19 Summarize
Sarah Duffy
Create shortened versions of a source in a respectful, neutral, and fair way that reflect a deep understanding.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why summarize
- How to summarize
- How to give attribution
- How to stay neutral
Recall what you know: What do you already know about summarizing? Take this quick true or false test to find out.
Think about this: Effective summarizing reflects your understanding of a source. Summarizing is simple, but not easy! This is where the time you spend on getting to know a source (see Prepare, Pause, and Frame; Skim, Scan, and Use Tools; Situate; Break Down a Source) will pay off. How effective are your summarizing skills? What can you do to improve them? How can you ensure your summaries have academic integrity?
Why Summarize
When you summarize, you condense and restate the essential meaning of a source. You use your own words but respect the message of the original without adding, interpreting, or assessing anything.
This is key: Your judgment and critical evaluation are on hold, for now.
Think about the areas of your life in which summarizing plays an important role. In an academic setting, some examples of summarizing include
- integrating content from a source into your work to add credibility to yourself as an author and/or to build an argument;
- showing your group members or professors that you grasp their ideas;
- making notes while studying, as you work independently or collaboratively on ensuring that you comprehend course material; and
- capturing findings from a recent journal article.
Beyond this, in academic, professional, or personal contexts, you can use summarizing in active listening, a valuable skill. You can also use it to share ideas, find common ground, identify and correct misunderstandings, and de-escalate conflict.
Imagine This: Summarizing Scenarios
| Scenario | How Summarizing Helps |
|---|---|
| Due to a medical appointment, your group member misses an important three-hour class. This is a problem since you are working on an assignment together that requires an understanding of that class content. Given your busy schedules, you only have one night to work on the assignment, so it’s essential that your group member catches up quickly. | You summarize the class content for your group member, highlighting the main points. You’re able to do this in 30 minutes because you omit activities and the minor points made by the professor. Now, you can move on to complete the assignment effectively. |
| You and a colleague do not see eye to eye on how to approach a project for an important client. You have tried to discuss it numerous times, but it ends up with each of you sticking firmly to your plan. You have to figure this out soon. The client meeting is now just a couple of days away. | You summarize your colleague’s suggested plan for the project, ensuring to avoid your opinion and stay neutral. You then compare this to your approach. By doing so, you are able to find common ground, remove the conflict from the situation, and move forward with a shared approach. |
| You are a registered early childhood educator and supervisor at a local nursery school. Your staff have identified a child who may require early intervention services, and you need to meet with the parents to share these concerns. | You gather the observations of your staff and summarize them when meeting with the parents. The parents provide their input, and then you neutrally and respectfully summarize what you’ve heard from them. You work collaboratively with them to find common ground on the best steps forward to support their child. |
How to Summarize
You should only summarize after you have engaged actively with an author’s message to ensure that you have an accurate understanding of it. (See Prepare, Pause, and Frame; Skim, Scan, and Use Tools; Situate; and Break Down a Source.)
Summarizing involves
- grasping the core meaning;
- distinguishing between the most and least important ideas;
- explaining the main ideas in your own words accurately, respecting the author’s perspective; and
- omitting your evaluation or opinion.
In academic writing, you may need to write a brief summary of a source, and in other cases, you will write an extended summary.
| Brief Summary | AND/OR | Extended Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Source title, publication details, author’s name, and main idea only | Source title, publication details, author’s name, and main idea | |
| 1–2 sentences in length | Main points in sequential order | |
| Paragraph form with transitions between points to ensure coherence | ||
| Length varies (depending on the length of the original source, but it should be much shorter than the original) |
Tips for summarizing in academic writing include the following:
- write in the present tense;
- acknowledge the source’s title, publication date, and author in the opening of the summary;
- capture the author’s main idea in the opening of the summary, and then summarize the key points in sequential order after that;
- use various verbs to give attribution to the author throughout the summary (see more in How to Give Attribution and Stay Neutral);
- avoid using exact words from the original source unless necessary (avoid looking at the source when summarizing to ensure that your wording is unique);
- be sure to quote (i.e. include content in quotation marks) if it is necessary to use exact words from the source; and
- cite appropriately (see a relevant style guide for various options).
BRIEF SUMMARY
In “It’s Time for ‘They’” published in The New York Times in 2019, author Farhad Manjoo argues that the pronoun ‘they’ should be uniformly used in place of gendered pronouns such as ‘he’ and ‘she.’
EXTENDED SUMMARY
In “It’s Time for ‘They,’” published in The New York Times in 2019, Farhad Manjoo argues that the pronoun ‘they’ should be uniformly used in place of gendered pronouns such as ‘he’ and ‘she.’ Manjoo begins by indicating that people use ‘he’ and ‘him’ when referring to them, and Manjoo accepts this. However, Manjoo comments on issues with assuming gender and asserts that gendered pronouns have limited advantages. Manjoo is confused by the need of some institutions to continue to use gendered pronouns and points out the advantages of uniform use of ‘they.’ Manjoo believes it is inclusive and ubiquitous; this is supported by a study. Manjoo observes that many companies use ‘they’ in marketing and states that only grammarians are recommending against it. Manjoo believes society should avoid gender norms, and that doing so in language is a start. Manjoo concludes with a request that others use the pronoun ‘they’ for both Manjoo and themselves.
How to Give Attribution
When you summarize, you must clearly indicate that the ideas you are condensing are not your own; they belong to someone else. This is where author attribution plays a role. Giving author attribution is a key part of ensuring that your summaries have academic integrity.
You are summarizing the main point of “You’ve Got to Find What You Love” by Steve Jobs. You write this:
It’s essential to learn lessons from life experience.
The problem with this is your audience will not know if this is your idea or Steve Jobs’s idea. However, you can fix this by attributing the idea to Jobs. Here is one way you could do this:
Jobs illustrates that it’s essential to learn lessons from life experience.
Notice that the summary of the content is the same (highlighted text), but now this idea is attributed to its author—Steve Jobs—through the use of the lead, “Jobs illustrates that.”
You are a social services worker and have been tasked with summarizing the findings from the report “Ending Mandatory Minimums for Drug Offences.” You might write this:
Compulsory minimum jail time for drug-related and non-violent offences should be eliminated, giving judges more discretion in sentencing decisions.
There is no attribution for the source of this idea; this means that the reader cannot look up the report to learn more or validate the summary. This undermines the credibility of the summary.
Here is one way to correct this issue:
A report from the Canadian Association of Social Workers (2020) recommends that compulsory minimum jail time for drug-related and non-violent offences should be eliminated, giving judges more discretion in sentencing decisions.
In the correction, there is clear attribution to the author of the report (in this case, the Canadian Association of Social Workers) so that the reader can look up the report to learn more.
You can choose from many verbs to show attribution to the author. These are referred to as signal verbs, and some style guides specify that they should be in the present tense. Here is a helpful list to get you started:
- advises
- asserts
- concludes
- continues
- contradicts
- disagrees
- elaborates
- expands
- illustrates
- points out
- predicts
- states
- supports
For many more signal verbs, see here.
Stay Neutral
Staying neutral in a summary can be tricky because you may have a strong opinion on the source that you are eager to express. However, you need to hold back your opinion at this point since the purpose of a summary is to demonstrate a respectful and thorough understanding of a source’s ideas.
You are summarizing June Callwood’s piece “Forgiveness Story.” You might be tempted to write this:
Callwood illustrates various scenarios for forgiveness, thus engaging the reader in a thoughtful way.
However, when you write “thus engaging the reader in a thoughtful way,” you are no longer offering a neutral view of Callwood’s ideas. Instead, you are layering in your opinion on the piece.
You stay neutral by simply using the first part of this sentence:
Callwood illustrates various scenarios for forgiveness.
You’re summarizing a scientific finding that you read titled “Beets Bleed Red but a Chemistry Tweak Can Create a Blue Hue,” and you write this:
In a significant discovery in the field of food science, scientists discovered that beet juice, which is normally a deep red in colour, can be turned blue by modifying the bonds in the beet pigment (Drahl, 2020).
However, the use of the word “significant” reflects your opinion of this discovery and should be avoided when writing a neutral summary. You can correct this by just omitting that word:
In a discovery in the field of food science, scientists discovered that beet juice, which is normally a deep red in colour, can be turned blue by modifying the bonds in the beet pigment (Drahl, 2020).
Try It!
Directions
- Watch this 3.27 minute TED Talk: “Why 1.5 Billion People Eat with Chopsticks” by Jennifer 8. Lee.
- Practise writing a brief summary of this source. (Tips: Remember to include the source details (citation) as part of the summary and limit your summary to 1–2 sentences.)
- Practise writing an extended summary of this source. (Tips: Include details of the source and its main idea first, use present tense throughout, give attribution to the author, and limit your summary to 100–150 words.)
- Compare your brief and extended summaries with the model.
In this subtopic, you’ve learned how to summarize a source including
- writing brief summaries;
- developing longer or extended summaries;
- giving attribution to the author; and
- remaining neutral throughout the summary.
Freedman, L. (n.d.). Summarizing. University of Toronto. https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/summarize/
Summarizing. (n.d.). Excelsior Online Reading Lab.
https://owl.excelsior.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2017/03/Summarizing2019.pdf
Webster, M. (2017, January 18). How to write an academic summary. Thompson Rivers University. https://inside.tru.ca/2017/01/18/how-to-write-an-academic-summary/
Writing a summary. (n.d.). Las Positas College. http://www.laspositascollege.edu/raw/summaries.php
This example illustrates how the extended summary can begin with the one-sentence brief summary, which captures the article’s thesis, and then move on to capture the main supporting points provided in the article in sequential order. The extended summary uses citations narratively in each sentence (e.g. “Manjoo comments”; “Manjoo believes”). This is one acceptable way to use citations in a summary according to APA 7 (Walden University, 2020, para. 11). After reading the extended summary, the audience should have a good grasp of Manjoo’s argument.