Try It Yourself: Summarizing

The following six steps will help you prepare a summary.

• Read the entire source at least twice and annotate it at least once before writing a summary.
• Write an opening sentence that states the author's thesis.
• Explain the author's main supporting ideas, reviewing your notes to make sure you have included all of them. Be careful not to plagiarize, and use quotations only where appropriate.
• Restate important concepts, key terms, principles, and so on. Do not include your own opinion or judge the essay in any way.
• Present the ideas in the order in which they originally appeared.
• Review your summary once it is complete. Consider whether someone who hasn't read the original would find your summary sufficient to understand the essence of the original work.

1		Now use the writing space provided for a summary of the essay you have been assigned.