Summarizing involves briefly recapping a longer text’s central points and overall substance in a concise, condensed form using your own words. A well-crafted summary demonstrates your full comprehension of the original source material while omitting unnecessary details.
Effective summarization is an essential skill for students and writers across disciplines. It allows you to encapsulate concepts from research, highlight salient points in essays and reports, and convey key takeaways from books or articles. Summaries are invaluable for note-taking, writing literature reviews, and any situation requiring a clear, high-level overview of external sources.
When to Write a Summary
You may need to summarize a text in various academic and professional contexts, such as:
- Completing stand-alone summary assignments to show understanding of course readings or lectures
- Introducing sources before analyzing or critiquing them in a research paper or essay
- Providing background on prior research reviewed in a dissertation literature review chapter
- Creating executive briefing documents that concisely recap lengthy reports
- Succinctly capturing the main idea of a lecture or presentation in your notes
No matter the scenario, following a step-by-step summarization process can help you create accurate, well-structured summaries adhering to best practices.
How to Summarize in 5 Steps
Step 1: Read and understand the full text
Carefully read the entire text from beginning to end before attempting to summarize. Don’t start writing until you have a solid grasp of the content’s central themes, context, and overall purpose. Re-read sections as needed to solidify your comprehension.
Step 2: Divide the text into logical sections
Break down the text into an organized outline of sections, sub-sections, paragraphs, or thematic components. This systematic “chunking” helps identify and differentiate lower-level details from higher-level main ideas.
For example, academic papers often clearly demarcate the Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, etc. Essays may also be segmented by topic sentences and supporting details.
Step 3: Identify the key points in each section
Review each section and pinpoint the 1-2 most essential key points, topics, arguments, or pieces of information discussed. Omit minor details, examples, data, or supplementary content that is not vital to understanding the main thrust of the author’s message.
Step 4: Restate the main ideas in your own words
Craft clear, concise sentences that accurately restate the author’s main points identified above using original language and phrasing—do not copy verbatim from the source text. Structure your summary in a logical, cohesive paragraph or section that captures the core content.
Step 5: Check against the original for accuracy
Finally, compare your summarized version against the full original text to verify you have accurately encapsulated the substance and conveyed the author’s central arguments or conclusions without misrepresentation or plagiarism. Adjust your summary as needed.
Summarizing Examples
Let’s take a look at an example.
Example of a full article
Lipinski et al. (2022) investigated the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) exposure therapy for treating anxiety disorders compared to traditional in-person exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is a well-established approach where patients are gradually exposed to feared objects or situations in a controlled environment. However, accessing the appropriate exposure contexts can be challenging and limit availability.
The researchers hypothesized that VR exposure therapy could produce equivalent treatment outcomes by allowing customized, immersive simulations tailored to each patient’s specific anxieties and avoidance behaviors. Their randomized controlled trial included 128 participants diagnosed with specific phobias, social anxiety disorder, or panic disorder with agoraphobia. One group received standard exposure therapy, while the other received VR exposure with realistic 3D environments and sensory stimuli.
After 12 weekly treatment sessions, both groups showed statistically equivalent reductions in the severity of anxiety symptoms based on clinician-administered diagnostic scales and self-report measures. Furthermore, the VR group reported higher satisfaction ratings and increased accessibility compared to traditional exposure therapy. However, higher attrition rates were observed in the VR condition.
The authors conclude that VR is a potentially more scalable and versatile alternative for exposure therapy. However they recommend further research into strategies for increasing patient engagement and retention with VR interventions.
Concise Summary
Lipinski et al. (2022) found that virtual reality exposure therapy was as effective as in-person exposure for treating various anxiety disorders, with patients reporting equivalent symptom reduction regardless of treatment modality. However, VR therapy had higher attrition despite increased accessibility and satisfaction ratings.
In just two sentences of around 40 words, this summary objectively captures the central premise, methodology highlights, key findings, limitations, and overall conclusion of the original text in a succinct, accurate way using the author’s own wording.