by Elise Huang
A deceptively simple academic task, writing a summary can be difficult. Let's start with the basics:
Why summarize?
Sometimes an
assignment may ask you to respond to the ideas in an outside source (e.g., a
scholarly article) or you may want to use key points from a source to
support your own ideas in an essay. Sometimes it’s helpful to summarize key points simply in preparation of
writing a paper that requires you to reference outside sources. It’s important to be able to summarize
correctly because you want to know the main points and arguments an author is
making before you use them to support
or negate an idea in your own work; this ensures that you’re using your sources
in the most effective way possible.
Tips on how to summarize effectively:
1) Read closely and look for keywords:
As Gerald Graff and Cathy
Birkenstein state in They Say, I Say
(a great text on academic writing), a common pitfall for readers is assuming
that an author is making a well-known or cliché argument (33) – to avoid this
pitfall, make sure to read each text closely and try to identify some key
elements in the writing (such as tone, point of view, the author’s audience).
Think about to whom the author is speaking and why (i.e., why should we care what they’re saying?) Also think about what information the author did not include in his or her text. It helps to break the argument down into its main points.
Think about to whom the author is speaking and why (i.e., why should we care what they’re saying?) Also think about what information the author did not include in his or her text. It helps to break the argument down into its main points.
Some
keywords to note here are “the best” and “in town”: the phrase “best burgers”
is definitive – I’m not saying the burgers are satisfactory; they’re the best.
But note that they’re also the best “in town,” (not in the city or state). So they’re the best of what’s available
locally, which suggests my audience is also local. (This doesn’t mean that my
audience is only from this area, though – I could be trying to target visitors
to the area who want to know what the best burger in the area is).
Note
that I mention “locally sourced ingredients” and “healthy.” There must be a reason why I think it’s
important to mention these two things – why should readers care if Smith’s
Restaurant uses locally sourced ingredients? This could indicate that my target
audience is people who care about where they’re ingredients come from – by
extension, you could argue that this suggests an audience that cares about its
environment and wants to make a positive impact through their own choices (and
this is one way for them to exercise that choice).
Note
that I do not include information about burgers from other establishments, nor
do I define what makes these burgers healthy.
These are two places where you, as a writer analyzing my argument, could
punch holes in what I’m saying.
Possible
Summary: Elise argues that Smith’s Restaurant’s burgers are a great option for
healthy-minded locals.
2) Situate the author’s argument within your argument:
When introducing a summary, Graff
and Birkenstein recommend the use of “signal verbs” (39). These words help you
to more precisely describe the author’s approach and objective. Overall, signal
verbs should indicate your interpretation of the source’s intentions, purpose,
tone, and overall effectiveness.
Graff and
Birkenstein have a great list of verbs to use when introducing a summary. Their
list includes: argue, assert, claim, emphasize, insist, suggest, support, and
verify.
What happens
when you’re summarizing an article, and you don’t agree with everything the
author of the text says? Well, you don’t have to! In fact, not agreeing with
everything (and addressing this in your paper) can make your argument stronger.
If you disagree
or question an author’s argument, make use of verbs like: complain, complicate,
deny, repudiate, question, and qualify (39-40).
Example:
My
statement: “Smith’s Restaurant makes the best burgers in town! They use locally
sourced ingredients, and they’re healthy.”
Summary:
Elise says that Smith’s Restaurant’s burgers are a great option for
healthy-minded locals. (This summarizes my statement but doesn’t really tell
you why we should care).
Use
the summary to add to your paper, which talks about other great burger
establishments: Elise argues that
Smith’s Restaurant’s burgers are a great option for healthy-minded locals, but
she fails to acknowledge what makes a
burger “the best.” This not only summarizes my statement – which is really an
argument – but it shows the slant of the my argument and also leads into your
next paragraph, which could be about what makes a burger great, why we should
care if it’s healthy, etc.
So remember: to
create an effective summary, look for key words and information that the author
did not include, think about the author’s audience, and answer the question: Why
should we care?
Source:
Graff, Gerald
and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say:
The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &
Co., 2010. Print.
For some great additional resources, check out:
https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QPA_paraphrase.html - how to paraphrase (with examples) and
how to avoid plagiarizing while paraphrasing
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/02/ - understanding rhetorical elements of a
text (understand how to further break down a text)
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