Summary

A summary is a shorter version of the original. Such a simplification highlights the major points from the much longer subject, such as a text, speech, film, or event. The purpose is to help the audience get the gist in a short period of time.

A written summary starts with a lead, including title, author, text type, and the main idea of the text. It has a clearly arranged structure and is paraphrased with new words without quotations from the text. Unlike a retelling, a summary has no dramatic structure and is written in present tense. In summaries only indirect speech is used and depictions are avoided. Summaries of books or dissertations present the major facts in common scientific language.

Nonfiction summaries serve to familiarize the reader with the subject matter of an entire work in a short space of time. They are written in a balanced and objective way, mirroring the genre’s aim to portray actual events from the author’s point of view. Generally, nonfiction summaries do not offer analysis or assessment. Summarizers use nonfiction guidelines mentioned above, but also provide numerical ratings and evaluations of the titles covered.

Summary Writing

The ability to summarize information is one of the most important critical thinking skills you can develop. Taking large quantities of information, understanding what that information means, and considering it into a shorter version of the original allows you to have important information on hand for easy reference without having to memorize long passages or complex statistics.

In technical writing, different audiences need varying amounts or types of information. The technical summary, or abstract, is written for those who need a brief overview of a longer document for general information or to make decisions. For whatever purpose, writing summaries is a task that many think is easy but, in actuality, can be quite challenging.

Process and Hints to a Summary Writing

The biggest problem with a summary writing is deciding what to include and what to leave out. A bit of instruction on the process to follow, along with useful techniques, will have you writing expert summaries in no time.

1. Read the piece to be summarized for understanding, without editing. Make sure you understand the content, including major and minor sections, as well as the overlying massage being conveyed. Look closely at topic sentences and key words repeated throughout.

2. Read through the material and cross out useless information while what you believe to be the most important points, even if those points are words or phrases.

3. Write your summary in your own words. Follow both the organization of the original as well as its tone, though you need to make sure your own points of view is objective. Opinions should not appear in a summary. Any words or phrases from the original need to be properly documented and punctuated.

4. Your summary should be 15 to 20 percent of the length of the original.

5. Be sure to go back when you’ve finished your summary and compare it to the original for accuracy.

(По информации http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summaries, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ssw/write/handouts/summary.html )

Practical task. a) Read the text “Laser lidar” and study the summary to this text.