following features:
- Conciseness: It is short, to the point, and avoids unnecessary words or details.
- Accuracy: It faithfully represents the facts, ideas, and message of the original text without distortion.
- Objectivity: It is free from the writer's personal bias, opinions, or analysis.
- Coherence: The points are presented in a logical order, making the summary easy to read and understand on its own.
- Originality: It is written in the student's own words, not just a copy-paste of sentences from the source.
5. Why is it crucial to avoid adding personal opinions when writing a summary?
It is crucial to avoid personal opinions because the fundamental goal of a summary is to objectively report on the original author's content. Including your own views or interpretations transforms the piece from a summary into a critique or a review, which is a different writing task. A summary's value lies in its ability to provide a neutral and accurate reflection of the source material.
6. What are some common mistakes to avoid in summary writing?
When writing a summary, students should avoid these common errors:
- Including minor details, examples, or statistical data unless they are central to the main idea.
- Adding personal opinions, comments, or interpretations.
- Making the summary too long; it should be significantly shorter than the original text.
- Disrupting the chronological or logical order of the original points.
- Using the exact wording from the source text excessively.
7. Beyond English, how does mastering summary writing help in subjects like Science or Social Science for exams?
The skill of summary writing is highly valuable across all subjects. In Science and Social Science, it helps students to:
- Create effective revision notes by condensing long chapters into key concepts and facts.
- Improve comprehension and retention of complex topics by forcing them to identify what is most important.
- Efficiently answer long-form exam questions that require explaining a process or concept concisely.
- Save valuable time during last-minute exam preparations by reviewing summarised notes instead of entire textbooks.
