Summary Instructions

Summary Instructions

Assignment Overview

A summary is a distillation of an original non-fiction work, like an essay, an article, or a chapter from a book. A well-written summary proves an understanding of the argument or essential ideas in the original text without being a mere collection of quotations or an extended paraphrase.

General Guidelines

A well-written summary will use few quotations, but a partial sentence quotation that encapsulates the essay’s main idea or argument is often embedded in the first sentence (see below). A few other quotations may be needed, but these should be relatively short and embedded in your own sentences. Because a summary is intended to convey only the essence of an article or essay, do not restate detailed examples offered in support of particular ideas. Note only the main ideas. The ideas presented in a summary do not need to appear in the same order as you found them in the original article but are instead presented in their order of importance or as necessary to explain the chain of the argument or points being made. To ensure the audience knows that the summarized ideas are not yours, you should use occasional references to the original author by last name or gender specific pronoun as appropriate.

Summary Instructions

Transparency

A summary should be a clear distillation of an author’s ideas.

  • Do not critique or praise the author’s ideas.
  • Do not editorialize, interpret, or take sides.
  • Do not use the first-person singular (I, me, my).

Titling a Summary

The title of a summary is its Work Cited entry, which is placed below your name block. For example:

Summary Instructions Kristof Title.jpg

Beginning a Summary

All summaries begin with a first sentence that contains three things:

  1. The full title of the summarized piece
  2. The author’s full name
  3. The author’s key point, idea, or argument.

For example:

          In his New York Times opinion piece, “U.S.A., Land of Limitations?”, Nicholas Kristof argues that America’s current lack of economic mobility, its noticeably absent level playing field for economic opportunity, and the fact that “disadvantage is less about income than environment,” are what presidential aspirants need to acknowledge and confront.

After giving the author’s full name in the first sentence, you only use the last name when making any subsequent reference to the author.

The Length Question

An often-cited rule of thumb for summary writing is that it should be 1/4–1/2 of the original. This rule is subject to qualification, of course. A particularly dense article will require more work—length—to summarize than a fairly simple argument. use citations APA

A Final Note

In addition to being evaluated for standard academic English, your summary grade is also based on evidence of a clear understanding of what the author is arguing, and the relationships and importance of his or her ideas.

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