Preparing to Write a Summary

Summarizing a text is distilling its essential concepts in a paragraph or two. This is an excellent
practice to follow when you are conducting research or studying. Typically, a summary has two
goals:

1. to reproduce the key ideas and points of a text, identifying the general concepts that prevail
throughout the entire piece, and
2. to express these concepts and ideas with precise and specific language.

When writing a summary, it is not enough to rely on the author’s words, as you must still deliver
the author’s points without the language becoming too general. You must also be ready to make
decisions about which parts to include and which parts to exclude in your summary.

When reading a text, there are two techniques you can use in order to prepare for writing a
summary. These techniques are previewing and skimming and scanning.

Previewing
It is best to read any academic text with set goals in mind, especially when you plan to
summarize it later on for research or study purposes. Doing so will allow you to be more
focused on your reading and to pay more attention to the parts of the text that are important for
your purposes. As a student, your primary purposes for reading are usually dictated by your
course or track and the papers you are writing for your subjects. Before you read a text in
earnest, try the previewing technique first in order to better orient yourself to what you need
from the text you are about to dive into. Below is a general list of steps or questions you can
follow in order to preview a text. Not every step will be relevant to the text you are reading, and
sometimes you might find yourself coming up with additional questions to ask or steps to follow.

1. Do not skip the title! Make sure to read it as it is usually written to orient the reader
and should provide a hint as to what the central concepts of the text will be.

2. Take a few moments to consider the subject matter: Have you read about this topic before?
Where and when? What prior information about it do you already have, or what can you guess?
Is it connected in any way to something you’ve personally experienced? Do you already have
opinions about a part or parts of this topic?

3. Who wrote the text? Do you already have information about the author? Is additional
information on the author available in any part of the text, like the title page or the body of the
text? If the author is a historical figure, what do you already know about him or her?

4. Where was this text originally published? How was it published, and how does it relate to the
field of study it was written in? Who might be the audience for this kind of text? What could the
audience expect to find in the text?

5. When was this text originally published? Is there a connection between the time period in
which it was written and the field of study in which it was published? Is the text historical,
current, or possibly outdated? Were there any important events or significant trends during the
time the text was written or published?

6. Read the chapter titles or the headings that section the article or text. What seems to be
the general progression of ideas in the chapter titles or headings that separate the article into
sections?

7. Why has your professor assigned this text? Where does it fit into the course or subject as a
whole? What sort of facts and ideas are you expected to remember from this reading?
Skimming and Scanning
In order to be more focused when reading a text, it is best to get a general overview of it
before beginning to read thoroughly. By first skimming through a text, you can get an idea
of its overall logical progression. Skimming can also help you determine which parts of the
text need your utmost attention in order to achieve your purposes for reading the text.
Listed below are steps you can take when skimming, but they can be modified or adjusted
to your comfort.

1. Before skimming, make use of the previewing techniques from the previous subsection.

2. Then, carefully read the introductory paragraph or perhaps the first two paragraphs. Ask
yourself what the point of the text appears to be, and try to predict the direction of the coming
explanations, arguments, and examples.

3. Carefully read the first one or two sentences of each paragraph, as well as the
concluding sentence or sentences.

4. In between the opening and closing sentences, keep your eyes moving and try to avoid
looking up unfamiliar words or terminology. Your goal, for now, is to take in the overarching
concepts and overall picture or pattern of the text.

5. Carefully read the concluding paragraph or paragraphs. What might the author’s overall
purpose be? Keep in mind that you may be mistaken, so be ready and willing to modify your
answer if needed.

6. Finally, return to the beginning and do a more focused reading of the text. Be more mindful
now of the complexities you might have missed in your skimming and try to fill in the gaps in
your understanding. Keep your purpose in mind and remember what you need to retain. Use
these to adjust your focus accordingly. Look up the terms you need to know or unfamiliar words
that appear multiple times.

Scanning is similar to skimming, except you should have a more focused purpose. You are
now skimming to find a particular fact or figure or to see if the text mentions a specific
subject you are researching. Keep your specific goal in mind as you scan the text, and try not
to be distracted by other details.

What Is Included in a Summary?

An effective summary should be able to condense a passage into a shorter form because it
only communicates the essential facts of the original text. However, keep in mind that
summarizing is not the same as paraphrasing. When you summarize something, you are
rewriting the text to be more focused on the main points for easier reference later on.
Effective summarizing is important for both research and writing because it can allow you to
return to pertinent information much faster. Below is a list of what is and what is not included in
a summary. The list may be adjusted depending on your needs.

1. Include the title and the name of the author in your first sentence.
2. The first few sentences of your summary should contain the author’s thesis so that it
is easier to recall what the key points of the text are. It will also make it easier to
navigate through the summary.
3. Often, longer articles are divided into subsections so that it is easier to organize
information. In your summary, make sure to maintain the subsections and keep
information with similar ideas close together so that they can be located more
quickly when necessary.
4. Omit specific examples unless they are extended definitions that are not central to
the text. Do not be pressured into thinking that you have to recreate the author’s
exact train of thought. However, be careful in omitting too much and warping the
author’s original intention.
5. In general, omit specific examples unless it is an extended definition that is integral
to the author’s argument. If the purpose of the example is to provide clarification,
then it can be omitted.
6. Avoid opinions or personal responses in your summaries. A summary should only
contain the author’s ideas. Save your own thoughts for your actual paper.
7. Be careful not to plagiarize the author’s words. To avoid plagiarism, try writing the
first draft of your summary without looking back at the text. This is to ensure that
you are more reliant on your own words and your own understanding of the text
rather than the author’s words.

Example 1
Below is a sample article and how an approach to summarizing it might go:
Example 2
Take a look at the following example of a summary:

In the introduction of her book, Cultivating Humanity, Nussbaum opens with a quick retelling
of Aristophanes’s comedy entitled The Clouds. She describes a mock debate in the comedy
wherein the values of traditional education are compared with the newer Socratic methods
of education. In the debate, old education is described as disciplinary and regimented,
dealing more with memorization than exploration. Meanwhile, the scripted counter of the
Socratic argument is that with Socrates, students will be taught how to think freely and
liberally with little heed to authority. As the Aristophanic conservatism is against the
free-thinking of Socrates, it is made to look like the Socratic discipline will teach students
how to be rebellious and sex-driven degenerates.

The comedy presents liberal thinking as poisonous to the minds of the youth. Yet, in today’s
society, as Nussbaum is presenting, it is the prevailing method of learning in America today.
With a new rule regarding diversity being implemented in America’s system of education,
there is now a requirement for students to study non-Western culture, gender issues, and
ethnic issues within the United States. In implementing this rule, there now seems to be a
focus on diversity and internationalization. Students can no longer remain focused just on
their comfort zones or their familiar local groups. They must reach out and familiarize
themselves with other cultures, other kinds of people, and the rest of humanity in general.

She concludes her introduction with the argument that yes, schools and universities
educate our citizens, and that in being educated, citizens learn to be inquisitive and how to
reason, but it should also be so much more. Educated citizens should also learn to be
capable of understanding other people’s cultures. It means, more than anything, that
educated citizens should put their humanity before anything else. This broadens the mind,
allows for a better understanding of the many different cultures and ethnicities around the
world, and eliminates close-minded and narrow points of view. This, Nussbaum states, is
more than “political correctness.” This, rather, is “the cultivation of humanity.”
Explanation
In this example, the summary includes and even begins with a specific example used in the
main text. This is acceptable in this case because the specific example is a concept that is
necessary for explaining the primary idea of the original author. She needed to present that
example so that she could compare it against the ideas about today’s education. This shows
that there will always be a need for you to be discerning when reading a text with the
intention of writing a summary. There are times when an example is indeed needed in order
to explain the overarching concept or idea of the text.

Activity 1
Preview, skim, and carefully read the following article. Then, answer the following questions.
Mental Health Patients Reap Benefits of Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis, often stereotyped in arts and literature as patients reclining on couches and
talking about their mothers, is enjoying renewed scientific support. Studies have found that
psychoanalytic therapies are evidence-based and lead to significant improvements in
mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress.
According to recent research, psychoanalytic therapies achieve lasting results by exploring
underlying causes of one’s mental health issues. This deeper exploration gets to the root of
a person’s symptoms and sets psychoanalysis apart from more superficial therapies that
only treat symptoms. By looking closely at each person’s life, psychoanalytic therapies help
one feel more understood as a unique individual, improve personal relationships, relieve
painful emotional symptoms, and change life-long ways of coping. This is not your father’s
psychoanalysis. In fact, in a 2019 survey conducted by PsychoanalysisNow, 400
psychoanalysts in the United States highlighted the realities of psychoanalysis and how it
works. Almost all the professionals surveyed (96 percent) said they regularly conduct
therapy either once or twice per week, which is feasible for most patients’ schedules. The
stereotype of lying on a couch during therapy is an option – but only if the patient chooses it
for relaxation and comfort. Otherwise, patients and their analysts are seated facing each other
in chairs. Roughly 73 percent of analysts surveyed report that they also conduct
therapy sessions remotely, via telephone or through Internet video connections.
"Psychoanalysis is often indicated when other less intensive therapies have failed to achieve
the desired results," according to the website of the American Psychoanalytic Association. "It
truly offers something different and more comprehensive, and is a good place to turn when
symptoms remain or behavioral or relationship patterns continue after one or two attempts
at less intensive, shorter term psychotherapy. "However, one’s problem need not be too
severe to benefit from psychoanalysis. Individuals struggling in the workplace, who have
long-term relationship issues with family members, or who simply want a new perspective
on their lives can benefit. Through psychoanalysis, one can unlock the past, inform the
present, and expand the future to reach their full potential. Children and teens can also
benefit as some psychoanalysts specialize in working with children in partnership with
parents.
Source: “Mental Health Patients Reap Benefits of Psychoanalysis”
(https://www.copyrightfreecontent.com/health/mental-health-patients-reap-benefits-of-psychoanalysis/)

1. What is the article’s thesis statement?