Summary

General

Summarising

someone else’s text or speech and expressing it in your own words is a crucial aspect of academic and professional writing skills. As a type of text, a summary is a good way of demonstrating what you have read and understood from it. In other words, in order to summarise a piece of text, careful reading and understanding of the text is required.

A summary differs from an abstract, although it, too, is a shorter version of the original text. An abstract is often written by the author themselves, while a summary is produced by another reader.

 There are two types of summaries:

1. The aim of a basic summary is to convey briefly to the reader what the author or speaker has intended to say.

2. In a review (a summary with commentary), the author also discusses their own views about the written or spoken text.

When writing your summary,, remember to keep in mind which type of summary you need to produce.

How to read a text to be summarised or reviewed

• First, read the entire text to be summarised to get an overview of the topic.
  • Take note of the headings, subheadings, introduction and conclusion.
• Read the text more carefully, section by section, and take notes.
  • After reading a portion of the text, make a note of its main points.
  • Continue working in this method until the end of the text.
• Identify the essential facts as separate from the less important content.
  • Consider which content or examples are secondary and less important to the overall meaning.
  • You cannot necessarily name the most important things based on the amount of space given to them. Sometimes, for example, providing background information or examples take up a lot of space, and yet they might not represent the most relevant content.
• Look for contexts of meaning in the text and in your notes.  This will help you make sure that you have understood the content in sufficient depth. Relevant contexts of meaning may include, for example
  • temporal relations: the change of a phenomenon over time, the sequence eventsinfluencing factors: preconditions, catalysts and obstaclesconsequences: advantages and disadvantages

Guidelines for writing a basic summary

• Based on your notes, compile an account of the content of the summarised text in your own words. Good summaries contain only few direct quotations.
• Stick to the most relevant points, but make sure you cover the topic in sufficient detail and scope.
• The order in which you organise your own text does not have to follow the structure of the source text.
• However, preserve the contexts of meaning as presented in the source text. When summarising, meanings and how they are related must not be blurred.
• Present things objectively without your own comments, if your task is a basic summary rather that a review.
• Establish frameworks and incorporate meta-text as well as signposting expressions to guide the reader. However, a basic summary does not need to include references to the author, such as “According to Smith…”
• Condense the length of the text to about one-third of the length of the source text.
• Keep your writing stylistically and structurally clear. Do not use lists or bullet points. (Ask someone to read your text and comment on its clarity.)

The structure of a basic summary:

• Give your summary a title as follows: Summary of [author’s] text / article [title of text]
• Lead paragraph: introduce the author(s) and their article or book (3-4 sentences)
• Bibliographic information: where was the article published, year of publication, publisher
  • sometimes also the ISBN number of the work and, for serial publications, the ISSN number
• Discussion: It is perfectly acceptable for the structure of your summary to differ from that of the original article or book.
  • If necessary, create sufficiently informative subheadings that guide the reader.

Each subheading should clearly convey the central point of the chapter or section you are summarising. The central point does not need to be mentioned in the first paragraph, as it is often more natural to present it towards the end of a chapter or section.

• A basic summary does not require a separate concluding paragraph and can end once you have conveyed your intended message.

Guidelines for writing a review

• Start by identifying the main ideas and key perspectives in the text you are reading. Be selective, but ensure you do not alter or distort the original meaning of the text. 
• From the list of selected points, choose the one that you find most important or the one you wish to focus on and reflect upon. Construct your text as a coherent whole, centred around this perspective.
• The summary includes both the content and information from the text you’ve chosen to reference, as well as your own commentary. This is why a review is often longer than a basic summary.
• Be sure to clearly differentiate your thoughts and comments from those of the author of the original text. It is important to use expressions like “According to [the author]…'” or “[The author] suggests that….”
  • You can cite the original text with references, especially if you need to specify where the issue you’re presenting can be found in the referenced text. You can do it like this: (Tarkoma & Vuorijärvi 2010, 142–143).
• Integrate your own thoughts alongside those of the author of the original text. Instead of placing your comments at the end of the text, weave them throughout.
• When commenting on the ideas in the original text, it is important to place the text in its proper context and reflect on its content within that framework. Take into account at least:
  • when the text was published and writtenthe academic disciplinethe country of publicationthe original language and language and date of translationschool of thought or subculturestext type

Structure of the review:

• Choose the title in accordance with your perspective
  • Don’t say: Summary of Art Pro Finland’s text “Summary”
• Lead paragraph: Introduce the author(s) and their article or book (3-4 sentences)
  • Bibliographic information: where was the article published, year of publication, publisher (sometimes also the ISBN number of the work and, for serial publications, the ISSN number)
  • You can begin by outlining the key issues addressed in the original text.
• Discussion
  • It is perfectly acceptable for the structure of your summary to differ from that of the original article or book. This means you can adjust the order and titles as needed.
  • Make sure to express yourself in your own words. A direct quotation from the article is appropriate only when it is essential to preserve the author’s exact phrasing. Remember to mark direct quotes with quotation marks.
  • Use subtitles as necessary: Create sufficiently informative subheadings that guide the reader.
    • Each heading should clearly convey the central point of the chapter or section you are summarising. The central point does not need to be mentioned in the first paragraph, as it is often more natural to present it towards the end of a chapter or section.
• Conclusion In a review, the conclusion usually consists of a recap of your chosen perspective and content of the review.

Checklist for writing summaries

And here is the same checklist without the table format: 

BASIC SUMMARY

Explains the main points of a text in your own words.

Contains no personal thoughts or views.

No references to the author, such as “According to Smith…”.

General rule: about one-third of the length of the original text.

You do not have to follow the structure of the original text.

Heading: Summary of [author’s] article [article title]

No separate concluding paragraph

REVIEW

Also includes your own thoughts and views.

Distinguish your own thoughts and comments from those of the original author by using phrases such as “[The author] says…'” or “[The author] suggests that..”

Often longer than the basic summary because of the inclusion of your own ideas.

The title reflects the perspective of review.

The conclusion is often a summary of the content and perspective adopted for the review.

Further reading and exercises on writing summaries and reviews>

Kielibuustin referointimateriaali

Sources:

Helsingin yliopisto, Kielijelppi: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/kielijelppi/lukeminen-ja-referoiminen/  (retrieved 01/10/2024)

Jyväskylän yliopisto, Kielikompassi. https://kielikompassi.jyu.fi/opetus/kirjoitus/kirjoituskurssi/tied_referaatti.shtml (retrieved 01/10/2024)

Tarkoma, Elisa, Vuorijärvi, Aino & Husu, Milja. 2010. Ammattisuomen käsikirja. WSOYpro.

Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. Referaatti – Jamk – Avoimet oppimateriaalit