Writing Skills for Academic English

Summary writing - A summary is an original, coherent, and brief restatement of the essential thought of the source without interpretation or comment in order to support your opinion.

#1. It is composed for a particular purpose to support an opinion of the summary writer.

#2. It condenses a source to its controlling idea and main points, or reproduces the relevant information from a source with as few words as possible.

        #3. It should be written in complete sentences and reworded, as in paraphrasing.

#4. Sentences are to be made with an eye to accuracy and brevity, and in logical order and with nice transition.

        #5. Vague, disorderly thinking or loose, diffuse writing must be avoided.

        #6. It is uncommon to simply summarize without providing commentary; but summarizing must be differentiated from critiques.

#7. Absolute objectivity is important for summary writing.

steps in summary writting

      #1. Have your particular purpose in mind by asking yourself “what do you expect the source to support？”

      #2. Read the text， highlighting important information and marking the key words.

      #3. Paraphrase of each relevant section （supporting one topic or opinion） into one sentence in your own words.

      #4. Make sure your summary is original and evident.