A summary is for someone who has not read a text and need to know the essence of what it is about. The readers of your summary do not expect you to go into detail; instead they want a short version of the text. Therefore, a written summary only gives a general idea of what the text is about and the most important information.
Dos
Before writing:
1. Read the text carefully and highlight key words and/ or key sentences.
2. Divide the text up into parts or subsections.
3. Find an appropriate sentence or keywords to summarise each subsection.
Writing an introduction:
The introductory sentence of your summary should include the author, title, type of text, the place and date of publication, and the main idea.
In other words, you need to answer these wh-questions:
- Who is the author?
- When was the text published?
- Where was it published?
- What type of text is it?
- What topic does the text deal with? State the underlying problem or conflict, and not simply its content.
Writing the main part:
1. The main part of your summary connects the highlighted passages and the summaries or key words of the subsections.
2. Focus on the essentials/ on basic facts.
3. Use the present tense.
4. Use your own words.
5. Use formal language.
6. Use connectives to link your sentences.
Don'ts
× Don't include irrelevant details.
× Don't use the present progressive.
x Don't use quotations or direct speech.
× Don't give your personal opinion.
× Don't start analysing the text.
X Don't try to create suspense.
Language support:
Introduction:
- The short story, novel, article, poem, ...
- The extract from the short story... written by ... in ... deals with, illustrates...
Stating the topic /purpose of a text:
- The text is about, shows, criticises, targets, comments on the fact that...
Main part:
- According to the author, ...
- The author believes, claims, emphasizes, states, points out, is of the opinion that...
- From the author's point of view, ...
https://www.tutory.de/entdecken/dokument/how-to-write-a-summary
