what is a summary details

Have a thesis expert improve your writing

Check your thesis for plagiarism in 10 minutes, generate your apa citations for free.

• Knowledge Base
• Working with sources
• How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples

Published on 25 September 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 12 May 2023.

Summarising , or writing a summary, means giving a concise overview of a text’s main points in your own words. A summary is always much shorter than the original text.

There are five key steps that can help you to write a summary:

• Read the text
• Break it down into sections
• Identify the key points in each section
• Write the summary
• Check the summary against the article

Writing a summary does not involve critiquing or analysing the source. You should simply provide an accurate account of the most important information and ideas (without copying any text from the original).

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Be assured that you'll submit flawless writing. Upload your document to correct all your mistakes.

Table of contents

When to write a summary, step 1: read the text, step 2: break the text down into sections, step 3: identify the key points in each section, step 4: write the summary, step 5: check the summary against the article, frequently asked questions.

There are many situations in which you might have to summarise an article or other source:

• As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material
• To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read
• To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review

When you’re writing an academic text like an essay , research paper , or dissertation , you’ll integrate sources in a variety of ways. You might use a brief quote to support your point, or paraphrase a few sentences or paragraphs.

But it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially relevant to your own research, or to provide an overview of a source before you analyse or critique it.

In any case, the goal of summarising is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source. Follow the five steps outlined below to write a good summary.

The only proofreading tool specialized in correcting academic writing

The academic proofreading tool has been trained on 1000s of academic texts and by native English editors. Making it the most accurate and reliable proofreading tool for students.

Correct my document today

You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. It’s often effective to read in three stages:

• Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.
• Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.
• Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and reread any particularly important or difficult passages.

There are some tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read:

• Start by reading the abstract . This already contains the author’s own summary of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article.
• Pay attention to headings and subheadings . These should give you a good sense of what each part is about.
• Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?

To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into smaller sections.

If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably already organised into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction, methods, results, and discussion.

Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. But most articles and essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes.

Now it’s time go through each section and pick out its most important points. What does your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article?

Keep in mind that a summary does not involve paraphrasing every single paragraph of the article. Your goal is to extract the essential points, leaving out anything that can be considered background information or supplementary detail.

In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key points in each part.

If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what points are most important for the reader to understand its argument.

In that case, pay particular attention to the thesis statement —the central claim that the author wants us to accept, which usually appears in the introduction—and the topic sentences that signal the main idea of each paragraph.

Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to put them in your own words.

To avoid plagiarism and show you’ve understood the article, it’s essential to properly paraphrase the author’s ideas. Do not copy and paste parts of the article, not even just a sentence or two.

The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding of the author’s key points.

Examples of article summaries

Let’s take a look at an example. Below, we summarise this article , which scientifically investigates the old saying ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’.

An article summary like the above would be appropriate for a stand-alone summary assignment. However, you’ll often want to give an even more concise summary of an article.

For example, in a literature review or research paper, you may want to briefly summarize this study as part of a wider discussion of various sources. In this case, we can boil our summary down even further to include only the most relevant information.

Citing the source you’re summarizing

When including a summary as part of a larger text, it’s essential to properly cite the source you’re summarizing. The exact format depends on your citation style , but it usually includes an in-text citation and a full reference at the end of your paper.

You can easily create your citations and references in APA or MLA using our free citation generators.

APA Citation Generator MLA Citation Generator

Finally, read through the article once more to ensure that:

• You’ve accurately represented the author’s work
• You haven’t missed any essential information
• The phrasing is not too similar to any sentences in the original.

If you’re summarising many articles as part of your own work, it may be a good idea to use a plagiarism checker to double-check that your text is completely original and properly cited. Just be sure to use one that’s safe and reliable.

A summary is a short overview of the main points of an article or other source, written entirely in your own words.

Save yourself some time with the free summariser.

A summary is always much shorter than the original text. The length of a summary can range from just a few sentences to several paragraphs; it depends on the length of the article you’re summarising, and on the purpose of the summary.

With the summariser tool you can easily adjust the length of your summary.

You might have to write a summary of a source:

• As a stand-alone assignment to prove you understand the material
• For your own use, to keep notes on your reading
• To provide an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review
• In a paper , to summarise or introduce a relevant study

To avoid plagiarism when summarising an article or other source, follow these two rules:

• Write the summary entirely in your own words by   paraphrasing the author’s ideas.
• Reference the source with an in-text citation and a full reference so your reader can easily find the original text.

An abstract concisely explains all the key points of an academic text such as a thesis , dissertation or journal article. It should summarise the whole text, not just introduce it.

An abstract is a type of summary , but summaries are also written elsewhere in academic writing . For example, you might summarise a source in a paper , in a literature review , or as a standalone assignment.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

McCombes, S. (2023, May 12). How to Write a Summary | Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 14 May 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/working-sources/how-to-write-a-summary/

Is this article helpful?

Shona McCombes

Other students also liked, how to paraphrase | step-by-step guide & examples, how to quote | citing quotes in harvard & apa, apa referencing (7th ed.) quick guide | in-text citations & references.

• Features for Creative Writers
• Features for Work
• Features for Higher Education
• Features for Teachers
• Features for Non-Native Speakers
• Learn Blog Grammar Guide Community Events FAQ
• Grammar Guide

How to Write a Summary (Examples Included)

Ashley Shaw

Have you ever recommended a book to someone and given them a quick overview? Then you’ve created a summary before!

Summarizing is a common part of everyday communication. It feels easy when you’re recounting what happened on your favorite show, but what do you do when the information gets a little more complex?

Written summaries come with their own set of challenges. You might ask yourself:

• What details are unnecessary?
• How do you put this in your own words without changing the meaning?
• How close can you get to the original without plagiarizing it?
• How long should it be?

The answers to these questions depend on the type of summary you are doing and why you are doing it.

A summary in an academic setting is different to a professional summary—and both of those are very different to summarizing a funny story you want to tell your friends.

One thing they all have in common is that you need to relay information in the clearest way possible to help your reader understand. We’ll look at some different forms of summary, and give you some tips on each.

Let’s get started!

What Is a Summary?

How do you write a summary, how do you write an academic summary, what are the four types of academic summaries, how do i write a professional summary, writing or telling a summary in personal situations, summarizing summaries.

A summary is a shorter version of a larger work. Summaries are used at some level in almost every writing task, from formal documents to personal messages.

When you write a summary, you have an audience that doesn’t know every single thing you know.

When you want them to understand your argument, topic, or stance, you may need to explain some things to catch them up.

Instead of having them read the article or hear every single detail of the story or event, you instead give them a brief overview of what they need to know.

Academic, professional, and personal summaries each require you to consider different things, but there are some key rules they all have in common.

Let’s go over a few general guides to writing a summary first.

1. A summary should always be shorter than the original work, usually considerably.

Even if your summary is the length of a full paper, you are likely summarizing a book or other significantly longer work.

2. A summary should tell the reader the highlights of what they need to know without giving them unnecessary details.

3. It should also include enough details to give a clear and honest picture.

For example, if you summarize an article that says “ The Office is the greatest television show of all time,” but don’t mention that they are specifically referring to sitcoms, then you changed the meaning of the article. That’s a problem! Similarly, if you write a summary of your job history and say you volunteered at a hospital for the last three years, but you don’t add that you only went twice in that time, it becomes a little dishonest.

4. Summaries shouldn’t contain personal opinion.

While in the longer work you are creating you might use opinion, within the summary itself, you should avoid all personal opinion. A summary is different than a review. In this moment, you aren’t saying what you think of the work you are summarizing, you are just giving your audience enough information to know what the work says or did.

Now that we have a good idea of what summaries are in general, let’s talk about some specific types of summary you will likely have to do at some point in your writing life.

An academic summary is one you will create for a class or in other academic writing. The exact elements you will need to include depend on the assignment itself.

However, when you’re asked for an academic summary, this usually this means one of five things, all of which are pretty similar:

• You need to do a presentation in which you talk about an article, book, or report.
• You write a summary paper in which the entire paper is a summary of a specific work.
• You summarize a class discussion, lesson, or reading in the form of personal notes or a discussion board post.
• You do something like an annotated bibliography where you write short summaries of multiple works in preparation of a longer assignment.
• You write quick summaries within the body of another assignment . For example, in an argumentative essay, you will likely need to have short summaries of the sources you use to explain their argument before getting into how the source helps you prove your point.

Regardless of what type of summary you are doing, though, there are a few steps you should always follow:

• Skim the work you are summarizing before you read it. Notice what stands out to you.
• Next, read it in depth . Do the same things stand out?
• Put the full text away and write in a few sentences what the main idea or point was.
• Go back and compare to make sure you didn’t forget anything.
• Expand on this to write and then edit your summary.

Each type of academic summary requires slightly different things. Let’s get down to details.

How Do I Write a Summary Paper?

Sometimes teachers assign something called a summary paper . In this, the entire thing is a summary of one article, book, story, or report.

To understand how to write this paper, let’s talk a little bit about the purpose of such an assignment.

A summary paper is usually given to help a teacher see how well a student understands a reading assignment, but also to help the student digest the reading. Sometimes, it can be difficult to understand things we read right away.

However, a good way to process the information is to put it in our own words. That is the point of a summary paper.

A summary paper is:

• A way to explain in our own words what happened in a paper, book, etc.
• A time to think about what was important in the paper, etc.
• A time to think about the meaning and purpose behind the paper, etc.

Here are some things that a summary paper is not:

• A review. Your thoughts and opinions on the thing you are summarizing don’t need to be here unless otherwise specified.
• A comparison. A comparison paper has a lot of summary in it, but it is different than a summary paper. In this, you are just saying what happened, but you aren’t saying places it could have been done differently.
• A paraphrase (though you might have a little paraphrasing in there). In the section on using summary in longer papers, I talk more about the difference between summaries, paraphrases, and quotes.

Because a summary paper is usually longer than other forms of summary, you will be able to chose more detail. However, it still needs to focus on the important events. Summary papers are usually shorter papers.

Let’s say you are writing a 3–4 page summary. You are likely summarizing a full book or an article or short story, which will be much longer than 3–4 pages.

Imagine that you are the author of the work, and your editor comes to you and says they love what you wrote, but they need it to be 3–4 pages instead.

How would you tell that story (argument, idea, etc.) in that length without losing the heart or intent behind it? That is what belongs in a summary paper.

How Do I Write Useful Academic Notes?

Sometimes, you need to write a summary for yourself in the form of notes or for your classmates in the form of a discussion post.

You might not think you need a specific approach for this. After all, only you are going to see it.

However, summarizing for yourself can sometimes be the most difficult type of summary. If you try to write down everything your teacher says, your hand will cramp and you’ll likely miss a lot.

Yet, transcribing doesn’t work because studies show that writing things down (not typing them) actually helps you remember them better.

So how do you find the balance between summarizing the lessons without leaving out important points?

There are some tips for this:

• If your professor writes it on the board, it is probably important.
• What points do your textbooks include when summarizing information? Use these as a guide.
• Write the highlight of every X amount of time, with X being the time you can go without missing anything or getting tired. This could be one point per minute, or three per five minutes, etc.

How Do I Create an Annotated Biography?

An annotated bibliography requires a very specific style of writing. Often, you will write these before a longer research paper . They will ask you to find a certain amount of articles and write a short annotation for each of them.

While an annotation is more than just a summary, it usually starts with a summary of the work. This will be about 2–3 sentences long. Because you don’t have a lot of room, you really have to think about what the most important thing the work says is.

This will basically ask you to explain the point of the article in these couple of sentences, so you should focus on the main point when expressing it.

Here is an example of a summary section within an annotation about this post:

“In this post, the author explains how to write a summary in different types of settings. She walks through academic, professional, and personal summaries. Ultimately, she claims that summaries should be short explanations that get the audience caught up on the topic without leaving out details that would change the meaning.”

Can I Write a Summary Within an Essay?

Perhaps the most common type of summary you will ever do is a short summary within a longer paper.

For example, if you have to write an argumentative essay, you will likely need to use sources to help support your argument.

However, there is a good chance that your readers won’t have read those same sources.

So, you need to give them enough detail to understand your topic without spending too much time explaining and not enough making your argument.

While this depends on exactly how you are using summary in your paper, often, a good amount of summary is the same amount you would put in an annotation.

Just a few sentences will allow the reader to get an idea of the work before moving on to specific parts of it that might help your argument.

What’s the Difference Between Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using Quotes?

One important thing to recognize when using summaries in academic settings is that summaries are different than paraphrases or quotes.

A summary is broader and more general. A paraphrase, on the other hand, puts specific parts into your own words. A quote uses the exact words of the original. All of them, however, need to be cited.

Let’s look at an example:

Take these words by Thomas J. Watson:

”Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t as all. You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.”

Let’s say I was told to write a summary, a paraphrase, and a quote about this statement. This is what it might look like:

Summary: Thomas J. Watson said that the key to success is actually to fail more often. (This is broad and doesn’t go into details about what he says, but it still gives him credit.)

Paraphrase: Thomas J. Watson, on asking if people would like his formula for success, said that the secret was to fail twice as much. He claimed that when you decide to learn from your mistakes instead of being disappointed by them, and when you start making a lot of them, you will actually find more success. (This includes most of the details, but it is in my own words, while still crediting the source.)

Quote: Thomas J. Watson said, ”Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure—or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember, that’s where you will find success.” (This is the exact words of the original with quotation marks and credit given.)

Avoiding Plagiarism

One of the hardest parts about summarizing someone else’s writing is avoiding plagiarism .

That’s why I have a few rules/tips for you when summarizing anything:

1. Always cite.

If you are talking about someone else’s work in any means, cite your source. If you are summarizing the entire work, all you probably need to do (depending on style guidelines) is say the author’s name. However, if you are summarizing a specific chapter or section, you should state that specifically. Finally, you should make sure to include it in your Work Cited or Reference page.

2. Change the wording.

Sometimes when people are summarizing or paraphrasing a work, they get too close to the original, and actually use the exact words. Unless you use quotation marks, this is plagiarism. However, a good way to avoid this is to hide the article while you are summarizing it. If you don’t have it in front of you, you are less likely to accidentally use the exact words. (However, after you are done, double check that you didn’t miss anything important or give wrong details.)

3. Use a plagiarism checker.

Of course, when you are writing any summary, especially academic summaries, it can be easy to cross the line into plagiarism. If this is a place where you struggle, then ProWritingAid can help.

Just use our Plagiarism Report . It’ll highlight any unoriginal text in your document so you can make sure you are citing everything correctly and summarizing in your own words.

Find out more about ProWritingAid plagiarism bundles.

Along with academic summaries, you might sometimes need to write professional summaries. Often, this means writing a summary about yourself that shows why you are qualified for a position or organization.

In this section, let’s talk about two types of professional summaries: a LinkedIn summary and a summary section within a resume.

How Do I Write My LinkedIn Bio?

LinkedIn is all about professional networking. It offers you a chance to share a brief glimpse of your professional qualifications in a paragraph or two.

This can then be sent to professional connections, or even found by them without you having to reach out. This can help you get a job or build your network.

Your summary is one of the first things a future employer might see about you, and how you write yours can make you stand out from the competition.

Here are some tips on writing a LinkedIn summary :

• Before you write it, think about what you want it to do . If you are looking for a job, what kind of job? What have you done in your past that would stand out to someone hiring for that position? That is what you will want to focus on in your summary.
• Be professional . Unlike many social media platforms, LinkedIn has a reputation for being more formal. Your summary should reflect that to some extent.
• Use keywords . Your summary is searchable, so using keywords that a recruiter might be searching for can help them find you.
• Focus on the start . LinkedIn shows the first 300 characters automatically, and then offers the viewer a chance to read more. Make that start so good that everyone wants to keep reading.
• Focus on accomplishments . Think of your life like a series of albums, and this is your speciality “Greatest Hits” album. What “songs” are you putting on it?

How Do I Summarize My Experience on a Resume?

Writing a professional summary for a resume is different than any other type of summary that you may have to do.

Recruiters go through a lot of resumes every day. They don’t have time to spend ages reading yours, which means you have to wow them quickly.

To do that, you might include a section at the top of your resume that acts almost as an elevator pitch: That one thing you might say to a recruiter to get them to want to talk to you if you only had a 30-second elevator ride.

If you don’t have a lot of experience, though, you might want to skip this section entirely and focus on playing up the experience you do have.

Outside of academic and personal summaries, you use summary a lot in your day-to-day life.

Whether it is telling a good piece of trivia you just learned or a funny story that happened to you, or even setting the stage in creative writing, you summarize all the time.

How you use summary can be an important consideration in whether people want to read your work (or listen to you talk).

Here are some things to think about when telling a story:

• Pick interesting details . Too many and your point will be lost. Not enough, and you didn’t paint the scene or give them a complete idea about what happened.
• Play into the emotions . When telling a story, you want more information than the bare minimum. You want your reader to get the emotion of the story. That requires a little bit more work to accomplish.
• Focus. A summary of one story can lead to another can lead to another. Think about storytellers that you know that go off on a tangent. They never seem to finish one story without telling 100 others!

To wrap up (and to demonstrate everything I just talked about), let’s summarize this post into its most essential parts:

A summary is a great way to quickly give your audience the information they need to understand the topic you are discussing without having to know every detail.

How you write a summary is different depending on what type of summary you are doing:

• An academic summary usually gets to the heart of an article, book, or journal, and it should highlight the main points in your own words. How long it should be depends on the type of assignment it is.
• A professional summary highlights you and your professional, academic, and volunteer history. It shows people in your professional network who you are and why they should hire you, work with you, use your talents, etc.

Being able to tell a good story is another form of summary. You want to tell engaging anecdotes and facts without boring your listeners. This is a skill that is developed over time.

Take your writing to the next level:

20 Editing Tips from Professional Writers

Whether you are writing a novel, essay, article, or email, good writing is an essential part of communicating your ideas., this guide contains the 20 most important writing tips and techniques from a wide range of professional writers..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Ashley Shaw is a former editor and marketer/current PhD student and teacher. When she isn't studying con artists for her dissertation, she's thinking of new ways to help college students better understand and love the writing process. You can follow her on Twitter, or, if you prefer animal accounts, follow her rabbits, Audrey Hopbun and Fredra StaHare, on Instagram.

Get started with ProWritingAid

Drop us a line or let's stay in touch via :

What is a Summary? An In-depth Guide on Definition, Types, and Examples

Understanding what a summary contains is fundamental to academic success. It represents a concise restatement of an argument, paper, or lecture's main points, facilitating better understanding, and the ability to highlight connections between concepts.

The term 'summary' itself, alongside variations such as 'overview' and 'review', plays a critical role in both written and oral academic communication, proving indispensable for those seeking to grasp and convey key ideas efficiently.

This article aims to break down in detail, the definition of a summary, including what a summary looks like and its essential elements, and delving into the various types of summaries. It will also provide a detailed look at the summary structure, summary format, and the components and steps crucial in crafting an effective summary, complemented by practical summary writing examples.

Through understanding the nuances of summary design and identifying common pitfalls, readers will gain insights into optimizing their summary writing skills for academic and professional success.

What is a Summary?

Summary is a distilled rendition of content that encapsulates a broad understanding of a subject matter. This condensation is aimed at being concise, accurate, and readily comprehensible. 

Purpose and Structure of a Summary

• The primary aim of a summary is to conserve the reader's time and effort, offering a pathway to grasp the key themes of more extensive work in a format that is both accessible and manageable. A typical summary structure encompasses an introduction, body, and conclusion, with the introduction specifying the title of the original work, its author, and the main topic. Importantly, a summary should avoid personal opinions or interpretations, and represent the ideas and arguments of the original work. This objective stance ensures that the summary remains a true reflection of the source material, devoid of subjective bias.

The term ‘summary’ can be used both as a noun as well as an adjective. Let’s see how

• As a Noun : A summary is characterized by its ability to offer a short, clear exposition that conveys the principal facts or ideas about a topic. This encapsulation is a comprehensive and brief abstract, spotlighting previously stated facts or statements. The essence of summarizing lies in its capacity to distill a larger body of work into its main points and essential details, presenting them in a succinct format. Synonyms of summary include abstract, breviary, and epitome, among others, each underscoring the brevity and comprehensiveness of the summary.
• As an Adjective : The term 'summary' is also used as an adjective, denoting actions carried out swiftly, often bypassing the conventional process or discussion. This usage highlights the efficiency and directness of summary actions, especially in contexts requiring prompt decision-making or succinct communication. Synonyms for this usage include direct, prompt, etc,

Types of Summaries

Summaries play a crucial role across various domains, serving to condense and clarify content for different purposes. Here, we explore the diverse types of summaries, each tailored to specific needs and contexts:

• Academic Summaries: Utilized in scholarly writing, these summaries distill complex information into digestible parts, aiding in the comprehension of intricate ideas and arguments.
• Meeting Summaries: Essential for both attendees and absentees, they encapsulate discussions, decisions, and subsequent steps, ensuring alignment and shared understanding.
• Medical Summaries: Offer a comprehensive view of a patient's health status, treatments, and prognosis, valuable for healthcare providers, patients, and families alike.
• Business Document Overviews: Summarize key elements of documents like business plans or annual reports, providing a high-level perspective.
• Book Summaries: Found on back covers or online, they give potential readers insight into themes, characters, and plot, aiding in decision-making without revealing too much.
• Product Summaries: Highlight features, benefits, and uses of products, assisting customers in making informed purchasing decisions.
• News Summaries (Abstracts): Allow readers to grasp the main points of news stories quickly, saving time and effort by avoiding full-article reads.
• Abstracts and Synopses: Serve as concise presentations of long texts or articles, helping readers decide on engaging with the full material. Abstracts highlight major points, while synopses chronologically offer brief overviews of content.
• Literary and Film Reviews: These summaries not only recount the narrative but also include evaluations of the significance and impact of the work, often incorporating the reviewer's insights.
• Policy and Research Summaries: Analyze and evaluate content, focusing on the implications and usefulness of the findings for policy development and professional learning.

Components of a Good Summary

Creating an effective summary requires adherence to certain foundational components that ensure clarity, relevance, and coherence. These components are critical in encapsulating the essence of the original text while making it accessible and informative for the reader. Below are the key components and steps involved in crafting a good summary:

• Main Idea or Thesis: The summary must clearly identify the central theme or thesis of the original work. This serves as the anchor around which the summary is structured.
• Essential Supporting Points: It should include all crucial arguments or points that support the main idea, ensuring the reader grasps the full scope of the original work without needing to refer to it.
• Structure and Coherence: Present the author's points in a logical order, starting with the thesis or main idea and following with supporting details. This structure aids in the reader's comprehension.
• Comprehensiveness and Conciseness: While being comprehensive enough to cover the original work's significant points, a summary should also be concise, avoiding unnecessary details or digressions.
• Objective Representation: Maintain an objective tone, refraining from including personal opinions or biases. The goal is to reflect the original text's content and tone accurately.

Summary Design and Structure

Designing and structuring a summary requires a meticulous approach to ensure that the essence of the original text is captured accurately and concisely. The following outlines the key steps and considerations for crafting an effective summary:

• Start with an introductory sentence that includes the text's title , author , and the main point . This sets a clear context for the reader.
• Example : "In 'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu, the primary focus is on strategies for military success."
• Summaries must be written in your own words , reflecting only the ideas of the original text to maintain authenticity.
• Identify and list the significant sub-claims used by the author to support the main point. This helps in understanding the structure of the original argument or narrative.
• Select three supporting passages from the text, quoting them word-for-word for accuracy. Cite each passage clearly by mentioning the work, author, and paragraph number.
• Example of citation : "(Tzu, 'The Art of War', para. 5)."
• Utilize diagrams or mind maps for complex summaries, such as story summaries or film analyses. This visual representation can significantly aid in understanding themes, character developments, or critical events.
• The Little Prince Story Summary : A mind map illustrating the story's theme, characteristics of the little prince, and his travel experiences.
• Skyfall 007 Story Summary : A production-focused diagram categorizing every element and deliverable for the movie.
• Sleeping Beauty Story Summary : A diagram highlighting key events of the princess's story, with each event labeled and color-coded for clarity.
• Present the author’s points in a straightforward structure , starting with the thesis or main idea, followed by supporting points. This logical progression aids in reader comprehension.
• The summary overview structure should be clear and distinct , employing bullet points or headings to group similar information, enhancing readability.
• Aim for comprehensiveness and conciseness ; distill complex information into its essence while maintaining clarity and brevity.

By adhering to these guidelines, the summary design and structure will not only accurately reflect the original text but also provide a clear, concise, and engaging overview for the reader. Visual aids, when appropriate, can further enhance understanding, making the summary more accessible and informative.

Step-by-Step Process for Crafting a Summary

To craft a concise and informative summary, especially of a research paper, the following step-by-step process is essential. This structured approach ensures clarity, accuracy, and relevance, aligning with the objective of summarizing:

• Read the Entire Paper : Focus on understanding the main points, findings, and the authors' conclusions. Pay special attention to the introduction, results, and discussion sections to grasp the study's significance and potential usefulness.
• Abstract and Conclusion : Use these sections to build a foundational understanding of the research paper's goals and outcomes. Write a simplified version of both, highlighting the key points and findings.
• Methods Section : Review this part only if it's necessary to comprehend the data interpretation, ensuring a complete understanding of the research conducted.
• Sectional Analysis : Divide the text into sections to better understand its structure and main arguments, which are crucial for a comprehensive summary.
• Key Point Extraction : Make a list of the most important points, distinguishing between main ideas and supporting details. Assign a keyword to each identified point to organize and streamline the summary writing process.
• Writing in Your Own Words : Using your own words, present the material from the author's perspective, ensuring an objective representation of the original text. Begin with an introduction that includes the text's title, author, and main point.
• Accuracy and Completeness Check : Compare the summary against the original article to ensure all critical information is accurately and fully represented. This step is crucial for maintaining the integrity of the original work.
• Revision and Editing : Revise the summary for clarity, coherence, and conciseness. This includes checking for grammatical and spelling errors, verifying the summary's length, and potentially having someone else review the work. Additionally, ensure proper citation methods are used to avoid plagiarism.

By following these steps, the summary writing process becomes a methodical exercise in distilling complex information into a digestible format. This approach not only aids in understanding but also in effectively communicating the essence of the original work to the intended audience.

Examples of Summary Usage

To illustrate the concepts discussed, examples of both full and concise article summaries are provided:

• Macbeth : A comprehensive summary of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" would encapsulate the tragic downfall of Macbeth from a noble thane to a tyrannical ruler, driven by prophesies and manipulation. It would detail key events, such as the prophecy of the witches, the murder of King Duncan, and Macbeth's eventual demise, highlighting themes of ambition, guilt, and fate.
• The Lottery Rose : This summary would outline the story of a young boy, abused and neglected, who finds solace and hope through a small rose bush he wins at a supermarket lottery. It would touch upon themes of abuse, redemption, and the power of kindness.
• My Sister's Keeper : A brief summary might focus on the central ethical dilemma of a girl conceived to save her sister's life, exploring themes of medical ethics, family dynamics, and personal autonomy.

In professional contexts, summaries provide clear overviews of meetings, judicial decisions, and project progress:

• Meeting Summary : Offers a clear overview of decisions made, ensuring all participants, including absentees, are informed of the outcomes and action items.
• Judicial Summary : An example includes the judge exercising summary jurisdiction to swiftly resolve a dispute, demonstrating the use of summaries in legal settings for efficiency.
• Project Progress Summary : For instance, a summary detailing the progress in building a bridge would provide stakeholders with a quick, comprehensive update on milestones achieved and challenges faced.

Finally, summaries also play a pivotal role in advocating for systemic changes or summarizing large-scale projects or reports:

• Advocacy for Public Healthcare System : A concise statement summarizing the need for a better public healthcare system can effectively communicate the core argument to a broad audience.
• Chapter/Plot Summary : Essential in academic settings, these summaries help students and researchers quickly grasp the main points and themes of a specific chapter or the overall plot of a book.

Common Challenges in Summary Writing

In the process of summary writing, several common pitfalls can significantly affect the clarity, accuracy, and effectiveness of the final product. Recognizing and avoiding these pitfalls is crucial for crafting a concise and informative summary.

• Including irrelevant information can distract from the main ideas, making the summary less effective.
• Writing a summary that is too long or too short disrupts the balance between comprehensiveness and conciseness, leading to an ineffective summary.
• Being too generic limits the summary's relevance, while being overly specific can reduce its broader applicability.
• Failing to convey the original text's tone and purpose can lead to misinterpretation, affecting the summary's accuracy.
• Being too passive or boastful can undermine the summary's credibility, while being too boring or flashy can impact its engagement level.
• A summary that is overly personal or impersonal may struggle with relatability, affecting its impact on the reader.
• Not capturing the main ideas or focusing excessively on plot details can result in a summary with limited depth and analysis.
• The lack of textual evidence to support arguments weakens the summary's analysis and credibility.
• Overreliance on secondary sources can diminish the summary's originality and analytical depth.
• Ignoring the historical or cultural context of a work can restrict its interpretation and understanding.
• Restating information instead of summarizing leads to redundancy and a lack of clarity.
• Failing to proofread can lead to errors in spelling, grammar, and clarity, diminishing the summary's quality.
• Using overly complex language makes the summary difficult to understand and interpret.

What is a summary and could you provide an example?

A summary is a concise recapitulation of the primary points, typically serving as a conclusion to a piece of work. For instance, a chapter summary would distill the essential arguments and conclusions. Meanwhile, a brief is a comprehensive framework, with main points and subpoints, for a discourse that is often legal in nature, such as a brief prepared for a legal argument.

What are the different types of summaries that exist?

There are several main types of summaries, including:

• Educational Summary
• Professional Summary
• Consumer Oriented Summary
• Thematic Summary
• Critical Summary
• Descriptive Summary
• Synoptic Summary (or Synthesis)

Could you explain how to craft a thorough summary?

To write a detailed summary, you should:

• Immediately report the overall topic.
• Start with the title of the essay and the author's name.
• Use the present tense.
• Outline the primary points addressed in the text.
• If necessary, include relevant supporting details based on the desired length and depth of the summary.
• Note any significant conclusions that have been drawn.

What is the proper format for writing a summary?

When writing a summary, you should adhere to the following guidelines:

• Write the summary in your own words.
• Ensure the summary only reflects the ideas from the original text.
• Avoid including your personal opinions, interpretations, deductions, or comments.
• Identify the author's significant sub-claims in the order they use to support the main point.

Sign up for more like this.

Summary: Using it Wisely

What this handout is about.

Knowing how to summarize something you have read, seen, or heard is a valuable skill, one you have probably used in many writing assignments. It is important, though, to recognize when you must go beyond describing, explaining, and restating texts and offer a more complex analysis. This handout will help you distinguish between summary and analysis and avoid inappropriate summary in your academic writing.

Is summary a bad thing?

Not necessarily. But it’s important that your keep your assignment and your audience in mind as you write. If your assignment requires an argument with a thesis statement and supporting evidence—as many academic writing assignments do—then you should limit the amount of summary in your paper. You might use summary to provide background, set the stage, or illustrate supporting evidence, but keep it very brief: a few sentences should do the trick. Most of your paper should focus on your argument. (Our handout on argument will help you construct a good one.)

Writing a summary of what you know about your topic before you start drafting your actual paper can sometimes be helpful. If you are unfamiliar with the material you’re analyzing, you may need to summarize what you’ve read in order to understand your reading and get your thoughts in order. Once you figure out what you know about a subject, it’s easier to decide what you want to argue.

You may also want to try some other pre-writing activities that can help you develop your own analysis. Outlining, freewriting, and mapping make it easier to get your thoughts on the page. (Check out our handout on brainstorming for some suggested techniques.)

Why is it so tempting to stick with summary and skip analysis?

Many writers rely too heavily on summary because it is what they can most easily write. If you’re stalled by a difficult writing prompt, summarizing the plot of The Great Gatsby may be more appealing than staring at the computer for three hours and wondering what to say about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s use of color symbolism. After all, the plot is usually the easiest part of a work to understand. Something similar can happen even when what you are writing about has no plot: if you don’t really understand an author’s argument, it might seem easiest to just repeat what he or she said.

To write a more analytical paper, you may need to review the text or film you are writing about, with a focus on the elements that are relevant to your thesis. If possible, carefully consider your writing assignment before reading, viewing, or listening to the material about which you’ll be writing so that your encounter with the material will be more purposeful. (We offer a handout on reading towards writing .)

How do I know if I’m summarizing?

As you read through your essay, ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I stating something that would be obvious to a reader or viewer?
• Does my essay move through the plot, history, or author’s argument in chronological order, or in the exact same order the author used?
• Am I simply describing what happens, where it happens, or whom it happens to?

A “yes” to any of these questions may be a sign that you are summarizing. If you answer yes to the questions below, though, it is a sign that your paper may have more analysis (which is usually a good thing):

• Am I making an original argument about the text?
• Have I arranged my evidence around my own points, rather than just following the author’s or plot’s order?
• Am I explaining why or how an aspect of the text is significant?

Certain phrases are warning signs of summary. Keep an eye out for these:

• “[This essay] is about…”
• “[This book] is the story of…”
• “[This author] writes about…”
• “[This movie] is set in…”

Here’s an example of an introductory paragraph containing unnecessary summary. Sentences that summarize are in italics:

The Great Gatsby is the story of a mysterious millionaire, Jay Gatsby, who lives alone on an island in New York. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the book, but the narrator is Nick Carraway. Nick is Gatsby’s neighbor, and he chronicles the story of Gatsby and his circle of friends, beginning with his introduction to the strange man and ending with Gatsby’s tragic death. In the story, Nick describes his environment through various colors, including green, white, and grey. Whereas white and grey symbolize false purity and decay respectively, the color green offers a symbol of hope.

Here’s how you might change the paragraph to make it a more effective introduction:

In The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald provides readers with detailed descriptions of the area surrounding East Egg, New York. In fact, Nick Carraway’s narration describes the setting with as much detail as the characters in the book. Nick’s description of the colors in his environment presents the book’s themes, symbolizing significant aspects of the post-World War I era. Whereas white and grey symbolize the false purity and decay of the 1920s, the color green offers a symbol of hope.

This version of the paragraph mentions the book’s title, author, setting, and narrator so that the reader is reminded of the text. And that sounds a lot like summary—but the paragraph quickly moves on to the writer’s own main topic: the setting and its relationship to the main themes of the book. The paragraph then closes with the writer’s specific thesis about the symbolism of white, grey, and green.

How do I write more analytically?

Analysis requires breaking something—like a story, poem, play, theory, or argument—into parts so you can understand how those parts work together to make the whole. Ideally, you should begin to analyze a work as you read or view it instead of waiting until after you’re done—it may help you to jot down some notes as you read. Your notes can be about major themes or ideas you notice, as well as anything that intrigues, puzzles, excites, or irritates you. Remember, analytic writing goes beyond the obvious to discuss questions of how and why—so ask yourself those questions as you read.

The St. Martin’s Handbook (the bulleted material below is quoted from p. 38 of the fifth edition) encourages readers to take the following steps in order to analyze a text:

• Identify evidence that supports or illustrates the main point or theme as well as anything that seems to contradict it.
• Consider the relationship between the words and the visuals in the work. Are they well integrated, or are they sometimes at odds with one another? What functions do the visuals serve? To capture attention? To provide more detailed information or illustration? To appeal to readers’ emotions?
• Decide whether the sources used are trustworthy.
• Identify the work’s underlying assumptions about the subject, as well as any biases it reveals.

Once you have written a draft, some questions you might want to ask yourself about your writing are “What’s my point?” or “What am I arguing in this paper?” If you can’t answer these questions, then you haven’t gone beyond summarizing. You may also want to think about how much of your writing comes from your own ideas or arguments. If you’re only reporting someone else’s ideas, you probably aren’t offering an analysis.

What strategies can help me avoid excessive summary?

• Read the assignment (the prompt) as soon as you get it. Make sure to reread it before you start writing. Go back to your assignment often while you write. (Check out our handout on reading assignments ).
• Formulate an argument (including a good thesis) and be sure that your final draft is structured around it, including aspects of the plot, story, history, background, etc. only as evidence for your argument. (You can refer to our handout on constructing thesis statements ).
• Read critically—imagine having a dialogue with the work you are discussing. What parts do you agree with? What parts do you disagree with? What questions do you have about the work? Does it remind you of other works you’ve seen?
• Make sure you have clear topic sentences that make arguments in support of your thesis statement. (Read our handout on paragraph development if you want to work on writing strong paragraphs).
• Use two different highlighters to mark your paper. With one color, highlight areas of summary or description. With the other, highlight areas of analysis. For many college papers, it’s a good idea to have lots of analysis and minimal summary/description.
• Ask yourself: What part of the essay would be obvious to a reader/viewer of the work being discussed? What parts (words, sentences, paragraphs) of the essay could be deleted without loss? In most cases, your paper should focus on points that are essential and that will be interesting to people who have already read or seen the work you are writing about.

But I’m writing a review! Don’t I have to summarize?

That depends. If you’re writing a critique of a piece of literature, a film, or a dramatic performance, you don’t necessarily need to give away much of the plot. The point is to let readers decide whether they want to enjoy it for themselves. If you do summarize, keep your summary brief and to the point.

Instead of telling your readers that the play, book, or film was “boring,” “interesting,” or “really good,” tell them specifically what parts of the work you’re talking about. It’s also important that you go beyond adjectives and explain how the work achieved its effect (how was it interesting?) and why you think the author/director wanted the audience to react a certain way. (We have a special handout on writing reviews that offers more tips.)

If you’re writing a review of an academic book or article, it may be important for you to summarize the main ideas and give an overview of the organization so your readers can decide whether it is relevant to their specific research interests.

If you are unsure how much (if any) summary a particular assignment requires, ask your instructor for guidance.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Barnet, Sylvan. 2015. A Short Guide to Writing about Art , 11th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Corrigan, Timothy. 2014. A Short Guide to Writing About Film , 9th ed. New York: Pearson.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Zinsser, William. 2001. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction , 6th ed. New York: Quill.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Make a Gift

What Is a Written Summary?

• An Introduction to Punctuation

Examples of Summaries

Steps in composing a summary, characteristics of a summary, a checklist for evaluating summaries.

• On the Summary App Summly

The Lighter Side of Summaries

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A summary, also known as an abstract, precis , or synopsis , is a shortened version of a text that highlights its key points. The word "summary" comes from the Latin, " sum ."

A Summary of the Short Story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield "'Miss Brill' is the story of an old woman told brilliantly and realistically, balancing thoughts and emotions that sustain her late solitary life amidst all the bustle of modern life. Miss Brill is a regular visitor on Sundays to the Jardins Publiques (the Public Gardens) of a small French suburb where she sits and watches all sorts of people come and go. She listens to the band playing, loves to watch people and guess what keeps them going, and enjoys contemplating the world as a great stage upon which actors perform. She finds herself to be another actor among the so many she sees, or at least herself as 'part of the performance after all.' One Sunday Miss Brill puts on her fur and goes to the Public Gardens as usual. The evening ends with her sudden realization that she is old and lonely, a realization brought to her by a conversation she overhears between a boy and a girl, presumably lovers, who comment on her unwelcome presence in their vicinity. Miss Brill is sad and depressed as she returns home, not stopping by as usual to buy her Sunday delicacy, a slice of honey-cake. She retires to her dark room, puts the fur back into the box and imagines that she has heard something cry." -K. Narayana Chandran.

A Summary of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" "One way of discovering the overall pattern of a piece of writing is to summarize it in your own words. The act of summarizing is much like stating the  plot of a play. For instance, if you were asked to summarize the story of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' you might say:

It's the story of a young prince of Denmark who discovers that his uncle and his mother have killed his father, the former king. He plots to get revenge, but in his obsession with revenge he drives his sweetheart to madness and suicide, kills her innocent father, and in the final scene poisons and is poisoned by her brother in a duel, causes his mother's death, and kills the guilty king, his uncle.

This summary contains a number of dramatic elements: a cast of characters (the prince; his uncle, mother, and father; his sweetheart; her father, and so on), a scene (Elsinore Castle in Denmark), instruments (poisons, swords), and actions (discovery, dueling, killing)." -Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike.

The primary purpose of a summary is to "give an accurate, objective representation of what the work says." As a general rule, "you should not include your own ideas or interpretations." -Paul Clee and Violeta Clee

"Summarizing condenses in your own words the main points in a passage:

• Reread the passage, jotting down a few keywords.
• State the main point in your own words and be objective. Don't mix your reactions with the summary.
• Check your summary against the original, making sure that you use  quotation marks  around any exact phrases that you borrow." -Randall VanderMey, et al.

"Here...is a general procedure you can use [for composing a summary]:

Step 1 : Read the text for its main points. Step 2 : Reread carefully and make a descriptive outline . Step 3 : Write out the text's thesis or main point. Step 4 : Identify the text's major divisions or chunks. Each division develops one of the stages needed to make the whole main point. Step 5 : Try summarizing each part in one or two sentences. Step 6: Now combine your summaries of the parts into a coherent whole, creating a condensed version of the text's main ideas in your own words." -(John C. Bean, Virginia Chappell, and Alice M. Gillam, Reading Rhetorically . Pearson Education, 2004)

"The purpose of a summary is to give a reader a condensed and objective account of the main ideas and features of a text. Usually, a summary has between one and three paragraphs or 100 to 300 words, depending on the length and complexity of the original essay and the intended audience and purpose. Typically, a summary will do the following:

• Cite the author and title of the text. In some cases, the place of publication or the context for the essay may also be included.
• Indicate the main ideas of the text. Accurately representing the main ideas (while omitting the less important details) is the major goal of the summary.
• Use direct quotations of keywords, phrases, or sentences. Quote the text directly for a few key ideas; paraphrase the other important ideas (that is, express the ideas in your own words).
• Include author tags. ("According to Ehrenreich" or "as Ehrenreich explains") to remind the reader that you are summarizing the author and the text, not giving your own ideas.
• Avoid summarizing specific examples or data unless they help illustrate the thesis or main idea of the text.
• Report the main ideas as objectively as possible. Do not include your reactions; save them for your response. -(Stephen Reid,  The Prentice Hall Guide for Writers , 2003)

"Good summaries must be fair, balanced, accurate, and complete. This checklist of questions will help you evaluate drafts of a summary:

• Is the summary economical and precise?
• Is the summary neutral in its representation of the original author's ideas, omitting the writer's own opinions?
• Does the summary reflect the proportionate coverage given various points in the original text?
• Are the original author's ideas expressed in the summary writer's own words?
• Does the summary use attributive tags (such as 'Weston argues') to remind readers whose ideas are being presented?
• Does the summary quote sparingly (usually only key ideas or phrases that cannot be said precisely except in the original author's own words)?
• Will the summary stand alone as a unified and coherent piece of writing?
• Is the original source cited so that readers can locate it?" -John C. Bean

On the Summary App  Summly

"Upon hearing, in March of [2013], reports that a 17-year-old schoolboy had sold a piece of software to Yahoo! for $30 million, you might well have entertained a few preconceived notions about what sort of child this must be...The app [that then 15-year-old Nick] D'Aloisio designed, Summly , compresses long pieces of text into a few representative sentences. When he released an early iteration, tech observers realized that an app that could deliver brief, accurate summaries would be hugely valuable in a world where we read everything—from news stories to corporate reports—on our phones, on the go...There are two ways of doing natural language processing: statistical or semantic,' D'Aloisio explains. A semantic system attempts to figure out the actual meaning of a text and translate it succinctly. A statistical system—the type D'Aloisio used for Summly— doesn't bother with that; it keeps phrases and sentences intact and figures out how to pick a few that best encapsulate the entire work. 'It ranks and classifies each sentence, or phrase, as a candidate for inclusion in the summary. It's very mathematical. It looks at frequencies and distributions, but not at what the words mean." -Seth Stevenson.

"Here are some...famous works of literature that could easily have been summarized in a few words:

• 'Moby-Dick:' Don't mess around with large whales, because they symbolize nature and will kill you.
• 'A Tale of Two Cities:' French people are crazy.
• Every poem ever written: Poets are extremely sensitive.

Think of all the valuable hours we would save if authors got right to the point this way. We'd all have more time for more important activities, such as reading newspaper columns." -Dave Barry.

"To summarize: It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem." -Douglas Adams.

• K. Narayana Chandran,  Texts and Their Worlds II . Foundation Books, 2005)
• Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike,  Rhetoric: Discovery and Change . Harcourt, 1970
• Paul Clee and Violeta Clee,  American Dreams , 1999.
• Randall VanderMey, et al.,  The College Writer , Houghton, 2007
• Stephen Reid,  The Prentice Hall Guide for Writers , 2003
• John C. Bean, Virginia Chappell, and Alice M. Gillam  Reading Rhetorically . Pearson Education, 2004
• Seth Stevenson, "How Teen Nick D'Aloisio Has Changed the Way We Read."  Wall Street Journal Magazine , November 6, 2013
• Dave Barry,  Bad Habits: A 100% Fact-Free Book . Doubleday, 1985
• Douglas Adams,  The Restaurant at the End of the Universe . Pan Books, 1980
• Questions for Each Level of Bloom's Taxonomy
• Reading Speed
• Critical Analysis in Composition
• How and When to Paraphrase Quotations
• 5 Easy Summarizing Strategies for Students
• How to Find the Main Idea
• Amphiboly in Grammar and Logic
• How to Find the Implied Main Idea
• How to Boost Reading Comprehension With Reciprocal Teaching
• An Overview of Classical Rhetoric
• 20 Creative Study Methods
• How to Summarize a Plot
• Definition and Examples of Text in Language Studies
• How to Find the Stated Main Idea
• How to Write a Critical Essay

Narrative Essay

How to write a summary.

Proficient students understand that  summarizing , identifying what is most important and restating the text (or other media) in your own words, is an important tool for college success.

After all, if you really know a subject, you will be able to summarize it. If you cannot summarize a subject, even if you have memorized all the facts about it, you can be absolutely sure that you have not learned it. And, if you truly learn the subject, you will still be able to summarize it months or years from now.

Proficient students may monitor their understanding of a text by summarizing as they read. They understand that if they can write a one- or two-sentence summary of each paragraph after reading it, then that is a good sign that they have correctly understood it. If they can not summarize the main idea of the paragraph, they know that comprehension has broken down and they need to use fix-up strategies to repair understanding.

Summary Writing Format

• When writing a summary, remember that it should be in the form of a paragraph.
• A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main point of the text as you see it.
• A summary is written in your own words.
• A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
• Identify in order the significant sub-claims the author uses to defend the main point.
• Copy word-for-word three separate passages from the essay that you think support and/or defend the main point of the essay as you see it.
• Cite each passage by first signaling the work and the author, put “quotation marks” around the passage you chose, and put the number of the paragraph where the passages can be found immediately after the passage.
• Using source material from the essay is important. Why? Because defending claims with source material is what you will be asked to do when writing papers for your college professors.
• Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.

Example Summary Writing Format

In the essay Santa Ana , author Joan Didion’s main point is ( state main point ). According to Didion “… passage 1 …” (para.3). Didion also writes “… passage 2 …” (para.8). Finally, she states “… passage 3 …” (para. 12) Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.

• Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : http://lumenlearning.com/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Authored by : Paul Powell. Provided by : Central Community College. Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Authored by : Elisabeth Ellington and Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer. Provided by : Chadron State College. Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License : CC BY: Attribution

What Is a Summary In Writing? (Explained + 40 Examples)

In my 20+ years of writing essays, research articles, short stories, blog posts, and books, I’ve summarized thousands of times.

Here is my summary answer about “What is a summary in writing?”

A summary in writing is the craft of distilling vast oceans of text into droplets of essence, a skill as crucial as it is challenging . At the core, summary writing is the distillation of essential points from a larger text, preserving the original message and intent. It balances brevity and clarity.

As contradictory as it might sound, there is a lot more to say about summary in writing.

The Essence of Summarization

Table of Contents

Over the years, I’ve learned that a successful summary does two things well—it provides clarity to the reader and respects the original work’s integrity.

Brevity and clarity are the twin pillars of a good summary.

My mantra, “As short as possible and as long as necessary,” and a favorite quote I align with—attributed to Einstein—”Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler,” encapsulate my approach to summaries.

Achieving this balance is more an art than a science, a dance between being concise and being clear.

My guideline—keeping things as short as necessary but as long as needed—is a testament to this balancing act.

It’s about not just shrinking text size but ensuring every word counts, every sentence conveys meaning, and the essence of the text is untouched.

Types of Summaries

Below are some common types of summaries you need to know:

• Descriptive Summaries: These provide an overview of the main points of a text, without offering analysis or interpretation. Descriptive summaries focus on summarizing the content in a clear and concise manner, making them useful for providing an overview or introduction to a topic.
• Analytical Summaries: Analytical summaries go beyond simply recounting the main points of a text; they also analyze and evaluate the content. These summaries often delve into the author’s arguments, evidence, and conclusions, offering insights into the text’s significance and implications.
• Informative Summaries: Informative summaries aim to convey the most important information from a text, often condensing complex ideas into simpler language. These summaries are commonly used in academic writing, where the goal is to provide readers with a clear understanding of the text’s main points.
• Critical Summaries: Critical summaries involve not only summarizing the content of a text but also critiquing it. Writers may highlight strengths and weaknesses, identify biases or gaps in the argument, and offer their own perspective on the text’s merits or limitations.
• Abstracts: Abstracts are concise summaries of longer documents, such as research papers or articles. They typically include a brief overview of the purpose, methodology, results, and conclusions of the study, allowing readers to quickly grasp the key findings and significance of the research.

Crafting the Perfect Summary

Summarizing is not a random act but a structured process.

It starts with a thorough reading, understanding the text’s main arguments, themes, and nuances.

Then, identifying the core elements that are indispensable to the message.

The challenge is to weave these elements into a cohesive, shorter narrative that stands on its own while reflecting the original text’s spirit.

Personal Insights and Techniques

Through trial and error, I’ve honed specific techniques that aid in summarization:

• Highlighting Key Points: As I read, I highlight or note down crucial information and standout ideas.
• Structuring the Summary: I create a rough outline, deciding the order of points based on their relevance and the original work’s flow.
• Rewriting with Precision: This step involves rewriting the highlighted points in my own words, ensuring clarity and conciseness without diluting the message.

Template for Writing a Summary

Crafting a summary can be simplified by following a structured template.

While each summary may vary in complexity and content, this general template provides a framework to guide your summarization process:

• Introduction: Begin by introducing the text and its author, providing necessary context for the summary. Identify the main topic or thesis of the text and briefly outline its purpose and significance.
• Main Points: Summarize the main points or arguments presented in the text, focusing on the most essential information. Use concise language and avoid unnecessary details or tangents.
• Supporting Details: Provide supporting evidence or examples to reinforce the main points of the text. Select key quotations, statistics, or anecdotes that best illustrate the author’s ideas.
• Analysis: Analyze the text’s content, identifying any underlying themes, patterns, or implications. Consider the author’s purpose, audience, and rhetorical strategies, and evaluate the effectiveness of their argument or message.
• Conclusion: Conclude the summary by summarizing the overall message or takeaway of the text. Reflect on the significance of the text’s content and its relevance to the broader context or field of study.

Here is a great video on how to summarize in writing:

The Role of Experience in Writing Summaries

Experience plays a critical role in mastering summarization.

In my life, I’ve learned that every word in a summary must earn its place. This discernment comes from practice and familiarity with a wide range of texts.

It comes down to what words and ideas to leave in and what to leave out.

Experience has taught me when to cut deeper and when to allow a bit more space for explanation or narrative, always guided by the principle of making things as simple as possible but no simpler.

Original Research and Testing

My curiosity led me to conduct a series of experiments comparing different summarization techniques across various text types.

I assessed the outcomes based on reader comprehension, retention, and feedback.

The Impact of Testing Different Techniques

My research involved comparing various summarization strategies to identify the most effective approaches for different text types.

This hands-on testing revealed that the audience’s needs significantly influence the summary’s structure and content.

For instance, summaries intended for academic audiences prioritized accuracy and conciseness, while those for a general audience often leaned towards engaging narratives and essential takeaways.

Findings and Insights

One key insight from this research was the importance of adaptability.

A one-size-fits-all approach to summarization doesn’t work.

Tailoring the summary to the text type and intended audience increases effectiveness and satisfaction. Additionally, iterative testing highlighted the value of feedback in refining summaries.

Incorporating reader feedback into the summarization process can significantly enhance clarity and relevance.

40 Examples of Summaries

In the spirit of showing rather than telling, let’s dissect examples of summaries from various genres.

For brevity’s sake, I’ll categorize these examples and provide insights into what makes each effective.

Research Articles/Essays

• The Impact of Climate Change on Coastal Ecosystems: Summarizes key findings on the degradation of coastal ecosystems due to rising temperatures, including potential long-term effects and mitigation strategies.
• Technological Advancements in Renewable Energy: Details the latest advancements in solar and wind energy technologies, highlighting efficiency improvements and the path toward sustainable energy solutions.
• Behavioral Economics and Consumer Decision Making: Explores how psychological factors influence economic decisions, offering insights into improving marketing strategies and consumer education.
• The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: Discusses the integration of AI in diagnostics and patient care, emphasizing potential benefits and ethical considerations.
• Educational Reforms and Student Outcomes: Analyzes the impact of recent educational reforms on student performance and equity, suggesting further research directions and policy implications.
• Microplastics in Marine Environments: Examines the sources, distribution, and ecological impacts of microplastics, proposing methods for reduction and cleanup.
• Mental Health in the Workplace: Investigates the correlation between workplace environment and employee mental health, recommending strategies for creating supportive work cultures.
• Sustainable Agriculture Practices: Reviews sustainable farming techniques and their effectiveness in promoting biodiversity, soil health, and food security.
• The Influence of Social Media on Political Discourse: Evaluates how social media platforms have transformed political communication, voter behavior, and public opinion formation.
• Advances in Alzheimer’s Research: Presents recent breakthroughs in understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, with a focus on potential therapeutic targets and preventive measures.

Work Reports

• Annual Marketing Strategy Review: Summarizes the performance of last year’s marketing campaigns, key metrics achieved, lessons learned, and strategies for the upcoming year.
• Quarterly Sales Report: Details sales performance by region and product line, comparing results against targets, analyzing trends, and suggesting actionable insights for improvement.
• Customer Satisfaction Survey Analysis: Compiles findings from recent customer surveys, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities for service enhancement.
• IT Infrastructure Upgrade Project Summary: Outlines the objectives, progress, challenges, and next steps in the company’s IT infrastructure overhaul, including budget and timeline updates.
• Employee Training Program Evaluation: Reviews the outcomes of the latest employee training initiatives, assessing effectiveness in skill development and impact on performance.
• Competitor Analysis Report: Provides an overview of key competitors’ strategies, market positioning, product offerings, and potential threats or opportunities.
• Supply Chain Optimization Study: Summarizes findings from a study on supply chain efficiencies, identifying bottlenecks and recommending solutions for cost reduction and speed.
• Risk Management Assessment: Evaluates the company’s exposure to various risks, including financial, operational, and reputational risks, proposing mitigation strategies.
• Sustainability Initiatives Progress Report: Tracks the progress of corporate sustainability efforts, including environmental impact reductions, community engagement, and sustainability goals.
• New Product Development Update: Offers a snapshot of the development stages, challenges encountered, market research findings, and estimated launch timeline for a new product.
• The Echo of the Ocean : A novel about a marine biologist uncovering a groundbreaking discovery about sea life communication, while navigating personal challenges and ethical dilemmas.
• Futures Past : A science fiction saga exploring the consequences of time travel on human history, ethics, and personal identity through intertwined narratives.
• Mind Over Matter : A non-fiction exploration of the power of the human mind to overcome physical limitations, featuring real-life stories of resilience and scientific insights.
• The Last Emperor’s Secret – Historical fiction set in ancient China, revolving around a palace conspiracy, hidden treasures, and the quest for truth.
• Green Horizons : An environmental science book discussing innovative solutions to climate change, from renewable energy to conservation strategies, aimed at a general audience.
• Heartstrings : A collection of short stories delving into the complexities of human relationships, love, loss, and redemption, across diverse cultures and situations.
• Digital Frontiers : Examines the digital revolution’s impact on society, economy, and individual lives, offering insights into future trends and ethical considerations.
• Culinary Journeys : A travelogue that takes readers on a gastronomical tour around the world, exploring the history and stories behind iconic dishes and ingredients.
• The Art of Innovation : A guide to fostering creativity and innovation in the workplace, with case studies from leading companies and practical tips for teams.
• Voices of the Forest : A fantasy novel featuring a young hero’s adventure in a mystical forest, battling dark forces to save their homeland with the help of enchanted creatures.

Short Stories

• The Last Light : A poignant tale about a lighthouse keeper’s final night before the automation of his lighthouse, reflecting on the changes and constants in life.
• Crossroads : Explores the moment a young man stands at a crossroad, literal and metaphorical, contemplating the diverging paths of his future.
• Echoes of War : Follows a veteran’s struggle with returning to civilian life, haunted by memories of the battlefield, and his journey towards healing.
• A Stitch in Time : A whimsical story about a seamstress who discovers her sewing machine can repair more than just clothes, mending broken hearts and dreams.
• The Glass Forest : Details an explorer’s discovery of a mysterious forest where trees are made of glass, symbolizing beauty and fragility.
• Shadows on the Moon : A science fiction piece about a colony on the moon dealing with the psychological effects of living in perpetual darkness and light.
• Invisible Ties : Explores the unseen connections between strangers on a crowded subway, each carrying their own stories and struggles.
• The Color of Autumn : Captures a painter’s attempt to paint the perfect autumn scene, reflecting on the impermanence of life and the enduring beauty of nature.
• Whispers in the Wind : Tells the story of a small village where the wind carries voices from the past, and a young girl learns the history of her ancestors.
• Ripples : A narrative about the impact of a single act of kindness, following its ripple effects through the lives of various people in a community.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes Writers Make When Summarizing

Summarizing is an art, but like any craft, it’s prone to pitfalls.

Here are the five most common mistakes writers make when summarizing, along with tips on how to avoid them.

Summarizing may seem straightforward, but it’s deceptively complex.

One of the biggest mistakes writers make is oversimplifying or overcomplicating the summary, leading to confusion or loss of crucial information.

Another common error is failing to capture the essence of the original text, resulting in a summary that misses the mark.

Additionally, inadequate understanding of the audience can lead to summaries that are either too technical or too simplistic for the intended readership. Lastly, neglecting to cite sources or provide proper attribution in summaries can result in accusations of plagiarism or intellectual dishonesty.

The 5 Biggest Mistakes

• Oversimplifying or Overcomplicating: Striking the right balance between brevity and clarity is key.
• Missing the Essence: Ensure the summary captures the core message and key points of the original text.
• Audience Misalignment: Tailor the summary to the audience’s knowledge level and interests.
• Lack of Attribution: Always cite sources and provide proper credit for ideas and information.
• Ignoring Structure and Flow: A well-structured summary enhances readability and comprehension.

Final Thoughts: What Is a Summary In Writing?

Summarization is more than a writing skill—it’s a critical thinking exercise that challenges you to understand deeply, analyze critically, and communicate effectively.

In my two decades of writing, I’ve seen firsthand how a well-crafted summary can open doors to understanding, make knowledge more accessible, and bridge the gap between complex ideas and a broader audience.

Read This Next:

• What Is TNR In Writing? (Explained w/ Examples)
• What Is Generative Writing? [Ultimate Guide + 100 Examples]
• What Is A Cold Open In Writing? (Tips, Examples, Guide)
• What Is A Universal Statement In Writing? (Explained)

Writing Summaries

A summary is a short overview of the main points of a text. The purpose of a summary is to quickly give the reader or listener an idea of what this material is saying. You may find it helpful to create summaries of your own work, but more often, you will create summaries of material by other authors, such as articles, plays, films, lectures, stories, or presentations.

Why Summarize?

At some point in your classes, you will likely be given an assignment to summarize a specific text, an assignment in which summary is the sole intent. You will also use summaries in more holistic ways, though, incorporating them along with paraphrase, quotation, and your own opinions into more complex pieces of writing. You might summarize for several reasons, both in your time as a student and in your life outside of education.

Here are some common ones:

• A summary can show your understanding of the main points of an assigned reading or viewing, so your instructor might ask you to summarize in order to know that you’ve understood the material.
• You might summarize a section from a source, or even the whole source, when the ideas in that source are critical to an assignment you are working on and you feel they need to be included, but they would take up too much space in their original form.
• You might also summarize when the general ideas from a source are important to include in your work, but the details included in the same section as those main ideas aren’t needed for you to make your point. For example, technical documents or in-depth studies might go into much, much more detail than you are likely to need to support a point you are making for a general audience. These are situations in which a summary might be a good option.
• Summarizing is also an excellent way to double-check that you understand a text–if you can summarize the ideas in it, you likely have a good grasp on the information it is presenting. This can be helpful for school-related work, such as studying for an exam or researching a topic for a paper, but is also useful in daily life when you encounter texts on topics that are personally or professionally interesting to you.

What Makes Something a Summary?

When you ask yourself, after reading an article (and maybe even reading it two or three times), “What was that article about?” and you end up jotting down–from memory, without returning to the original article to use its language or phrases–three things that stood out as the author’s main points, you are summarizing. Summaries have several key characteristics.

You’re summarizing well when you

• Use your own words.
• Significantly condense the original text.
• Provide accurate representations of the main points of the text they summarize.
• Avoid personal opinion.

Summaries are much shorter than the original material—a general rule is that they should be no more than 10% to 15% the length of the original, and they are often even shorter than this.

It can be easy and feel natural, when summarizing an article, to include our own opinions. We may agree or disagree strongly with what this author is saying, or we may want to compare their information with the information presented in another source, or we may want to share our own opinion on the topic. Often, our opinions slip into summaries even when we work diligently to keep them separate. These opinions are not the job of a summary, though. A summary should only highlight the main points of the article.

First , it no longer correctly represents the original text, so it misleads your reader about the ideas presented in that text. A summary should give your reader an accurate idea of what they can expect if we pick up the original article to read.

Second , it undermines your own credibility as an author to not represent this information accurately. If readers cannot trust an author to accurately represent source information, they may not be as likely to trust that author to thoroughly and accurately present a reasonable point.

How Should I Organize a Summary?

Like traditional essays, summaries have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. What these components look like will vary some based on the purpose of the summary you’re writing. The introduction, body, and conclusion of work focused specifically around summarizing something is going to be a little different than in work where summary is not the primary goal.

Introducing a Summary

One of the trickier parts of creating a summary is making it clear that this is a summary of someone else’s work; these ideas are not your original ideas. You will almost always begin a summary with an introduction to the author, article, and publication so the reader knows what we are about to read. This information will appear again in your bibliography, but is also useful here so the reader can follow the conversation happening in your paper. You will want to provide it in both places.

In summary-focused work, this introduction should accomplish a few things:

• Introduce the name of the author whose work you are summarizing.
• Introduce the title of the text being summarized.
• Introduce where this text was presented (if it’s an art installation, where is it being shown? If it’s an article, where was that article published? Not all texts will have this component–for example, when summarizing a book written by one author, the title of the book and name of that author are sufficient information for your readers to easily locate the work you are summarizing).
• State the main ideas of the text you are summarizing—just the big-picture components.
• Give context when necessary. Is this text responding to a current event? That might be important to know. Does this author have specific qualifications that make them an expert on this topic? This might also be relevant information.

So, for example, if you were to get an assignment asking you to summarize Matthew Hutson’s Atlantic article, “ Beyond the Five Senses ” (found at www.theatlantic.com) an introduction for that summary might look something like this:

In his July 2017 article in The Atlantic , “Beyond the Five Senses,” Matthew Hutson explores ways in which potential technologies might expand our sensory perception of the world. He notes that some technologies, such as cochlear implants, are already accomplishing a version of this for people who do not have full access to one of the five senses. In much of the article, though, he seems more interested in how technology might expand the ways in which we sense things. Some of these technologies are based in senses that can be seen in nature, such as echolocation, and others seem more deeply rooted in science fiction. However, all of the examples he gives consider how adding new senses to the ones we already experience might change how we perceive the world around us.

However, you will probably find yourself more frequently using summary as just one component of work with a wide range of goals (not just a goal to “summarize X”).

Summary introductions in these situations still generally need to

• Name the author.
• Name the text being summarized.
• State just the relevant context, if there is any (maybe the author has a specific credential that makes their work on this topic carry more weight than it would otherwise, or maybe the study they generated is now being used as a benchmark for additional research).
• Introduce the author’s full name (first and last names) the first time you summarize part of their text. If you summarize pieces of the same text more than once in a work you are writing, each time you use their text after that initial introduction of the source, you will only use the author’s last name as you introduce that next summary component.

Presenting the “Meat” (or Body) of a Summary

Again, this will look a little different depending on the purpose of the summary work you are doing. Regardless of how you are using summary, you will introduce the main ideas throughout your text with transitional phrasing, such as “One of [Author’s] biggest points is…,” or “[Author’s] primary concern about this solution is….”

If you are responding to a “write a summary of X” assignment, the body of that summary will expand on the main ideas you stated in the introduction of the summary, although this will all still be very condensed compared to the original. What are the key points the author makes about each of those big-picture main ideas? Depending on the kind of text you are summarizing, you may want to note how the main ideas are supported (although, again, be careful to avoid making your own opinion about those supporting sources known).

When you are summarizing with an end goal that is broader than just summary, the body of your summary will still present the idea from the original text that is relevant to the point you are making (condensed and in your own words).

Since it is much more common to summarize just a single idea or point from a text in this type of summarizing (rather than all of its main points), it is important to make sure you understand the larger points of the original text. For example, you might find that an article provides an example that opposes its main point in order to demonstrate the range of conversations happening on the topic it covers. This opposing point, though, isn’t the main point of the article, so just summarizing this one opposing example would not be an accurate representation of the ideas and points in that text.

Concluding a Summary

For writing in which summary is the sole purpose, here are some ideas for your conclusion.

Now that we’ve gotten a little more information about the main ideas of this piece, are there any connections or loose ends to tie up that will help your reader fully understand the points being made in this text? This is the place to put those.

This is also a good place to state (or restate) the things that are most important for your readers to remember after reading your summary.

When your writing has a primary goal other than summary, your conclusion should

• Include an in-text citation, if appropriate. (To learn how to do this correctly, see the discussion of in-text citation in “ Crediting and Citing Your Sources ,” part of the “Using Sources Correctly” section of this text.)
• Discuss the summary you’ve just presented. How does it support, illustrate, or give new information about the point you are making in your writing? Connect it to your own main point for that paragraph so readers understand clearly why it deserves the space it takes up in your work. (Note that this is still not giving your opinion on the material you’ve summarized, just making connections between it and your own main points.)

The Word on College Reading and Writing Copyright © by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

• How to Write a Summary

Proficient students understand that  summarizing , identifying what is most important and restating the text (or other media) in your own words, is an important tool for college success.

After all, if you really know a subject, you will be able to summarize it. If you cannot summarize a subject, even if you have memorized all the facts about it, you can be absolutely sure that you have not learned it. And, if you truly learn the subject, you will still be able to summarize it months or years from now.

Proficient students may monitor their understanding of a text by summarizing as they read. They understand that if they can write a one- or two-sentence summary of each paragraph after reading it, then that is a good sign that they have correctly understood it. If they can not summarize the main idea of the paragraph, they know that comprehension has broken down and they need to use fix-up strategies to repair understanding.

Summary Writing Format

• When writing a summary, remember that it should be in the form of a paragraph.
• A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main point of the text as you see it.
• A summary is written in your own words.
• A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.
• Identify in order the significant sub-claims the author uses to defend the main point.
• Copy word-for-word three separate passages from the essay that you think support and/or defend the main point of the essay as you see it.
• Cite each passage by first signaling the work and the author, put “quotation marks” around the passage you chose, and put the number of the paragraph where the passages can be found immediately after the passage.
• Using source material from the essay is important. Why? Because defending claims with source material is what you will be asked to do when writing papers for your college professors.
• Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.

Example Summary Writing Format

In the essay Santa Ana , author Joan Didion’s main point is ( state main point ). According to Didion “… passage 1 …” (para.3). Didion also writes “… passage 2 …” (para.8). Finally, she states “… passage 3 …” (para. 12) Write a last sentence that “wraps” up your summary; often a simple rephrasing of the main point.

• Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : http://lumenlearning.com/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Authored by : Paul Powell. Provided by : Central Community College. Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Authored by : Elisabeth Ellington and Ronda Dorsey Neugebauer. Provided by : Chadron State College. Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Table of Contents

Instructor Resources (Access Requires Login)

• Overview of Instructor Resources

An Overview of the Writing Process

• Introduction to the Writing Process
• Introduction to Writing
• Your Role as a Learner
• What is an Essay?
• Reading to Write
• Defining the Writing Process
• Videos: Prewriting Techniques
• Thesis Statements
• Organizing an Essay
• Creating Paragraphs
• Conclusions
• Editing and Proofreading
• Matters of Grammar, Mechanics, and Style
• Peer Review Checklist
• Comparative Chart of Writing Strategies

Using Sources

• Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Avoiding Plagiarism
• Formatting the Works Cited Page (MLA)
• Citing Paraphrases and Summaries (APA)
• APA Citation Style, 6th edition: General Style Guidelines

Definition Essay

• Definitional Argument Essay
• How to Write a Definition Essay
• Critical Thinking
• Video: Thesis Explained
• Effective Thesis Statements
• Student Sample: Definition Essay

Narrative Essay

• Introduction to Narrative Essay
• Student Sample: Narrative Essay
• "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell
• "Sixty-nine Cents" by Gary Shteyngart
• Video: The Danger of a Single Story
• How to Write an Annotation
• Writing for Success: Narration

Illustration/Example Essay

• Introduction to Illustration/Example Essay
• "She's Your Basic L.O.L. in N.A.D" by Perri Klass
• "April & Paris" by David Sedaris
• Writing for Success: Illustration/Example
• Student Sample: Illustration/Example Essay

Compare/Contrast Essay

• Introduction to Compare/Contrast Essay
• "Disability" by Nancy Mairs
• "Friending, Ancient or Otherwise" by Alex Wright
• "A South African Storm" by Allison Howard
• Writing for Success: Compare/Contrast
• Student Sample: Compare/Contrast Essay

Cause-and-Effect Essay

• Introduction to Cause-and-Effect Essay
• "Cultural Baggage" by Barbara Ehrenreich
• "Women in Science" by K.C. Cole
• Writing for Success: Cause and Effect
• Student Sample: Cause-and-Effect Essay

Argument Essay

• Introduction to Argument Essay
• Rogerian Argument
• "The Case Against Torture," by Alisa Soloman
• "The Case for Torture" by Michael Levin
• How to Write a Summary by Paraphrasing Source Material
• Writing for Success: Argument
• Student Sample: Argument Essay
• Grammar/Mechanics Mini-lessons
• Mini-lesson: Subjects and Verbs, Irregular Verbs, Subject Verb Agreement
• Mini-lesson: Sentence Types
• Mini-lesson: Fragments I
• Mini-lesson: Run-ons and Comma Splices I
• Mini-lesson: Comma Usage
• Mini-lesson: Parallelism
• Mini-lesson: The Apostrophe
• Mini-lesson: Capital Letters
• Grammar Practice - Interactive Quizzes
• De Copia - Demonstration of the Variety of Language
• Style Exercise: Voice

how to write a summary

A step-by-step guide to writing a great summary.

A summary of a literary work isn't just a plain-old synopsis. It's a valuable study tool, a foundational element of all kinds of essays, a common testing mechanism, and one of the basics of literary analysis. 

Whether you're in high school or college, developing a deep understanding of how and when to summarize a book or text is a valuable skill. Doing so might require a little more knowledge and effort than you'd think. 

That's why we're covering all aspects of summaries, from study tools to plot summaries, below.

What Is a Summary?

A summary is a brief overview of a text (or movie, speech, podcast, etcetera) that succinctly and comprehensively covers the main ideas or plot points. 

Sounds simple, right? Well, there are a lot of unique characteristics that differentiate summaries from other commentary, such as analyses, book reviews, or outlines. 

Summaries are: 

• In your own words. It's important that you don't just copy and paste the writer's words (in fact, that's plagiarizing). Writing the key points of a work in your own words indicates your comprehension and absorption of the material. 
• Objective. While a summary should be in your own words, it shouldn't contain your opinions. Instead, you should gather the main points and intentions of the writer and present them impartially. (If you include your opinions, it instead becomes an analysis or review.)
• More than paraphrasing. Many students fall into the trap of simply paraphrasing—plainly restating the ideas or events of the work. (Is our definition starting to sound contradictory? We told you it wasn't straightforward!) Rather than recounting the events or ideas in a work chronologically or in the order they're presented, instead consider the broad scope of how they all contribute to the narrative or argument. 
• Short. There are no strict rules regarding length, only that it is concise. It's largely dependent on the length of the text it summarizes: longer texts, longer summaries. It also depends on the assignment or objective. However, most are about one to two paragraphs in length. 
• Comprehensive. Yes, it's another seemingly contradictory descriptor, but an important one. Summaries are comprehensive, meaning they cover all of the main plot points or ideas in a work (so they inherently contain "spoilers"). You should present those ideas in a way that condenses them into an inclusive, but not exhaustive, recounting in order to keep it short.  
• Straightforward (even if the text isn't). A good summary should be easy to comprehend, presenting the reader with a simple but all-encompassing understanding of the work at hand. With complex texts, summaries can be particularly useful because they distill big, complicated ideas into a bite-sized package. 

When to Write a Summary

Like so many elements of literary analysis, summaries are misunderstood. We've already explained why they aren't as simple as most people think, but neither are their uses. 

Summary writing is a useful skill in a variety of circumstances, both in and outside the English and Language Arts classrooms. 

Readers, writers, teachers, and students can use summaries: 

• As a study tactic. The ability to summarize a book or text indicates that you've absorbed and understand the material. Plus, writing down notes (as in a summary) is a great way to retain material. Try summarizing at the end of a book chapter, after each section of an article, or periodically in textbooks. Doing so will help you digest the material you've just read, confirming you understood and retained the information therein. Stopping frequently to summarize is most effective because you're less likely to forget important plot points or ideas. 
• As an assignment. Teachers and professors often ask students to summarize a text as a test to confirm they read and understood the material. Before heading into class—especially if you have a test or quiz scheduled—try practicing summarizing the text. Write it down (rather than practicing it out loud or in your head) so that you can review your ideas and ensure you're presenting them succinctly and sensibly. 
• As part of an essay. If you're referencing a book or article in your own paper, you might need to summarize the source as the foundation for your argument. In this case, your summary should be particularly short so the reader doesn't lose sight of your own argument and intention. Introduce the name of the work and its author, then use one sentence (two at most) to describe their objective and how it relates to your own. 
• As part of a review. Summaries are very useful in an academic setting, but they have their place outside of it too. Whether you're on a book review site or just sharing a recommendation with a friend, being able to succinctly write a book summary (with or without spoilers) will help others to make their own judgements of a book. 

Your Step-by-Step Guide for How to Write a Summary

Step 1: read the work .

Summaries are often perceived as a workaround for reading the work itself. That's not a great strategy under most circumstances because you tend to lose a lot of the details and nuance of a work, but it's particularly impractical to do so when writing about the work. 

Remember, a summary is supposed to present your perception of the work as a whole. So in order to develop that perception, you have to first read the original text. 

Step 2: Take Notes 

As you read the work, simultaneously take notes. If you own the book, it might be helpful to add your notes to the margins or highlight passages that are particularly relevant or capture a key idea. If you don't own the book, try taking notes on your computer or in a notebook. You can still notate important passages by writing down the page and paragraph number or writing an abbreviated version of the quotation. Alternatively, try marking key passages with sticky notes or tabs. 

It might also be helpful to write out a short outline of the work as you go. While you won't want to use this verbatim (remember, you shouldn't just paraphrase the work), it can help you establish and remember the text's framework. 

Step 3: Identify the Author's Thesis Statement, Objective, or Main Point 

In some works, such as a journal article, a writer will provide a thesis statement. A thesis statement is a one-sentence synopsis of the author's argument and intention. A thesis statement can be really helpful in forming the backbone of your own summary, just as it forms the backbone of the essay. 

However, even when a thesis statement isn't present—like in a novel—the writer always has an objective or main idea. You should always identify this idea and use it to form the foundation of your summary. 

The main point might be apparent at the outset of the work. Other times, the author won't present it until the conclusion. Sometimes you might identify multiple objectives throughout the work. That's why it's important, as you read, to note any ideas that might be the  main  idea. Even those that aren't the  most  important will likely remain relevant. 

Step 4: Note Other Important Elements

If something stands out to you about the work and seems to play an important role in the text's overall narrative or structure, make a note about it. This could be a recurring theme, an incident in the storyline, or a deviation from the overall argument. 

As you identify and note important elements and moments in the work, the structure of your summary should begin to fall into place. 

Step 5: Prepare to Write Your Summary 

Once you've finished reading the work, review your notes and highlight the key points that came to light. Remember, your summary should be objective, so disregard any opinions you might have noted about the work. You should introduce the thesis or objective, briefly encapsulate the important ideas and moments from the work, and end with a conclusion that ties those ideas to the objective. Keep this structure in mind as you begin. 

Step 6: Begin by Introducing the Work 

As you begin, introduce the work, its author, and, if relevant, the context.

Depending on your situation—for example, if your teacher or professor has asked you to summarize a work as part of an assignment or quiz—this might seem redundant. However, it is standard practice to begin by introducing the work, even if the reader already knows what you're writing about. 

Example:  In  The Great Gatsby , F. Scott Fitzgerald... 

Step 7: Present the Thesis, Main Idea, or Central Argument

Once you've introduced the work, your priority is to clearly define the author's thesis, important point, or central argument. As mentioned above, sometimes the author presents this idea clearly and succinctly at the outset of their work; at other times, it's buried deep in the text. 

Regardless of how the main idea is presented in the work, it should be front and center in your summary. Some teachers might refer to this as a "topic sentence" or "introductory sentence." This is the central point around which you will construct the rest of your writing. As you progress, you'll highlight other ideas or occurrences that relate or contribute to this main idea, so it's important that your representation of it is easily understood. 

Example:  In  The Great Gatsby , F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the story of Jay Gatsby as a symbol of the social stratification, greed, and indulgence of 1920s America. 

Step 8: Briefly Discuss the Important Elements of the Work

After identifying the thesis or central argument, you should provide a brief overview of the work's other elements, ideas, and plot points. For the most part, the information you present throughout this section should bolster the thesis presented previously. Each sentence should serve as a supporting point for the topic sentence. Don't simply list ideas or plot points, but show how they're connected and inform the work as a whole. Of course, there may also be important elements of the work that are not directly tied to the main idea; it's ok to include these if you feel they are vital to understanding the work.

When writing the body, you should consciously and intentionally leave out unnecessary details. They tend to bog down your writing and lose the reader. 

Example:  The narrator, Nick Carraway, moves to New York's "West Egg," where he reunites with his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom Buchanan. Fitzgerald clearly delineates social lines between West Egg (new money) and East Egg (old money), where Tom and Daisy reside. 

Nick attends a lavish party thrown by his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, and learns Jay formerly had a relationship with Daisy. The two reignite their forbidden affair. Tom reveals to Daisy that Gatsby earned his money illegally, through smuggling alcohol, and is actually a man of humble Midwestern origins. Daisy and Gatsby try to run away together, but Daisy accidentally runs over Tom's mistress. Tom, eager to exact revenge, convinces his mistress' husband that Gatsby was to blame in her death, and he murders Gatsby before committing suicide. Few of Gatsby's many friends attend his funeral.

Step 9: Write a Conclusion that Ties It All Together

Much like you introduce the author's major point at the outset of your summary, you should revisit it as you close out your writing. If you presented the author's main idea in the introduction, and then bolstered that main idea by recollecting plot points or important elements from the work, your conclusion should then reiterate how those elements relate to the main idea. 

Example:  Though Gatsby subscribed to the extravagance of his peers, his efforts to fit into the upper echelon of West and East Egg were negated by his humble origins; always out of place, he was rejected for his social class as much as his perceived crimes.  

Step 10: Edit

Before submitting your work, read it in full, and edit out any superfluous and redundant information. It's likely that unnecessary details snuck in as you were writing, and you might find that certain plot points just feel unnecessary within the scope of your finished product. 

In addition to editing for content, be sure to edit it closely for grammatical or spelling errors. Even if your summary is well thought out, its expertise is compromised if it's full of errors! 

How to Write a Plot Summary

The step-by-step guide to writing an effective summary, outlined above, applies to most summaries. However, each type has its own unique elements outside of those standard requirements. 

A plot or book summary, for example, should encapsulate the plot of a short story or novel. When writing one, there are unique strategies to follow.  

Dos of Writing a Plot Summary

• Note plot points as the book or story unfolds. Especially in longer novels, it can be difficult to keep track of the twists and turns in the storyline. That's why we recommend taking notes as you read. 
• Use online study guides for inspiration. Websites like SuperSummary provide in-depth summaries free of charge. While this is a good starting point when writing your own, it should only be for inspiration. Don't copy examples online (that's plagiarism!). 
• Be sure to cover the three main arcs of every story: the exposition, climax, and conclusion. The exposition is the moment when the conflict or driving narrative is introduced. The climax is when that conflict comes to a head, and the narrative reaches its most dramatic moments. The conclusion is when the conflict is resolved or the story comes to an end. You should also include any inciting incidents (the first domino in a plot point).
• Connect the dots. Throughout, you should demonstrate an understanding of how events and characters are related, rather than introducing each element as an independent variable. Remember, you should tie each plot point back to the main idea. 

Don'ts of Writing a Plot Summary

• Don't just regurgitate the storyline. Rather than drone through the story plot point by plot point, you should highlight key moments in the narrative and direct them back to the author's objective. 
• Avoid repetitive phrases like "then" or "next." A key indication you're just repeating the storyline point by point is utilizing a phrase like "then" or "next." While you should recount the major incidents of the narrative, it shouldn't feel so formulaic. 
• Don't let it drag on. Books are long, but summarizing a book should still be short. While it depends on the assignment and the work in question, your summary should be 200 to 600 words, max.

Example :   In  The Great Gatsby , F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the story of Jay Gatsby as a symbol of the social stratification, greed, and indulgence of 1920s America.   The narrator, Nick Carraway, moves to New York's "West Egg," where he reunites with his cousin, Daisy, and her husband, Tom Buchanan. Fitzgerald clearly delineates social lines between West Egg (new money) and East Egg (old money), where Tom and Daisy reside. 

Nick attends a lavish party thrown by his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, and learns he formerly had a relationship with Daisy. When the two reignite their forbidden affair, disaster ensues. Tom reveals to Daisy that Gatsby earned his money illegally, through smuggling alcohol, and is actually a man of humble Midwestern origins. Daisy and Gatsby try to run away together, but Daisy accidentally runs over Tom's mistress. Tom, eager to exact revenge, convinces his mistress' husband that Gatsby was to blame in her death, and he murders Gatsby before committing suicide. Few of Gatsby's many friends attend his funeral.

Though Gatsby subscribed to the extravagance of his peers, his efforts to fit into the upper echelon of West and East Egg were negated by his humble origins; always out of place, he was rejected for his social class as much as his perceived crimes.

For an in-depth analysis of The Great Gatsby , check out the our study guide (we have an audio guide, too!).

How to Summarize an Article or Essay

The nature of an article or essay is quite different from a novel or short story, and in many ways, your summary should be too. The outline above remains the same, but the details are different. 

Here's what you should and shouldn't do when writing your article summary. 

Dos of Writing an Article Summary

• Skim the original article first. To develop a basic understanding of the article and the writer's objectives, skim the content before reading it closely. Doing so will help you to identify some of the key points and then pay attention to the arguments around them when you read the article in full. 
• Then read the article closely, marking key passages and ideas. Noting important ideas as you read will help you develop a deeper understanding of the writer's intentions.  
• Note headings and subheadings, which likely identify important points. In articles and essays, the author often utilizes subheadings to introduce their most important ideas. These subheadings can help guide your own writing. 
• Keep it short. The rule of brevity applies to article summaries too. In fact, because articles are usually short compared to novels or books, your text should be correlatively brief. And if you're utilizing the work as part of your own essay or argument, just a couple sentences will do.

Don'ts of Writing an Article Summary

• Don't ignore the conclusion. When reading a long article or essay, it can be tempting to overlook the conclusion and focus on the body paragraphs of the article. However, the conclusion is often where the author most clearly outlines their findings and why they matter. It can serve as a great foundation for your own writing. 
• Don't copy anything from the article directly—always paraphrase. If you copy any passages word-for-word from the article, be sure to identify them as quotations and attribute them to the author. Even this should be done sparingly. Instead, you should encapsulate their ideas within your own, abbreviated words.  
• Don't forget to include proper citations. If you do include a direct quotation from the article, be sure to properly cite them. You can learn how to properly cite quotations in our Academic Citation Resource Guide . 

Example Summary of  "Gatsby as a Drowned Sailor" :  In her essay, "Gatsby as a Drowned Sailor," Margaret Lukens posits that a major, and often overlooked, motif in  The Great Gatsby  is that of the "drowned sailor." The novel, she points out, is immersed in nautical symbols and themes, particularly in the scenes surrounding Jay Gatsby. For example, Gatsby grew up on the shores of Lake Superior, now owns a house on the Long Island Sound, and supposedly spends much of his time on his boat. 

Lukens nods to the nautical imagery throughout Gatsby's lavish party, as well as Nick's interactions with Gatsby. Many of these, she argues, foreshadow Gatsby's death in his pool. Even his funeral is a testament to the motif, with the few attendees soaked to the skin with rain. Lukens presents a thorough case for the overarching nautical motif in  The Great Gatsby  and her argument that though Gatsby hooked a big one, ultimately it was "the one that got away." 

FAQs: How to Write a Book Summary  

How do you summarize without plagiarizing .

By its very nature, a summary isn't plagiarizing because it should be written in your own words. However, there are cases where it might be difficult to identify an appropriate synonym, and the phrase remains somewhat close to the original. In this scenario, just be sure to differentiate the rest of the phrase as much as possible. And if you need to include a direct quote from the work, be sure to appropriately cite it. 

How to write a summary and a reaction? 

In some cases, your teacher may ask you to write a summary and a reaction. Whereas a summary is objective, a reaction is a matter of opinion. So in this case, you should present the actions or ideas of the work, then respond to those actions and ideas with your personal thoughts. 

Why write a summary? 

A summary is a helpful tool many educators use to test their students' comprehension of a text. However, it is also a useful study tactic because recounting what you read can help you organize and retain information. 

HTML References

Html <summary> tag.

Using the <summary> element:

More "Try it Yourself" examples below.

Definition and Usage

The <summary> tag defines a visible heading for the <details> element. The heading can be clicked to view/hide the details.

Note: The <summary> element should be the first child element of the <details> element.

Browser Support

The numbers in the table specify the first browser version that fully supports the element.

Global Attributes

The <summary> tag also supports the Global Attributes in HTML .

Event Attributes

The <summary> tag also supports the Event Attributes in HTML .

Advertisement

More Examples

Use CSS to style <details> and <summary>:

Related Pages

HTML DOM reference: Summary Object

Default CSS Settings

Most browsers will display the <summary> element with the following default values:

COLOR PICKER

Contact Sales

If you want to use W3Schools services as an educational institution, team or enterprise, send us an e-mail: [email protected]

Report Error

If you want to report an error, or if you want to make a suggestion, send us an e-mail: [email protected]

Top Tutorials

Top references, top examples, get certified.

• Contact sales

Start free trial

How to Write a Project Summary (Free Template Included)

There’s a lot of work involved in getting a project approved. You need to convince stakeholders or clients that the project is worthwhile. This should be done upfront and is usually accomplished via the project summary.

That’s a lot of responsibility for a project summary, which by definition is a short overview of the project. Therefore, nothing can be wasted. Every word must count towards proving that the project is viable and will deliver a return on investment.

What Is a Project Summary?

To start, let’s define the term. A project summary is a document or part of a larger document that’s comprehensive but concise in providing an overview of the proposed project, including key details. It also outlines the project’s objectives, background information to place it in context, requirements, problems, analysis and ends with a conclusion.

While the project summary can be a standalone document or a preface to other types of project documentation , it is most commonly used as the introduction for the project proposal. As noted, a project summary has to hook the reader. Like an opening sentence in a book that keeps you reading, the project summary must capture your attention and pull you through the project proposal.

Get your free

Project Summary Template

Use this free Project Summary Template for Word to manage your projects better.

When Should You Use a Project Summary?

The project summary is created during the project pitch. It provides a big-picture view of the project, including a brief description and the essential parts. This is where you’ll start to define the project’s goals, the schedule of tasks that must be executed to deliver the project, an estimation of its budget, etc. to ensure everyone understands the basic plan.

The project summary might be the most important part of your project proposal as it’s the first time the reader will be exposed to the project and why you believe it’s worth executing. Make sure to conduct thorough research to create a well-rounded project summary. This can help convince a client or stakeholder of the value of the project.

Even though a project proposal opens with the project summary, it’s not uncommon for this to be the last section that’s written. If you’re thoroughly researching the topic, you’ll be addressing issues that come up in other sections of the project proposal. Therefore, when you complete the proposal, you’ll have all the information you need to properly create an executive summary .

If done right, the project summary will lead the client through the project proposal and once they’re done, they’ll approve the work. It’s good to have all that documentation in project management software so you can easily turn the project summary into a project plan. ProjectManager is online project management software with unlimited file storage to act as the hub for your project documentation. If you collect the project proposal in our list view, it’s easy to toggle to the Gantt chart where you can create a visual schedule on a timeline. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

What Should Be Included In a Project Summary?

A project summary should be short, but you don’t want to shortchange the project and not give the summary enough room to sell the project to the stakeholder or client. You’ll want to avoid jargon and proprietary or confidential information, such as trade secrets. Write in plain, easy-to-understand sentences. The project summary shouldn’t be difficult to comprehend.

Project Information

You’ll begin by outlining high-level information about the project, including:

• Project name
• Project manager
• Project sponsor

You can add the project team if they’ve been assembled at this point. It’s also a good idea to provide a brief overview of the project, goals and objectives , benefits, etc. Note what it is you’re going to accomplish and how. Plus, when dealing with projects outside of your organization, a background is advisable.

Project Schedule

The project schedule is a chronological timeline that charts the project from beginning to end. On that timeline are the activities and tasks that must be executed to achieve the final project deliverable. This includes dates, duration, milestones and all deliverables. You don’t have to be as thorough as when planning your project plan, but a brief outline is necessary.

Project Budget

The budget is often included in the project schedule and isn’t a detailed forecast of costs, but it’s still an important component and should be included. You’ll want to have some financial projections to show how much the project will cost and what sort of return is expected. A budget baseline is also helpful.

Resource Plan

To further help stakeholders understand the project you want to include a list of resources. Resources are anything you need to complete the project. This includes the project team, materials, equipment, etc.

Risk Management Overview

Every project has inherent risks. Stakeholders want to know what risks you identify as potentially occurring in the project, their impact and how you’ll mitigate them. This includes roadblocks and challenges—anything that will impact the scope, cost and time of the project. Briefly outline your risk management plan . You can go into detail if the project is approved.

Writing a project summary takes a lot of preparation. One thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is the format. Use our free project summary template for Word and you’ll simply have to fill in the blank fields. Everything you need is there and the project summary template is customizable so you can add your logo and edit the document to suit the specific needs of the project you’re proposing.

How to Write a Project Summary

We’ve gone over the basic components of a project summary. Now let’s look at how to write one. While the project summary is brief by definition, the research is extensive. Follow these steps to make sure you do a thorough job.

1. Talk to Your Team

No single person is equipped to tackle the challenges of a project summary. You need to bring together your project team . They’re the ones who will be executing the project on the front lines, so to speak. They have the expertise and knowledge. Use them as a resource as you research the project.

2. Know Your Audience

The research is one part of convincing stakeholders of the value of the project. How you present it is the other. You need to speak the language of the stakeholders. The tone, word choices and more are all going to change whether you’re speaking to a client or a stakeholder. This is especially true in terms of industry. You’ll address construction differently than manufacturing or IT.

3. Define Your Objectives

You’ll want to make it clear what the objective of the project is and what indicates that the project has been successfully completed. That requires sharing the metrics you’ll use to measure the project. You also need to know the project intent, similar to its mission statement .

4. Write Your Project Summary

Work with your team to write a clear and concise project summary. Make sure you’ve included all the components we’ve mentioned above. Don’t forget to proofread the project summary as nothing looks more unprofessional than bad grammar or misspellings.

Other Project Management Templates to Help Create a Project Summary

The project summary is one of the dozens of free project management templates we have for both Excel and Word. There are templates for every phase of a project. Here are a few that relate to the project summary.

Budget Proposal Template

You can estimate the cost of a project with our free budget proposal template for Excel. It shows potential stakeholders how much the project will cost, from salaries to materials and equipment. There’s also space to add travel, communications and other direct and indirect costs.

Project Timeline Template

A project summary needs to include a brief project timeline. The free project timeline template for Excel can help. It has a column on the left-hand side where you can add tasks, start and end dates, as well as duration, which then automatically populates a visual timeline to the right.

Project Proposal Template

The project summary is part of the larger project proposal. You need to have one to get a project approved and funded. Our free project proposal template for Word includes everything from a summary to the solution, implementation to deliverables.

ProjectManager Is Ideal for Keeping Track of Your Project

Templates can help you organize your ideas and deliver a great project summary and proposal, but once it’s approved you’ll need project management software to plan, manage and track the work. ProjectManager is online software that empowers teams to work more efficiently while giving managers tools to monitor their work in real time.

Track Progress With Real-Time Dashboards

Once you have your project schedule on our robust Gantt chart , you can set a baseline, which makes it possible for you to track the planned effort against the actual effort in real time. This data also feeds into our real-time dashboard and is displayed in easy-to-read graphs and charts. You get a high-level view of the progress and performance of your project whenever you want. Unlike competing software products, there’s no time-consuming configuration. It’s ready when you are.

Get Deeper Into the Data With Customizable Reports

When you want to get more detail than a dashboard can provide, generate a report . You can do it with a couple of keystrokes and then customize each to show only the data you want to see. Get status and portfolio reports as well as variance, workload and more. All reports can be easily shared in a variety of formats with stakeholders to keep them updated.

Of course, you need to do more than monitor and track your project in real time to deliver your project on time and within budget. That’s why we have features to help you manage risk, tasks and resources. Our tool makes it fast and easy to onboard your team and helps them collaborate, add comments to tasks and share files. We help you turn a project summary into project success.

ProjectManager is award-winning software that gives you the tools to achieve your project goals and objectives. Get real-time data to help you make more insightful decisions and give your teams a collaborative platform that lets them work better together. Join the teams at Avis, Nestle and Siemens who use our tool. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Deliver your projects on time and on budget

Start planning your projects.

Stormy Daniels' testimony at Donald Trump's trial: Five takeaways

• Medium Text

Sign up here.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Jack Queen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Stephen Coates

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Thomson Reuters

Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.

World Chevron

Biden reaches out to Morehouse grads on Gaza, warns of risk to democracy

Some students turned their backs to Biden as his backing of Israel in its war with Hamas riles college graduations.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

What Is Maxton Hall ? Everything You Need to Know About the German Amazon Prime Video Series

By Hannah Madlener

Keep seeing clips about Maxton Hall, a German series now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, all over your TikTok feed and wondering what it’s about? You’re not alone.

But fans of the Save Me series by Mona Kasten already know: The popular book trilogy was adapted into the series for Amazon Prime Video. Officially titled Maxton Hall: The World Between Us, the series premiered on May 9 and is a love story between Ruby and James that’s a mixture of Pride and Prejudice , Gossip Girl , and Gilmore Girls . It’s also one for the BookTok girlies .

Here’s everything you need to know about Maxton Hall.

What is Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime Video about?

Ruby Bell has exactly one goal: to graduate from the private school Maxton Hall well enough to go to her dream university, Oxford. She came to Maxton Hall on a scholarship and doesn’t get on so well with the other private school students, who are all about partying and money. Her only friend, Lin, shares her ambition—but even she doesn’t fully understand Ruby.

Her family can’t quite understand her high ambitions, either. They are happy with everything Ruby does, but she sees herself as having a greater responsibility with her family, especially her father. He’s in a wheelchair and the family can’t afford a new stair lift, so he has to sleep on the sofa for the time being. So, alongside her school and activities, Ruby works to support her family.

Ruby and Lin stick together.

Ruby knows that her rich classmates will never really understand her. That’s why she only wants to focus on herself and her studies at school. But then she finds out a secret that puts her on the radar of the king of the high school: millionaire heir James Beaufort. He thinks money can buy anything. But he hasn’t met Ruby yet....

In BookTok language, it’s a classic enemies-to-lovers scenario. James is absolutely arrogant and doesn’t want to lower himself to Ruby’s “level.” And so, he treats her like garbage at first. Ruby, of course, doesn’t want to be treated like that under any circumstances—but she is also blinded by her own pride and prejudices against James. When they have to work more closely together, they realize they might not hate each other as much as they originally thought.

How many episodes of Maxton Hall are available to stream?

There are six episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series, and here are the titles:

• Episode 1: “Under the Radar”
• Episode 2: “Noblesse Oblige”
• Episode 3: “Exposed”
• Episode 4: “Hour of Truth”
• Episode 5: “In the Eye of the Storm”
• Episode 6: “A Piece of Happiness”

Ruby no longer seems so averse to the name Beaufort.

What is the book Save Me by Mona Kasten about?

The series follows the events of the first book in the Maxton Hall trilogy, Save Me . Most of the book can be found in the series adaptation: Ruby Bell wants nothing to do with money, glamour, luxury, or power—but then she comes into direct confrontation with somebody who is the epitome of all that.

By Emily Tannenbaum

By Lauren Murdoch-Smith

By The Glamour editors

Fans of the book will not be disappointed, though the series is not a direct adaptation. The show has taken a few liberties, especially with the ending in particular.... (No spoilers!)

Instagram content

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Who is in Maxton Hall ?

In addition to Damian Hardung as James Beaufort and Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby Bell, there are several other stars in the series:

• Sonja Weißer as Lydia Beaufort
• Andrea Guo as Lin Wang
• Fedja Van Huêt as Mortimer Beaufort
• Clelia Sarto as Cordelia Beaufort
• Runa Greiner as Ember Bell
• Martin Neuhaus as Angus Bell
• Julia-Maria Köhler as Helen Bell
• Justus Riesner as Alistair Ellington
• Eli Riccardi as Elaine Ellington
• Ben Felipe as Cyril Vega

Damian Hardung as James and Harriet Herbig-Matten as Ruby.

This post was originally published on Glamour Germany .

By Jessica Radloff

By Elizabeth Logan

By Anna Moeslein

By Kathleen Walsh

Trump trial Day 18 takeaways: Fireworks on the stand as finish line nears

It's becoming increasingly clear that the end is near in former President Donald Trump 's hush money trial in New York City.

With the defense having nearly wrapped its cross-examination of Michael Cohen — Trump's former attorney and fixer and a pivotal witness for the prosecution — closing arguments look likely to begin early next week in Manhattan criminal court.

As Day 18 of Trump's criminal proceedings wound down Thursday afternoon, state Judge Juan Merchan laid out the road ahead in the heavily scrutinized and historic trial.

"I'm doing everything possible to avoid big breaks," Merchan said, with Memorial Day weekend looming.

Court isn't in session Friday, and there will be no proceedings next Wednesday.

Hashing out the remaining schedule was just one of the big notes hit Thursday. Here's what you missed:

Fireworks over a phone call

The most gripping moment came when Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche became animated discussing a 2016 phone call during his cross-examination of Cohen — much of which was dedicated to painting Cohen as a dishonest and untrustworthy witness who couldn't be counted on to accurately detail his dealings with Trump nearly a decade ago.

Blanche repeatedly pressed Cohen about a phone call he said he had with Trump on Oct. 24, 2016, about the $130,000 hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels that Cohen facilitated. Daniels alleged she had an affair in 2006 with Trump — which he denies.

Cohen testified he got hold of Trump through Keith Schiller, Trump's bodyguard, to “discuss the Stormy Daniels matter and the resolution of it.”

Blanche noted the short nature of the call, roughly 90 seconds, as Cohen had texted Schiller about a teenager he said had been prank calling him — which Blanche insisted was the real subject of the call.

Raising his voice, Blanche blasted Cohen's account of talking to Trump that night, calling it "a lie!"

Cohen said he believed he was “telling the truth, based upon the records and documents” he reviewed.

"We are not asking for your belief," Blanche snapped back. "This jury does not want to hear what you think happened."

Blanche also grilled Cohen about the circumstances of his 2018 guilty plea on a series of federal charges related to the Daniels payoff and suggested that he sought to shift blame to others for his problems.

“Do you agree with me that when you plead guilty of a crime and you are lying, that’s not accepting responsibility, is it?” Blanche asked.

“I accepted responsibility, and I am suffering the consequences as a result,” Cohen said.

Trump's allies fill the courtroom

After days when potential Trump running mates and even the speaker of the House came to attend the trial, Thursday appeared to be the day for much of the far-right House Freedom Caucus to come and show their support for Trump.

Among them were Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Andy Biggs of Arizona.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who previously backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for president, was there, as well. So, too, were Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., and Virginia state Sen. John McGuire — Good's primary opponent.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who’s one of Trump's co-defendants in the  Georgia election interference case , was spotted in the overflow room, sitting near reporters. Both Clark and Trump have pleaded not guilty in that case.

Trial's end draws near

Merchan sought clarity from both the defense and the prosecution about how much longer they might need with witness testimony before they move to closing arguments. He indicated that he wanted to avoid any extended break between closing arguments and jury deliberations, noting there are several days on the horizon when court will be out of session.

Blanche said he would most likely be done with his cross-examination of Cohen by midmorning Monday, adding that the defense would soon notify Merchan of any witness plans on its end.

Blanche earlier said he might call an expert witness if he deems it’s necessary. Court documents show that former Federal Election Commission Chair Bradley A. Smith is the defense’s expert witness on file. Smith could speak about the federal election laws that relate to the case.

“We anticipate reaching a decision, at least with respect to any other witness, very soon, today,” Blanche said, adding that any additional witnesses wouldn't be testifying for long.

One question Blanche promised to clear up soon: whether his client will testify. Trump said before the trial that he would “ absolutely ” testify, but he has since changed his tune, saying he would do so only if necessary .

“[T]hat’s another decision we need to” make, Blanche said.

With that, Merchan told attorneys on both sides to be prepared to begin their closing arguments Tuesday.

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.

Screen Rant

10 great x-men '97 details you probably missed.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

10 Characters X-Men '97 Has Done Better Than The Movies

X-men '97 finally gets cyclops' powers right for the first time in 61 years, x-men '97 sets up gambit's return in his darkest form, rewriting an iconic marvel storyline.

• X-Men '97 maintains the beloved 90s series' storylines and attention to detail, guaranteeing a promising season 2.
• The show's impressive Easter eggs, including old animation mistakes and background romances, offer fans a truly layered narrative.
• Details like character replacements in opening credits and subtle nods to classic X-Men moments make for an engaging viewing experience.

X-Men ’97 boasts a wealth of fascinating details that either hint at the show’s unfolding narrative or honor its mighty precursor, X-Men: The Animated Series . Marvel ’s X-Men ’97 maintained not only the storylines from the beloved 1990s series, but also its impressive attention to detail. X-Men ’97 includes a plethora of Easter eggs , featuring hidden messages, subtle background events, and intentional mistakes that truly demonstrate the show’s impressively layered narrative.

X-Men ’97 reunited the powerful mutant line-up from the beloved 1990s animated series, recommencing the narrative just months after the original ended in 1997. The series has proven so promising that X-Men ’97 season 2 was planned before the first season even aired. Part of the show's immense success is due to the exceptional capacity for including small but poignant moments and details, which truly proves just how much love went into producing X-Men '97 season 1.

X-Men ’97 boasts some of the greatest depictions of Marvel’s mutants, many of which surpass their live-action counterparts in the X-Men movies.

10 X-Men '97 Repeated An Old X-Men: TAS Animation Mistake

See x-men '97 season 1, episodes 1-5.

X-Men ’97 has intentionally recreated an old animation error from X-Men: The Animated Series . In the iconic opening sequence for X-Men: TAS , Gambit charges four playing cards with kinetic energy before hurling them at the screen. These are the ace of spades, clubs, diamonds, and hearts.

The spades pip is upside-down in the X-Men: TAS opening credits, with the point facing downwards rather than up. In X-Men ‘97 ’s revamped opening credits, Gambit’s playing cards are updated with a stylish border and larger central suit pip. Yet in X-Men ’97 , the spade pip is still upside down .

This serves as an extremely subtle Easter egg for eagle-eyed viewers and a delightful callback to the original. The moment is not only an affectionate nod to even the mistake of the original series, but also truly demonstrates the attention to detail X-Men ’97 has repeatedly proffered in honoring its X-Men: TAS legacy.

9 Jean Grey Was Replaced By Madelyne Pryor In The X-Men '97 Opening Credits

See x-men '97 season 1, episodes 1-3.

A thrilling and early revelation in X-Men ’97 was that a clone had replaced Jean Grey. The X-Men learned of this development in episode 3 “Fire Made Flesh,” after the real Jean dramatically returned in episode 2. The clone, later named Madelyne Pryor, soon leaves the X-Men and Jean Grey’s position is restored.

This narrative is also reflected in the X-Men ’97 opening credits. Throughout the first three X-Men ‘97 episodes, it is actually Madelyne Pryor who appears alongside Jean Grey’s title card . The difference is subtle, only truly noticeable after the fact – much like Madelyne Pryor herself.

Madelyne is depicted in these opening credits with long flowing hair coming out the top of her costume. After Jean reclaims her place in the X-Men team, the X-Men ’97 adaptive credits change to match. Jean appears with her original X-Men: TAS hair , which forms a long ponytail from the top of her costume.

8 Sunspot's Introduction In X-Men '97 Mirrored Jubilee's In X-Men: TAS

See x-men '97 season 1, episode 1 "to me, my x-men".

Roberto Da Costa was introduced in X-Men ’97 as the new audience surrogate. Viewers were reacquainted with the mutant world as Roberto was introduced to the X-Men team. This was the role that Jubilee served in the original X-Men: TAS .

There were several parallels throughout X-Men ’97 season 1, episode 1 “To Me, My X-Men” that signaled this. Both mutants were saved by the X-Men after being pursued by Sentinels. Later, both young characters awake in the Xavier mansion's basement and encounter the Beast reciting poetry.

However, it is in the opening credits that this is made even more explicit. During the original X-Men: TAS credits, Jubilee is chased by humans and is trapped by a chain-link fence. As X-Men ’97 continues, this scene is introduced into the opening credits but with Roberto instead, cementing his position as the new audience perspective .

7 X-Men '97 Included A Tiny Background Romance

See x-men '97 season 1, episode 5 "remember it" & episode 7 "bright eyes".

X-Men ’97 episode 5 “Remember It” depicted a shocking and heartbreaking mutant massacre on the island of Genosha. Several mutants died during X-Men '97's “Remember It,” including some classic and beloved X-Men characters. However, one of the most tragic narratives occurred in the background.

During “Remember It,” a young mutant couple can be seen arriving at Genosha and embracing. Later, the couple appears behind Rogue and Gambit in the Genosha market. The couple is then not seen again, though the harrowing outcome is confirmed two episodes later .

In X-Men ’97 episode 7 “Bright Eyes,” a television news broadcast is reporting on the Sentinel attack on Genosha. Footage from Genosha depicts the young blonde mutant from the couple cradling her head in grief next to a pile of rubble, presumably mourning the death of her partner. This is confirmed by the blue bandanna on her wrist which was previously worn by her paramour .

6 Bastion Secretly Appeared Throughout X-Men '97

See x-men '97 season 1, episodes 1, 2, 4, 5, & 6.

Bastion was revealed in X-Men ’97 episode 7 “Bright Eyes” as the villainous mastermind behind many of the season’s events. The most notable of these was the Sentinel attack on Genosha in episode 5. It is also revealed that Bastion was behind the recommencement of the Sentinel program .

While this served as a surprising development in “Bright Eyes,” Bastion has secretly appeared in most episodes. X-Men ‘97 ’s original writer Beau DeMayo confirmed Bastion’s secret appearances via a post on Twitter/X, in which he stated that “Bastion has been manipulating things all along.” Bastion can be seen first when Madelyne Pryor scans Henry Gyrich’s mind and sees a young child draws a burning Xavier mansion.

In episode 2, Bastion is seen from behind, sitting next to Valerie Cooper in a war room discussing Magneto with military generals. In episode 4, Bastion appears in a photograph in Forge’s house, with his arm around a soldier. Finally, during X-Men ’97 episode 5, Bastion walks past the camera moments before the Sentinels attack.

5 The Prime Sentinels Were Hidden In The X-Men '97 Opening Credits

After Bastion activated his Prime Sentinels in X-Men ’97 episode 8 “Tolerance is Extinction - Part 1,” it was revealed that the mutant-hunting robots were human hybrids. Moreover, the human population was secretly filled with Prime Sentinels , waiting to be activated. Interestingly, this pervasive presence even extends to the X-Men ’97 opening credits.

During the X-Men ’97 credits sequence, a group of humans runs towards the screen, as the X-Men and a troupe of X-Men villains face each other in battle. These humans are seemingly trapped between the warring factions, all while Sentinels loom overhead. However, these five human characters later appear in X-Men 97 “Tolerance is Extinction - Part 1,” where they’re revealed as Prime Sentinels .

Each of these Prime Sentinels can be identified through their distinctive clothing , with most of them taking part in the assault on the Xavier mansion. The Prime Sentinels’ presence has therefore been subtly indicated in every episode of X-Men ’97 , demonstrating their omnipresent nature, succinctly reflecting the X-Men’s ethos of protecting those who hate and fear them.

4 Storm Received An Updated Intro After Regaining Her Powers

See x-men '97 season 1, episode 9 "tolerance is extinction - part 2".

Storm’s narrative throughout X-Men ’97 primarily concerned her quest to regain her powers. As such, she left the main X-Men team in season 1, episode 2 “Mutant Liberation begins.” Following this, Storm’s title card was absent from the X-Men ’97 opening credits for several episodes.

Storm returned to the team and the opening credits in episode 9 “Tolerance is Extinction - Part 2” - only this time sporting a new black outfit. Storm’s former title card in X-Men ’97 reflected her X-Men: TAS costume. This was white with silver and yellow accents – though Storm was given her famed Mohawk from the 1980s.

Upon returning with her powers, Storm appears in the opening credits wearing her classic black outfit from her debut appearance in Giant Size X-Men #1. This costume functions as a celebration of her past as she evolves. Including this costume honors her comic book legacy and was a thrilling callback to the source material.

3 X-Men '97 Recalled Classic X-Men: TAS Lines

See x-men '97 season 1, episode 1 "to me, x-men" & episode 5 "remember it".

X-Men ’97 is littered with subtle nods to the original X-Men: TAS . The first episode, “To Me, My X-Men,” included a delightful callback to the first X-Men: TAS episode “Night of the Sentinels - Part 1,” in which Cyclops feigns surrender before sarcastically yelling “Not!” and unleashes her powerful optic blasts to destroy the Sentinels.

The other notable example is several references to Gambit's introduction in X-Men: TAS ’s “Night of the Sentinels.” In the original episode, Gambit declares to the Sentinels in battle, “The name’s Gambit, mon ami. Remember it!” . Gambit repeats this line during his noble sacrifice in X-Men ’97 season 1, episode 5, which was titled “Remember It.”

Rogue later repeats the line while fighting Bastion in the season finale, “Tolerance is Extinction – Part 3,” where she says, “His name was Gambit. Remember It!” These scenes honor Gambit’s status as the firm fan-favourite from the original series and highlights his noble sacrifice. Even in death, Gambit proves himself to be a defiant and iconic warrior.

X-Men ’97 has finally proffered an accurate portrayal of Cyclops and his powers, which has been notably absent since his creation in 1963.

2 X-Men '97 Replicated Rogue's Classic X-Men Video Game Moves

See x-men '97 season 1, episode 6 "lifedeath - part 2".

After the Sentinel attack on Genosha in X-Men ’97 episode 5 “Remember It,” Rogue is overwhelmed by grief. She enacts a violent rampage, hoping to locate Henry Gyrich and Bolivar Trask. This is when she finds a military base overseen by General Thaddeus Ross.

During this, Rogue uses some new fighting techniques unseen thus far in X-Men ’97. As noted by Power of X-Men on Twitter/X, these moves are lifted directly from Rogue’s appearances in the classic fighting video games , Marvel Vs Capcom 2 and X-Men Vs Street Fighter . Rogue performs a flying kick as she falls; rolls into a ricocheting ball as she flies through the air; and lands on the floor with a force strong enough to form a crater.

Rogue uses these techniques to destroy a tank and break into the base – which General Ross notes was built to withstand the Hulk. Interestingly, X-Men ’97 had previously included X-Men video game references. In X-Men ’97 season 1, episode 4 “Motendo/Lifedeath - Part 1,” Jubilee was transported into a video game world based on the classic X-Men arcade game.

1 X-Men '97 Subtly Included X-Men: TAS Characters

See x-men '97 season 1, episode 5 "remember it" & episode 6 "lifedeath - part 2".

X-Men ’97 features numerous incredible cameos from famed Marvel Comics characters. Swathes of classic mutants appeared throughout season 1, with many characters from X-Men: The Animated Series appearing , even if very briefly. Many mutants appear as background characters in X-Men ’97 “Remember It,” as residents of Genosha.

Later, in “Lifedeath - Part 2,” the X-Men hold a funeral for their fallen comrade, Gambit. Among the attendees are members of the Thieves Guild, including Gambit’s brother and ex-partner. None of these characters have any lines, but they appear prominently in X-Men: TAS episodes.

X-Men ’97 does this repeatedly, nonchalantly adding legacy characters who are relatively inconsequential to the plot yet are recognizable to those who remember X-Men: TAS well. Meanwhile, those who are less familiar, can still enjoy the story. This effectively demonstrates X-Men ‘97 ’s commitment to intricately layered narratives that celebrate its predecessor’s impressive legacy while bringing it into the modern era.

X-Men '97

*Availability in US

Not available

X-Men '97 is the direct continuation of the popular 1990s animated series X-Men: The Animated Series. Taking up where the third season left off, Marvel's revival brings back famous mutants such as Wolverine, Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Cyclops, Beast, Magneto, and Nightcrawler, who fight villains like Mr. Sinister, the Sentinels, and the Hellfire Club.

Sources: Beau DeMayo , Power of X-Men

Find your Senator and share your views on important issues.

Senate Bill S9477

Establishes joint and survivorship accounts

Share this bill

• ." class="c-detail--social-item bill">

Sponsored By

Jeremy A. Cooney

(D, WF) 56th Senate District

Current Bill Status - In Senate Committee Banks Committee

• In Committee Assembly
• In Committee Senate
• On Floor Calendar Assembly
• On Floor Calendar Senate
• Passed Assembly
• Passed Senate
• Delivered to Governor
• Signed By Governor

Do you support this bill?

Please enter your contact information

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

2023-S9477 (ACTIVE) - Details

2023-s9477 (active) - summary.

Provides for joint and survivorship accounts; provides that absent indication to the contrary, funds remaining in such an account upon the death of the depositor shall be deemed part of the depositor's estate.

2023-S9477 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

• View More (58 Lines)

2023-S9477 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

• View More (64 Lines)

Open Legislation is a forum for New York State legislation. All comments are subject to review and community moderation is encouraged.

Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity, hate or toxic speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Attempts to intimidate and silence contributors or deliberately deceive the public, including excessive or extraneous posting/posts, or coordinated activity, are prohibited and may result in the temporary or permanent banning of the user. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday. By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

Create an account . An account allows you to sign petitions with a single click, officially support or oppose key legislation, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation .