What is Summarizing?
Contents
- What is summarizing
- Examples
- How to create a good summary
A summary is a synthesis of the key ideas of a piece of writing, restated in your own words – i.e., paraphrased. You may write a summary as a stand-alone assignment or as part of a longer paper. Whenever you summarize, you must be careful not to copy the exact wording of the original source.
It is giving the key points of the topic and condensing the information that will be included in the topic.
Examples
Original text:
America has changed dramatically during recent years. Not only has the number of graduates in traditional engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil, electrical, chemical, and aeronautical engineering declined, but in most of the premier American universities engineering curricula now concentrate on and encourage largely the study of engineering science. As a result, there are declining offerings in engineering subjects dealing with infrastructure, the environment, and related issues, and greater concentration on high technology subjects, largely supporting increasingly complex scientific developments. While the latter is important, it should not be at the expense of more traditional engineering.
Rapidly developing economies such as China and India, as well as other industrial countries in Europe and Asia, continue to encourage and advance the teaching of engineering. Both China and India, respectively, graduate six and eight times as many traditional engineers as does the United States. Other industrial countries at minimum maintain their output, while America suffers an increasingly serious decline in the number of engineering graduates and a lack of well-educated engineers. (169 words)
How to Create a Good Summary
A good summary:
- Identifies the writer of the original text.
- Synthesizes the writer’s key ideas.
- Presents the information neutrally.
Summaries can vary in length. Follow the directions given by your instructor for how long the summary should be.
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