Useful phrases and how to do it


On this page you will find suggestions how to go about writing a summary and you will be reminded of things that should be included.

First of all, what exactly is a summary?

A summary is where you extract the most important points in what someone else has written or said and report them in your own words as briefly as possible.

How to go about it:

1. Print your article. (Much easier to read and to work with; underlining words etc.)

2. Skim through the article so that you get a general idea what it is about.

3. Read carefully, underlining important sentences and passages.
What is important in this article? Remember you have to leave things out when you make a summary!

4. How long is your summary going to be? Once you know that you can start choosing between all the important things you have underlined. What needs to be included in your summary? Make a list of three or four things that are important in the article.

5. Make an OUTLINE:
You need an introduction and then state the three or four important things (in separate paragraphs).

6. Start writing the introduction; like this, for example:

Mary Smith describes the conflicts between the characters in the television show Melrose Place in her article: "Bad Manners" (Newsweek, Nov.1998).

The introduction should include:

  • Who wrote the article
  • When and where it was published
  • The headline of the article

This is to make it easier for anybody who wants to get hold of the article.

7. Then you write a few sentences about each of the three important things.

8. Tie it all together, the introduction and the three or four paragraphs you have written. Add and take away, rewrite a sentence here and there.

And now you have your summary! Just remember not to make it too long.

Submit to your project discussion:

Read an article - not too short - from a magazine or a newspaper and make a summary. You may add a comment at the end, if you'd like to say something about that topic.