Summarising

A summary is also an indirect quotation, but is much shorter than the original text. Basically, a summary encapsulates the essence or main point of what the original author is arguing.

How do you summarise?

Skim the text and gain the general impression of the information, its content and its relevance to your work; underline/ highlight the main points as you read.

Re-read the text, making notes of the main points.

Cover the text and rewrite your notes in your own words.

Begin your summary. Restate the main idea at the beginning of your summary, indicating where your information is from.

Mention other major points.

Change the order of the points if necessary to make the construction more logical.

Re-read the work to check that you have included all the important information clearly.

Consider the example below, which uses the same text as the example above in paraphrasing.