BASICS OF
SUMMARIZING
ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC AND PROFESIONAL
PURPOSES
Learning Competencies:
define summarizing and
summary from various writers;
identify the various techniques
in summarizing; and
summarize various academic
texts.
What is Summarizing?
Summarizing is often used to
determine the essential ideas in a
book, article, book chapter, an article
or parts of an article. These essential
ideas include the gist or main idea,
useful information, or key words or
phrases that help you meet your
reading purpose. Summarizing is
generally done after reading.
What is Summarizing?
Summarizing is how we take larger
selections of text and reduce them to
their bare essentials: the gist, the key
ideas, the main points that are worth
noting and remembering. Webster's
calls a summary the "general idea in
brief form"; it's the distillation,
condensation, or reduction of a larger
work into its primary notions. (“Reading
Summarizing is an important skill because it helps
you:
Deepen your understanding of the text;
Learn to identify relevant information or key
ideas;
Combine details or examples that support the
main idea/s;
Concentrate on the gist or main idea and key
words presented in the text; and
Capture the key ideas in the text and put them
What is Not Summarizing?
You are NOT summarizing when you
Write down everything;
Write down ideas from the text word-for-
word;
Write down incoherent and irrelevant
ideas;
Write down ideas that are not stated in
the text; or
Guidelines in Summarizing
Clarifyyour purpose before you read.
Read the text and understand the
meaning. Do not stop reading until you
understand the message conveyed by
the author. Locate the gist or main
idea of the text, which can usually be
found either at the beginning in the
Guidelines in Summarizing
Selectand underline or circle the key
ideas and phrases while reading
another strategy is to annotate the
text.
Write all the key ideas and phrases
you identified on the margins or on
your notebook in a bullet or outline
form.
Guidelines in Summarizing
Without looking at the text, identify
the connections of these key ideas and
phrases using a concept map.
List your ideas in sentence form in a
concept map.
Combine the sentences into a
paragraph. Use appropriate
transitional devices to improve
Guidelines in Summarizing
Ensure that you do not copy
a single sentence from the
original text.
Refrain from adding
comments about the text.
Stick to the ideas it
presents.
Guidelines in Summarizing
Edit the draft of your
summary by eliminating
redundant ideas.
Compare your output with the
original text to ensure
accuracy.
Guidelines in Summarizing
Record the details of the original
source (author’s name/s, date of
publication, title, publisher, place
of publishing, and URL [if online]).
It is not necessary to indicate the
page number/s of the original text
in citing sources in summaries.
Guidelines in Summarizing
Format your summary properly.
When you combine your
summaries in a paragraph, use
different formats to show variety
in writing.
BASIC RULES:
A. Erase things that don’t matter.
B. Erase things that repeat. Delete
redundant material.
C. Trade, general terms for specific
names. Substitute superordinate terms for
lists (e.g., flowers for daisies, tulips for
roses). Focus on the big picture. Long,
technical lists are hard to remember. If one
word will give you the meaning, then less is
more.
Formats in Summarizing
Idea Heading Format
In this format, the
summarized ida comes
before the citation.
Example:
Benchmarking is a useful strategy that
has the potential to help public officials
improve the performance of local
services (Folz, 2004; Ammons, 2001).
Once the practice of a particular city is
benchmarked, it can be a guidepost
and the basis for the other
counterparts to improve its own.
Formats in Summarizing
Author Heading Format
In this format, the
summarized idea comes
after the citation. The
author/s name is/are
connected by an appropriate
reporting verb.
The considerable number of users of FB has led
educators to utilize FB for communicating with their
students (Grant, 2008; as cited in Donnus, 2010). The
study of Kabilan, Ahmad, and Abidin (2010) shows that
the students perceived FB as an online environment to
expedite language learning specifically English. Donnus
(2010) asserts that educational; games on GB
fecundate learning process and make students’
learning environment more engaging. As regards
literacy, this notion reveals that FB could be used as a
tool to aid individuals execute a range of social acts
through social literacy implementation (ibid).
Blackstone and Hardwood (2012) suggest the
facilitative strength of FB as it elicits greater
Formats in Summarizing
Date Heading Format
In this format , the summarized
idea comes after the date when
the material was published.
Example:
On the other hand, active participation on the
citizens in development contributes to a
sound and reasonable government decisions.
In their 2004 study on the impact of
participatory development approach, Irvin
and Stansbury ARGUE that participation
can be valuable to the participants and the
government in terms of the process and
outcomes of decision making.
Using Reporting Verbs when Summarizing
A reporting verb is a word
used to discuss another
person’s writings or
assertions. They are
generally used to
incorporate the source to
the discussion in the text.
Example:
Having a syntactically correct
sentence is not enough to create
meaning. As Noam Chomsky
pointed out, a sentence can be
perfect in terms of syntax and still
not make sense. He showed this
by coming up with the famous
sentence, “Colorless green ideas
sleep furiously” (Chomsky, 1957).
Techniques
in
Summarizing
1. Somebody Wanted But So Then. The strategy helps
students generalize, recognize cause and effect
relationships, and find main ideas.
Somebody Wanted But So Then
(Who is the (What did (What was (How was (Tell how
text the main the problem the problem the story
about?) character encountered solved?) ends.)
want?) ?)
Little Red She wanted She She ran A
Riding Hood to take encountere away, woodsm
cookies to d a wolf crying for an heard
her sick pretending help. her and
grandmother to be her saved
. grandmothe her from
Summary:
Little Red Riding Hood wanted to
take cookies to her sick grandmother,
but she encountered a wolf. He got to
her grandmother’s house first and
pretended to be the old woman. He was
going to eat Little Red Riding Hood, but
she realized what he was doing and ran
away, crying for help. A woodsman heard
the girl’s cries and saved her from the
2. SAAC Method. This method is particularly helpful in summarizing any
kind of text. SAAC is an acronym for “State, Assign, Action, Complete.” Each
word in the acronym refers to a specific element that should be included in
the summary.
State Assign Action Complete
(the name (the name of (what the (complete the
of the the author) author is sentence or summary
article, doing with keywords and
book, or (example: important details)
story) tells,
explains))
“The Boy Aesop (a tells what happens when a
Who Cried Greek shepherd boy
Wolf” storyteller) repeatedly lies to the
Summary:
"The Boy Who Cried Wolf," by
Aesop (a Greek storyteller), tells
what happens when a shepherd boy
repeatedly lies to the villagers about
seeing a wolf. After a while, they
ignore his false cries. Then, when a
wolf really does attack, they don’t
come to help him.
3. 5 W's, 1 H. This technique relies on six crucial questions: who,
what, when where, why, and how. These questions make it easy
to identify the main character, important details, and main idea.
Who is What When did Where did Why did How did the
the did the action the story the main main character
story they take happen? character do what s/he
about? do? place? do what did?
s/he did?
The He When An old The tortoise The tortoise kept
tortoise raced a isn’t country road was tired of up his slow but
quick, specified hearing the steady pace.
boastfu in this hare boast
l hare story, so about his
and it’s not speed.
won. important
4. First Then Finally. This technique helps students
summarize events in chronological order.
First: What happened first? Include the main
character and main event/action.
Then: What key details took place during the
event/action?
Finally: What were the results of the
event/action?
Summary:
Here is an example using
"Goldilocks and the Three Bears."
First, Goldilocks entered the bears'
home while they were gone. Then, she
ate their food, sat in their chairs, and
slept in their beds. Finally, she woke up to
find the bears watching her, so she
5. Give Me the Gist. This type of
techniques is like giving a friend
the gist of a story. In other words,
they want a summary – not a
retelling of every detail.