Summary A summary is a clear concise orderly retelling of the contents of a passage or a text and is ordinarily about ⅓ or ¼ as long as the original. The student who is in the habit of searching for the main points, understanding them, learning them, and reviewing them is educating himself. The ability to get at the essence of a matter is very important. The first and the most important step in making a summary is reading the passage thoroughly. After it write out clearly in your own words the main points of the selection. Subordinate or eliminate minor points. Retain the paragraphing of the original, unless the summary is extremely short. Preserve the proportion of the original. Change direct narration to indirect whenever it is possible, use words instead of word combinations and word combinations instead of sentences. Omit figures of speech, repetitions, and most examples. Don’t use personal pronouns, use proper names. Do not introduce any extra material by way of opinion, interpretation or appreciation.
Read the selection again and criticize and revise your words.
Helpful expressions to use while summarizing text: At the beginning (in the beginning) of the story (passage) the author describes (depicts, dwells on, touches upon, explains, introduces, mentions, recalls, characterizes, analyses, comments on, enumerates, points out, generalizes, criticizes, makes a few critical remarks on, reveals, gives a summary of, gives his account of, makes an excursus into, etc.). The story (passage) begins with a (the) description of (the introduction of, the mention of, the analysis of, a (the) comment of, a review of, an account of, a (the) summary of, the characterization of, (his) opinion of, (his) the enumeration of, the criticism of, some (a few) critical remarks about (concerning, of, etc.), the accusation of, an excursus into. The story opens with… Then (after that, further, further on, next) the author passes on to… (goes on from… to; goes on to say that…; gives a detailed (through) analysis (description, etc.) of…; digresses from the subject, etc.).
The main idea is…
The subject of the text is…
The text deals with…
It is pointed out that…
It is obvious that…
It needs to be said…
In other words…
I would like to note…
It is necessary to note…
From this text we understood…
The subject of the text touches upon…
Concerning to
In connection with…
The subject (question) is related to…
This example clearly shows…
Thus I want to make a conclusion…
In general…
Generally speaking…
In addition to…
It is easy to understand that…
As a result…
Thus…
Therefore…
That is why…
Hence…
The main conclusion is…
It proves that…
It follows that…
We should take into account…
In the text … are raised…
Some questions are related to…
It must be stressed…
From the point of view…
It goes without saying…
In conclusion the author…
The author concludes with…
The story ends with.. To finish with, the author describes…
At the end of the story the author draws the conclusion that… (comes to the conclusion that…).
At the end of the story the author sums it all up (by saying, etc.).
The concluding words are…
First of all…
To begin with I must say…
Talking (speaking) of…
The thing (matter, fact, point) is …
On the surface (of it)…
It’s beside the point…
To come back to…
Generally speaking…
Strictly speaking…
Putting it mildly..(to put it mildly)
To say the least…
On the whole…
After all…
To sum it up it should be said…(summing it up)…
In short…
The author tackles (touches upon) a problem…
The chapter deals with/ threats the problem…
As the passage goes toward its end…
Strong and weak points of a text are…
Merits and demerits are…
A subtle/fine analysis (deep/ profound) is given…
The author attaches special importance…
The text is divided into…
On the one hand…, on the other hand…