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Humanities LibreTexts

3.9: Summarizing a Text

  • Page ID
    22341
    • Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear
    • Clackamas Community & Portland State University via OpenOregon
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    lobster-300x225.jpg
    CC0 Public Domain Image

    When you finish reading a text, it’s a great idea to stop for a moment and write a summary of what you just read.

    A good summary accomplishes the following:

    • It identifies or names the piece and its author(s) and states the main purpose of the text.
      Example: In his essay, “Consider the Lobster,” writer David Foster Wallace asks readers to consider the ethical implications of feasting on lobsters. (You can find a copy of this essay online at gourmet.com.)
    • It captures the text’s main points.
    • It does not include the reader’s opinions, feelings, beliefs, counterarguments, etc.
    • It is short. The idea of a summary is to “boil down” or condense a text to just a few sentences.

    Most important of all, when you create a summary of a text, it helps you review what you read and helps your brain capture the main ideas. Writing these down cements the memories; this will help you recall them more easily later on.

    checkmark_white_bkgr.pngCheck Your Understanding: Summarizing a Text

    Read “Replace Annual Physicals with Real-Time Biomarker Monitoring.” (This article by Alex Berezow and Eric Tan can be found online at the Scientific American blog site.)

    Write a summary of this text, using the above guidelines.

    See the Appendix, Results for the “Check Your Understanding” Activities, for answers.


    This page titled 3.9: Summarizing a Text is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear (OpenOregon) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.