There are many reasons why we may need to summarise. From academic and evaluative reasons, to work reasons and in some cases even personal reasons. That is why it is important to learn how to make summaries in order to always write them correctly. Therefore, today, we will explain how to do it.
Let's start by clarifying the idea of what a summary is, for all those people who have never written this type of text. A summary is a short text that seeks to synthesise the main ideas of another text. Whether it is a scientific, historical, artistic or sports text, among others.
Thus, the summary becomes an excellent way to present, briefly, the events or information of a text. In the academic environment, it is often used to check students' reading. That is why most summaries are academic in nature.
However, you can also summarise for personal reasons. If you love reading and want to consolidate your knowledge of a text you have just read, you can write a short summary. It is ideal for strengthening your memory and boosting your mental processes for effective development.
Similarly, there are some people who use summarising as a personal study technique. If they have to study a specific text, after reading it, they make a summary to consolidate their knowledge about it and to review the whole subject of the book.
Now that you have a better conception of what a summary is, you will surely have a clearer idea of how to summarise. However, to help you even more with this, here are some tips for summarising that will be of great help to you.
Whenever you find yourself in the need to summarise, you should always try to follow all of these tips. By following them, you can be sure that you will be producing a quality summary that will allow you to get an excellent grade.
It is not at all advisable to make a summary based on another summary. If you really want the summary to be of high quality and you want to get an excellent grade, then you should read the text to be summarised thoroughly.
In some cases, a re-reading may even be necessary. In order to review and analyse more deeply the whole content of the text to be summarised. Just as you should do in a Spanish text commentary.
On the other hand, it is of utmost importance that you evaluate and identify the structure of the text you are reading. Whether it is a narrative, argumentative or poetic text. This is a fundamental type of data that you should mention when writing the summary of the text.
As you read, it becomes essential to identify and highlight the main and secondary ideas of the text. This is where you will start when writing your summary.
Every text, no matter what type of text it is or the structure it has, will always have a main idea and several secondary ideas. Secondary ideas are all those which are linked to the main idea and which serve to support it. Hence the importance of highlighting them as you read.
Now, as much as the summary should be attached to the ideas of the text, it is essential that you avoid copying and pasting information from the text. This is not really a summary, but a copy of the text you are studying.
A summary should be written 100% in your own words and in an objective way. Because, unlike other types of evaluations, the summary does not allow for the writer's personal opinion.
On the other hand, it may be fine to look for summaries of the same text on the internet. As long as you take these summaries as an extra source of information and inspiration. But by no means should you copy exactly the same thing.
The production of this type of text should be entirely personal. Especially when it is an academic activity. If you plagiarise, you run the risk of failing the course, and nobody wants that.
Many people make the mistake of summarising every paragraph of the text they have read, when this should not be the case. Structuring a summary in this way is wrong, especially because it becomes tedious to read.
When summarising, you should write it continuously. The important thing is that you include the most important information from the whole text in general and not from each of the paragraphs that make up the text.
The length of a summary, as its name suggests, should be brief. It is important to avoid writing it too long, as this would make it no longer a summary.
In the case of an academic subject, the teacher may indicate how long it should be. But if not, you should always try to keep it short.
If you still have doubts about writing summaries and you need to hand in an academic summary as an assessment, then you should seek extra help. For this, you can turn to a private tutor who can teach you all the necessary aspects of the summary and help you with the composition of the summary. Nowadays it is very easy to find private tutors from WeSmartly.
Our platform is home to hundreds of private tutors who offer their services from digital advertising. So it becomes much simpler for students to find private tutors in various areas.
