Guidelines for Writing an Academic Summary

Audience: Your audience for this assignment is your instructor and your classmates. Although
your readers are familiar with the text you’ve chosen, you should thoroughly represent its main
ideas and key points, and provide accurate textual evidence throughout.

Requirements: Your summary should accurately and objectively represent the authors’
purpose and main ideas in NO less than 450 words (about one page) and no more than 650
words.

To achieve your purpose with your audience, use the following strategies in your summary:

Do's and Don’ts

 State your name and type of work.

 Introduce the text in the beginning of your summary so your readers know which text you
are summarizing. Include the author (or authors’) names and the text title, the source and
the date of publication as well as its title within the first few sentences as well as area of
study the article belongs to and target audience it is aimed at;
 Focus on the writer (or writers’) arguments by reporting the text’s thesis and supporting
ideas. Show that you understand the “big picture”—the writer’s (or writers’) purpose and
how he or she supports it;
 Avoid giving examples and evidence that are too specific, to maintain the focus of the
overall argument of the article. Feel free to generalize about types of evidence, kinds of
examples, and rhetorical strategies used by the authors to support their argument;
 Avoid simple words. Your summary should sound sophisticated
 Avoid wordiness
 Avoid repeating words
 Avoid evaluation
 Use pronouns discretely (do not use I, we, us)
 Use transitional words and phrases
 Make sure your verb tenses agree
 Avoid clichés and colloquialisms
 Avoid adverbs (very, really) and unnecessary adjectives (descriptive language such as
pretty, great, wonderful)
 Don’t embellish, but do be specific
 Do not use epigraphs no matter how brilliant, insightful, or emotive
 Use author tags so that your reader understands that you are reporting authors’ ideas;
 Use an objective tone and a mix of paraphrased source material.
 Write three solid body paragraphs
o This means that the actual paragraphs should be about the same length; not one
large paragraph and two very short ones, for instance.
 Check that you’ve used ACADEMIC VOCABULARY. See your textbook
(Academic Vocabulary in Use)
 Сheck that you've used at least 7 sophisticated linkers.
 Сheck that you've used at least 7 author tags from the other attached file. Highlight
them.
 The conclusion of your summary is a restatement of the thesis plus of the ideas you
summarized in your summary. No new information except the next steps of the
research if they are mentioned in the article
 PARTS OF A 5-paragraph SUMMARY

I. Introduction

A. Attention Getter IF YOU FEEL LIKE IT (=background?)

B. FRAME SENTENCE (In his/her/their article (or lecture) "________________________,” (title,

first letter capitalized), published in ______________ (source, year),

_____________________ (author/lecturer's last name + title/bio)

argues/claims/reports/contends/maintains/states that ____________________________.

(main idea/argument /Thesis Sentence; S + V + C)

C. Area of focus/field of study/target audience

D. Short overview of body paragraphs

II. FIVE Body paragraphs

Note: The transition and topic sentence may be in the same sentence. Use transitions throughout
your paper.

Each consisting of

A. Transition/Linking words

B. Topic Sentence (connect back to the main idea/thesis sentence = major point)

C. Arguments (most important details= minor points)

D. Mini conclusion

III. Conclusion

Note: The transition and thesis may be in the same sentence.

A. Transition

B. Restate thesis sentence

C. Summarize points/topic sentences

D. “So what?" (relate to your attention getter = next steps)

Please, do not include your opinion.