25/10/2016

How to Summarize an Article (with Pictures) - wikiHow

How to Summarize an Article

Six Parts:

Reading the Article

Essential Summarizing Techniques

Summarizing Argumentative or Theoretical Articles

Summarizing Scientic or Research Articles

Summarizing Journalistic or News Articles

Sample Summaries

Article summaries provide the reader with an understanding of your sources in a way that is more thorough and more
complete than a paraphrase or direct quote. If you need to summarize an article for your next essay, here's what you should
do.

Part

Reading the Article

Scan and highlight the article. Before sitting down to read the entire article, scan the article and highlight or
underline the major points.
Write down or highlight the question asked or purpose of the article.
Take note of the thesis statement or hypothesis.
Highlight any supporting points.
Write or highlight the method used to perform the research, if included in the article.
Mark down ndings, conclusions, or results.

Read the article thoroughly. After marking down the basics, read the article sincerely, paying close attention to
detail.
Consider reading each section a few times for an even richer understanding.
Ask yourself about the article as you read it. Mentally track the progress of the article to determine if the results
and conclusions drawn seem complete and sensible.

Take notes in your own words. As you read the article for thoroughness, write down any signicant facts or
interesting details in your own words.
By writing the information in your own words, you minimize the risk of accidentally plagiarizing the article.
Do not simply "rephrase" exact statements by swapping a few words around. Instead, completely rewrite the
information and do not look at the text as you write.
If you have difculty keeping things in your own words, focus on writing down short phrases instead of full
sentences.

Summarize each section. At the end of each major train of thought, pause to summarize the main point of the
section in a single sentence.[1]
If the article unexpectedly begins to move into another main point, stop long enough to write the main point of
the previous section before you continue reading.

Part

Essential Summarizing Techniques

Understand the purpose of your summary. A summary meant for your own personal notes should be
approached from a different perspective than a summary you plan to include in your essay.
If writing a summary for your own benet, include as much detail as possible so that you can get the most out
of your notes later on.
If writing a summary you wish to include as part of an essay, focus the summary on information that deals
specically with your own thesis.

Introduce the bibliographic information. In the introduction of your summary, mention the full title of the article
and the author's full name.

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You do not need to mention the date of publication or the journal, book, newspaper, or magazine you found the
article in. This information will need to be included on your "References" or "Works Cited" page, however.
Only include publication dates and sources if they are applicable to your paper. For instance, if one author
wrote an article making one claim but wrote a second article refuting his earlier claims several years later,
mention that one article came several years after the other.

Include the topic and thesis in the introduction, as well. Within the rst paragraph of your summary, you
should also mention the topic of the original article and the author's thesis or hypothesis.
Make the connection between the article and your essay apparent. For example, if your essay is about a
certain health condition and you summarize an article about a certain medication used to treat that condition,
make sure that the reader knows that the medication in question is connected to the condition your paper is
about.

Provide supporting details. Review your notes and rewrite any supporting details in the paragraphs to follow.

State the conclusions. In your summary's conclusion, restate the conclusion drawn by the author of the original
article.

Mention all main points and any supporting details that are essential in understanding those points.
Only write information that is absolutely crucial in developing an understanding of the article's contents.

Note that these conclusions can include results, analysis of research or ideas, and calls to action.

Use author tags as you write. As you write your summary, continually restate the fact that the information you
write comes from another source.
For example, include phrases like "Smith believes," "Smith nds that," and "Smith expresses disbelief about."

Avoid direct quotations. A summary should be written in your own words. As a result, you should use direct
quotations only when the information cannot be meaningfully rephrased in any other way.[2]
If possible, do not use any direct quotations in you summary.

Part

Check the summary against the article. The summary should be short, complete, true, and unbiased.
The text of your summary should be at least one-quarter the length of the original article, if not shorter. Refer to
the parameters of your assignment for further guidelines.
The summary must include all of the major ideas included in the article without repeating exact phrases.
The summary should accurately portray the thoughts and assertions portrayed in the original article.
The summary should not include your own analysis or opinion of the original article. If you do decide to analyze
the article's ndings, do so in another part of your essay.

Summarizing Scientic or Research Articles

State the purpose of the experiment or research study. This is, in essence, the "topic" of the article. Explain
what the research was about and why the researcher felt inclined to research it.
Indicate if or how the researcher's purpose meshes with the purpose of your own essay as you introduce the
article.
Briey mention the authority of those performing the research to lend validity to the summary and the article.

Explain the researcher's hypothesis. In the introduction of your summary, mention what the researcher
expected to nd by the end of his or her research.
Do not hint around about whether the hypothesis was correct.

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Describe the method used to nd the results.[3] In order to lend further credibility to the research article in
question, you need to describe how the experiment was set up in clear, simple terms.
Mention who the subjects were.
Describe the design of the experiment. This includes the timeline for the experiment, how subjects were split
up, and what distinguished the experimental group from the control group.
Also describe the tasks or actions subjects needed to take during the duration of the experiment.

Mention the results. After describing the method used, state what the results of the experiment were.

Explain how the researcher analyzes those results. State what the researcher concluded based on his or her
own results.

Include percentages and rates if applicable.

Mention any irregularities in the results.

Do not include your own analysis in the summary. If you do analyze the results, do so in another portion of your
paper.

Part

Summarizing Argumentative or Theoretical Articles

Identify the author's thesis. In your introduction, restate the thesis of the original article in your own words.

State each of the author's main points. Explain each of the main points found in the article and include enough
supporting detail to make sense of these points.

The thesis should be a single sentence that sums up the idea or belief the original author is attempting to
make.
You can also provide brief context about how this thesis ts in with the topic as a whole or a brief summary
about the topic in general, but this is not necessary if you already described the general topic in the introduction
of your overall essay.

This part of the summary can be tricky. The author of the original essay will include many details in an attempt
to support his or her argument, and you need to pick through these details to determine which are essential
and which can be skimmed over in the interest of brevity.
Focus on summarizing the biggest points and those that connect directly to your own essay. If a point has
nothing to do with your own essay, you might be able to skip it completely as long as the author's thesis is not
completely dependent on that point.

Identify counterarguments the author uses to refute other arguments. Since argumentative articles are often
arguing against another viewpoint, you should mention any evidence or ideas the article uses in an attempt to
address opposing arguments.
If the article does not address any specic counterarguments, however, do not speculate about
counterarguments the article could work against while writing your summary. If you wish to speculate on such
information, wait until the summary is complete.

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State the author's conclusions. Usually, this will mean restating the thesis in new terms.
Do not draw your own conclusions in the summary. Only state the conclusions or ideas of the article's author.

Summarizing Journalistic or News Articles

Note the main events. In your pre-writing notes, mention all of the main events described in the news story.
The events in the article may not be written in chronological order. As you write the main events down in your
notes, write down each event as it is given to you and number them in chronological order before writing your
summary.

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Arrange the main events in chronological order. If the news article was not written in chronological order,
rearrange the events as you write them down so that they do fall in chronological order.
The summary of the original article is, basically, a summary of the story or event that took place. While the
article may focus on a specic element of that event, your summary should detail the full scope of the story.

Provide context for the story, if applicable. If the individual news article is part of a larger chain of events, you
should also explain how it connects to this chain of events.
This is especially important if it is the chain of events, rather than the actual individual article, that ties into your
essay.
For example, if you are summarizing an article about a school banning students from bringing peanut butter
sandwiches, you could consider mentioning other schools in the area doing the same thing.

Mention any editorial opinions or conclusions. If the journalist or editor writing the article reached a conclusion
or has an opinion about the story, include that in your summary.
Do not state your own opinion or analysis of the article within the summary.

Community Q&A
How do I include the title, author, source, and thesis in the rst sentence?

wikiHow
Contributor

You don't. Typically all of those details go in the middle of your intro. Your summary should just include a further
explanation of how all those things link together and how your body paragraphs support your thesis.
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Sources and Citations

1. http://www.mesacc.edu/~paoih30491/ArgumentsQuoteSummarizeParaphr.html
2. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/930/02/
3. http://www.buowl.boun.edu.tr/students/summarizing/summarizing.htm

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