Writing about Texts
Summarizing a Text
When you finish reading a text, it’s a great idea to stop for a moment and write a summary of what you just read.
A good summary accomplishes the following:
- It identifies or names the piece and its author(s) and states the main purpose of the text.
Example: In his essay, “Consider the Lobster,” writer David Foster Wallace asks readers to consider the ethical implications of feasting on lobsters. (You can find a copy of this essay online at gourmet.com.) - It captures the text’s main points.
- It does not include the reader’s opinions, feelings, beliefs, counterarguments, etc.
- It is short. The idea of a summary is to “boil down” or condense a text to just a few sentences.
Most important of all, when you create a summary of a text, it helps you review what you read and helps your brain capture the main ideas. Writing these down cements the memories; this will help you recall them more easily later on.
Check Your Understanding: Summarizing a Text
Read “Replace Annual Physicals with Real-Time Biomarker Monitoring.” (This article by Alex Berezow and Eric Tan can be found online at the Scientific American blog site.)
Write a summary of this text, using the above guidelines.
See the Appendix, Results for the “Check Your Understanding” Activities, for answers.
