Essay Skills: How to

Summarise

To summarise (verb) - give a brief

statement of the main points of
(something).

What is
summarising?
Summarising involves
taking the main ideas from
a piece of text and
rewriting them in your own
words. A summary is
significantly shorter than
the original text and tends
to give an overview of a
topic area.

Why
summarise?
Summarising is an
important academic
skill you will need to
master.

It helps you to reduce a

large text into a few
key, memorable
phrases.

This is crucial for when

you are taking notes
and researching for an
essay.

It enables you to put

another writers ideas
into your own words.

It trains your mind to

search for the
important information
and exclude irrelevant
points.

Step One:
Highlight the key phrases and words
For a text,read,
mark,andannotatethe
original. (For a lecture, work
with the notes you took.)
highlight the topic
sentence
highlight key points/key
words/phrases
highlight the concluding
sentence
outline each paragraph in
the margin

Step Two:
Make notes on the key ideas of the section
Take notes on the following:
the source (author--first/last name,
title, date of publication, volume
number, place of publication,
publisher, URL, etc.)
the main idea of the original
(paraphrased)
the major supporting points (in
outline form)
major supporting explanations (e.g.
reasons/causes or effects)

Step Three:
Writing your summary introduction.
The opening to your
summary paragraph will
consist of 5 key points.
1. Source title
2. Author
3. Year of publication
4. Reporting verb
5. Main idea of the entire
source

Example
In the book Lives on the Boundary (1)
Mike Rose (2) (1989) (3) presents (4)
the case of Marita, an underprepared
college student who faces
accusations of plagiarism from a
graduate student. (5)

Examples of reporting verbs

argue

state

refute the
claim

sugges criticise
t

claim

report

argue
against

recommen
d

conten
d

explain

maintain

discuss

insist

illustrate

posit

observe

presents

These are important for referring

to the academic work of others.

Step Four:
Divide your text into manageable chunks
Example
In the book Lives on the Boundary Mike Rose (1989) presents the
case of Marita, an underprepared college student who faces
accusations of plagiarism from a graduate student. Rose recalls
Maritas own story which begins with the assignment prompt and
ends with her submitting a sporadically quoted document filled
with encyclopaedia entries. In between, she shared snippets a
restrictive family culture and accounts of a high school of low
expectations. The author concludes the case study with a
critique of the long time English essay traditions which
intimidate and exclude individuals of limited background and
experiences.

Example
1. College
student
faces
plagiarism
charges.
2. Marita
shares her
story.

3. Rose
reflects on
college
academic
demands.

In the book Lives on the Boundary Mike Rose (1989) presents the
case of Marita, an underprepared college student who faces
accusations of plagiarism from a graduate student.
Rose recalls Maritas own story which begins with the
assignment prompt and ends with her submitting a sporadically
quoted document filled with encyclopaedia entries. In between,
she shared snippets a restrictive family culture and accounts of a
high school of low expectations.
The author concludes the case study with a critique of the long
time English essay traditions which intimidate and exclude
individuals of limited background and experiences.