Essay Summary: How To Write It?

A summary is a shortened form of a text. For instance, if the content is 1500 words, then its summary would be 600 words or so conveying the same meaning.

Please note that there are two types of summaries. One is abstractive and the other one is extractive. In an abstract summary, you’re supposed to convey the information from the original text using your own words. In an extractive summary, points are taken just as they are in the original text and combined to make a shorter version of the original content.

Both are helpful for the reader and writer. The reader benefits from the clarity and conciseness in the work, while the writer masters the arts of cohesion and coherence (we will talk more about it later.)

In this post, we will specifically talk about essays and how to summarize them. So, let’s see how it’s all done!

How to Write an Essay Summary?

Below, we have listed some tips and techniques that you can follow to write impressive essay summaries. We’re going to divide this section into two parts. The first one will discuss things that you should do before writing the summary and the latter will focus on things that you should do while writing the summary. We will also see an alternative method that you can employ for summarizing your essays.

1. Before You Start Writing The Summary

Here are some of the things that you should do before starting the writing process. Considering these things will help you create a good essay summary.

Thoroughly Read The Essay:

Read the essay with full focus. Avoid distractions like using a phone or getting disturbed by noise. Always try to sit in a quiet room without any internal and external distractions to maintain your attention.

Next, solely focus on finding the key points that you think are necessary for the summary. Look to highlight crucial points using a physical or digital highlighter for your reminder.

If you are having trouble understanding the text’s language or flow, try reading the document multiple times.

Mostly, people catch the key points by reading an essay twice. However, it’s up to you to reread as many times as you think is necessary.

Make Sure To Understand The Key/Main Points:

Ignore the side details and focus on the main points. For example, if your essay is about the technological advancements following the Industrial Revolution, then you won’t include information about the living conditions of Britain at the time in the summary.

Hence, you should always make sure to understand your main topic and decide your key points accordingly.

Never rush this process as this is your summary’s foundation. The application of this technique will decide how impactful your summary is, or how much it will score from your professor.

Try Creating An Outline

An outline of a summary will give you a guideline of what to write and how to write it. You can do so by jotting the key points of the source essay in bullets.

You should make sure that the points are in chronological order; one followed by the other. This logical sequencing in your outline can wire your brain to write in a flow.

This flow will make your writing cohesive and coherent. Meaning that the work will be logical on a sentence-to-sentence basis and also as a whole.

It makes a summary impressive as people appreciate your attention to detail and it also helps them understand it well.

2. When You Are Writing The Summary

Below, we’ll mention some of the things that you should consider while writing the essay summary.

Try Giving An Introduction To Your Document

Start your summary by stating the author’s name, essay title, and thesis statement. The thesis statement is also known as the main topic of the essay, around which the content revolves.

In the introduction for your summary, write down important background details that you deem fit for your summary. But make sure not to get too lengthy in your introduction as it will destroy the purpose of the summary.

Your thesis statement in the introduction is very important for consideration while writing. This is the part that you would need to refer to repeatedly to check whether what you are writing is relevant or not.

So, spend some time thinking about the author’s POV (Point of View) and how you should include it in your summary’s introduction.

Make Sure To Focus On Being Short And To The Point:

This is the core of a summary – being significantly shorter than the original text and to the point. Thus, you should define a certain word/paragraph limit for your summary.

Defining a limit allows you to see your goal. It makes you decide what to write and what details to omit. It helps you stay concise, which makes your text highly readable and enjoyable for your audience.

Always Try To Focus On The Main Objective:

Remember, you are writing a summary and not your own essay. So, avoid giving your judgment or opinions about a topic in the summary.

Instead, briefly present the author’s opinion and stance on the topic and relate it to your topic sentences. When you are finished writing your summary, look back at the main point of the essay.

Double-check if all the paragraphs relate to the author’s stance/thesis statement. If not then make sure to add a relevant clause that may help you make your content cohesive and coherent.

Such techniques will make your essay summary impactful, understandable, and enjoyable for the reader.

3. Alternative Method Of Summarizing Essays

If you find the aforementioned steps too tiring or time-consuming, then you can use AI tools for the assist.

An AI essay summarizer can quickly summarize the essays for you. Their advanced technological features allow them to rightfully judge a word limit for your essays. So, when the tools summarize, they cut down on the words and also cover all aspects of your essay.

Let’s take an example to understand what we are talking about. We’ll be using Summarizer.org to provide this example.

The key motivation for using these tools is that there is little to no manual work. The tools quickly comprehend the text and provide you with summaries with just a click.

Thus, AI tools are crucial in situations where you have limited time and need quick solutions to your problems.

However, do note that we don’t mean to copy the AI summary. We only mean to utilize this tool to give you an idea of how to write concisely.

Final Words

In this post, we saw the methods by which you can effectively write a clear, concise, and highly readable summary of an essay. Summarizing essays can help your readers understand your copy. And you can improve your skills as a writer.

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