Summarizing what you read

1. Find the Topic
• Ask yourself, what is the article/essay/chapter about?
• To answer that question, preview the text by reading the title, sub-titles, boldface headings and any other headings that may have been used.
• If you don't have the topic after that, read the first and last paragraphs.
• If you still don’t have the topic, read the first sentence of the remaining paragraphs.
2. Locating and Stating the Main Idea
• Ask yourself, what is the author’s main point on the topic?
• To answer, preview by reading the title, sub-titles, boldface heading and any other headings. Look at any charts or graphs provided. Read the first sentence of each paragraph and the entire first and last paragraphs.
• If you find a sentence that appears to state the main idea, underline and make a note in the margin.
• Using your own words, write the main idea down in a complete sentence.
3. Identifying the Major Details
• Ask yourself, how does the author support the main idea?
• Preview the article to find the topic and main idea.
• Look for signal words and phrases that help identify major details. Signal words and phrases are, for example, first (or second, or third, etc.), for example, on the other hand, in contrast, finally.
• Break longer works into sections. Read the first line of every paragraph to help determine where to break up the sections.
• Determine the main idea of each section; the main idea of a section is usually a major detail within the larger text.
• Label each section by writing the topic of that section in the margin.
4. Composing the Summary
• Opening sentence should contain text’s title, author’s name, and the main idea. (Don't worry about this one for journal entries.)
• Provide major details of the text by changing the major detail phrases into complete sentences.
• Provide minor details as needed/allowed to explain or clarify the major details (don’t include minor details in précis summary).
• Must be written primarily in your own words. More than three words from the original requires use of quote marks. Do not string together a series of quotes.
5. Responding
• Record your first reactions to the ideas in the text and how they were expressed.
• What did you learn that was new?
• What was reinforced that you already knew?
• How does any of this fit with your existing beliefs?

Summary must be devoid of summarizer’s stated opinion, must maintain perspective and proportion of original, but must be in summarizer’s own words.

Adapted from Read and Respond by Swinton and Agoposowicz