A summary is imperative for preparing a good-quality essay. Writing an essay summary is to compress the entire text into compact paragraphs. It helps distilling the ideas of your essay in a concise yet convincing manner. An essay summary is based on thorough observation of the facts and context, rather than a dull and incorrect recollection of the overall text. It is particularly essential for students writing academic essays or research papers.
Furthermore, summarization also helps pupils and professionals during the note-taking stage of writing. It provides the writer with a record and helps them have an insight into what they have read or composed. If you are writing a summary of your essay, it will help you recall the information quickly at any instant. As for writing an essay summary to a published text, it assists students in distinguishing their ideas from those of the source.
We have curated for students, researchers, and teachers a quick guide comprising of some hot tips that will help you draft an essay summary with an immaculate outline and content. Below, the tips are listed in order so as to assist students in outlining their essay summary efficiently.
Steps of Curating an Essay Summary
It is impossible to write an impactful essay summary if you do not know where to start from. Here are some quick tips on how to begin with an essay summary:
- The first step is to read the text, whether it is your essay or from an external source. The original text will give you an idea about the author’s tone, writing style, and the context in which the essay is written.
- Reread the original text to analyze the theme and identify the main ideas and arguments that the author has expressed.
- If you face trouble reading the entire text in one go, break it down into smaller sections. Draw a rough outline to divide the text into multiple sections. It will make it readable and easy to grasp.
- While reading the essay, highlight or take notes of the points that seem important to you. Highlighting the key ideas will make it easier for you to refer to them in the summary. Furthermore, it will also help you determine which points are worth including in your summary.
- Once you have a clear understanding of the information from the original text, roughly collect the main key points in form of a paragraph to form a short review.
- Now, you can begin with polishing the rough draft to compose an actual essay summary. Start by writing a short introduction to briefly present the context of the essay. It should consist of the author’s name, background information, and the essay’s background.
- Moving to the next paragraph, state the arguments that you have chosen to include in your essay summary. This is going to be the main body and must be written with the intention to give the reader an idea of what the essay is about. For that purpose, students can include excerpts and examples from the original text and discard any minor or insignificant details.
- After you have summarized the central idea and the main arguments of your essay, your summary is finished. It is advisable to include a summary paragraph to add an academic touch to your essay summary.
The Do’s and the Don’ts
Do’s
- Be sure to include the author’s information, whether it is you or someone else. Adding citations is the most essential element to make your essay summary credible. Besides, it is also crucial while adding excerpts into the book as it could come under plagiarism otherwise.
- Make sure to use the present tense while composing an essay summary, regardless of the tense used in the original text. The reason is that the essay summary is supposed to be age-less and the reader should find it relevant at all times.
- Form a clear understanding of the original essay. If you face difficulty making sense of the text, refer to the internet or an expert in the subject. One way to avoid any ambiguity is to hire a persuasive essay writing service. They will make sure that that the terminologies and ideas are stated correctly and properly in the essay summary.
- Make sure to use the text correctly when citing the author’s quotes.
- Revise your summary thoroughly once completed. It will help you go a step further in ensuring that your essay summary is infallible. Moreover, you may come across a good place to insert a new quotation or add another critical idea.
Don’ts
- Refrain from adding personal viewpoints, references, interpretations, and examples other than the ones stated in the paper. After all, it is a summary and not a preface or epilogue, and aims at providing the reader with an insight into what the essay is about.
- Do not include judgments and evaluations about the original text. Your job is to summarize by providing a precise overview of the essay, not elongate it in anyway.
- Avoid reporting insignificant details.
- Ensure adding signals to transition when you move from one idea to another.
Final Word
An informal summary is a cakewalk, as it does not necessitate the writer to stick to specific guidelines. But a formal essay summary is an entirely different thing. Students must take care of various aspects in order to make the summary acceptable. An essay summary is generally longer as it compresses the complete paper into a shorter write-up.
Moreover, contrary to the popular assumptions, it is detailed, includes excerpts from the original text, and explains the background and the arguments of your essay. Therefore, when drafting an essay, students must be mindful of the critical points, aspects, and arguments so as to demonstrate them later in the essay summary. While drafting an essay summary, students must keep in mind that it is merely a tool for understanding the long text rather than the essay itself in its entirety.