Summarizing

Summarizing a Variety of Academic Texts

Objectives

1. Define what summarizing is.
2. Familiarize techniques in summarizing.
3. Summarize a variety of academic texts.

What is Summarizing?

• A brief restatement of a text’s main points.
• Selecting key features of a text to create a shorter version.

Two Aims of Summarizing

• Reproduce: To capture the main idea and key points of a text.
• Restate: To express the text in as few words as possible.

Note: Be careful not to plagiarize the author’s words. If you use even a few words from the original text, place them in quotation marks. To avoid plagiarism, try writing the first draft of your summary without looking at the original text.

Techniques in Summarizing

1. Include the title and identify the author in your first sentence.
2. Identify what the piece/article is about.
3. Omit ideas that are not central to the text.
4. Avoid writing opinions or personal responses.
5. Avoid plagiarism.

Benefits of Summarizing

• Helps identify key ideas while ignoring irrelevant information.
• Improves memory and comprehension.
• An effective tool for self-evaluating understanding of the original text.

Tips in Summarizing

1. Read the text carefully.
2. Ask yourself:
   • What is the main idea?
   • What are the crucial details supporting the main idea?
3. Highlight, underline, or jot down the main points of the text.
4. When summarizing an entire essay, outline the writer’s argument.
5. Summarize in chronological order.

Let's Practice!

Example 1

Original Text:
"Children spend a very large proportion of their daily lives in school. They go there to learn, not only in a narrow academic sense, but in the widest possible interpretation of the world – about themselves, about being a person within a group of others, about the community in which they live, and about the world around them. Schools provide the setting in which such learning takes place."
(Leyden, S. 1985. Helping the Child of Exceptional Ability. London: Croom Helm, p. 38.)

Summary:
Schools are places for children to learn about life, themselves, other people, and academics.

Example 2

Original Text:
"From 93 million in 2015, the country has a total population of 103.3 million today. This number is composed of 15% senior citizens, 49.5% youth (14-40 years old), 20.5% other adults (41-59 years old), and 15% children (13 years old and below). These percentages are estimates as they change through mortality and aging."
(Cojuangco, N. 2016. Various Sectors of the Philippines, p. 5.)

Summary:
The Philippines has a population of 103.3 million, with youth making up the largest portion.