Researching
Finding information, using the ideas of others, citing sources.
Summary
Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing in that you are taking someone else’s words and putting them into your own; however, in a summary you are only keeping track of the most important points. Summarizing is extremely useful when taking notes for a class or a test. Summaries are shorter than the original source because you are getting rid of the unnecessary information, so you may find that your paragraph or even page of information is now only a sentence!
Example:
Original:
I HEARTILY ACCEPT the motto, — “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, — “That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government. The standing army is only an arm of the standing government. The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it. Witness the present Mexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for, in the outset, the people would not have consented to this measure.
from Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience”
Summary:
Henry David Thoreau uses the opening of “Civil Disobedience” to make the claim that government should be minimized. He points out that government is as likely “to be abused” as it is to be an instrument of change, and it should therefore have a diminished role in society, if any at all.
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How to Summarize
- Read the source you will be using carefully, making notes about the main ideas in the piece and identifying each major stage of thought. A stage of thought is a section that makes a key supporting point.
- Restate the source’s thesis in your own words
- Restate the point of each major stage of thought in your own words.
- Combine your sentences in 2 and 3 above to make a paragraph.
- Compare the paragraph with the original for accuracy.
- Revise and edit the paragraph so that it stands clearly on its own.
Sources
Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 6th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
“Writing Summaries.” Worcester State College Online Writing Lab. 7 Dec. 2007 http://wwwfac.worcester.edu/owl/teacher/writing_summaries.htm.
