Rules of Summarizing, Annotating and Abstracting

How to Summarize

 

A summary is a shorter version of a longer piece of writing. The summary captures all the most important parts of the original, but expresses them in a shorter space. Summarizing involves putting the main ideas into your own words, including only the main points. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Follow the steps outlined below to write a summary:

1. Read the original carefully in order to understand it completely and accurately.

2. Group the original writing into related paragraphs or sections.

3. Write a one or two sentence summary for each group of related paragraphs. These sentences should reflect the main idea of each section accurately.

4. Write one sentence which gives the main idea of the entire writing.

5. Start with a summary introduction, which includes the name of the article or book, the author and if appropriate the date and name of the journal, magazine or newspaper in which the article appeared. Include in your summary introduction your statement of the overall thesis of the original. Follow this with the sentence you wrote for each group of related paragraphs, keeping them in the order of the original.

6. In your final draft, eliminate repetitions and generally make your summary coherent.

When summarizing, follow the guidelines listed below:

* Include only the main points of the original passage

* Do not worry about following the original order of ideas.

* Keep the length down to no more than half the length of the original.

 

 

Here is an example of summarizing provided by Summer Leibensperger (the Academic Center, the University of Houston-Victoria, http://www.uhv.edu/ac/research/write/):

 

Original Passage:

Height connotes status in many parts of the world. Executive offices are usually on the top floors; the underlings work below. Even being tall can help a person succeed. Studies have shown that employers are more willing to hire men over 6 feet tall than shorter men with the same credentials. Studies of real-world executives and graduates have shown that taller men make more money. In one study, every extra inch of height brought in an extra $1,300 a year. But being too big can be a disadvantage. A tall, brawny football player complained that people found him intimidating off the field and assumed he "had the brains of a Twinkie." (Locker, K.O. (2003). Business and administrative communication, p. 301)

 

Let’s first identify the main points in the original passage.

Topic sentence: “Height connotes status in many parts of the world.”

Main point: “Even being tall can help a person succeed.”

Main point: “Executive offices are usually on the top”

Main point: “being too big can be a disadvantage”

 

Summary:

Though height may connote slowness to some people, in the business world, it is almost universally associated with success. For example, taller men are more likely to be hired and to have greater salaries. Further, those in top positions within a company are more likely to work on the top floors of office buildings (Locker, 2003).

How to Write Annotations

 

An annotation is a summary made of information in a book, document, online record, video, software code or other information. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. Creating these comments, usually a few sentences long, establishes a summary for and expresses the relevance of each source prior to writing.

As you read, section by section, chapter by chapter, consider doing the following, if useful or necessary:

* At the end of each chapter or section, briefly summarize the material.

* Title each chapter or section as soon as you finish it, especially if the text does not provide headings for chapters or sections.

* Make a list of vocabulary words on a back page or the inside back cover. Possible ideas for lists include the author's special jargon and new, unknown, or otherwise interesting words. Annotating requires you to think critically about a text.

How to Write an Abstract

 

The purpose of an abstract is to serve as a link between the title of a scientific article (research study) which may be only a few words long and the full article which may be 8-10 or more pages long. The abstract is a useful summary of the article that provides justification for the research. The abstract allows the reader to conclude whether the full article is worth reading.

The abstract should outline the objectives of the research study and its rationale. The materials and methods of the study should be stated with the statistical methods used. The results of the research should be concisely stated. A brief interpretation with the supporting statistics should be provided and a conclusion briefly stated.

There are two main types of abstracts: informative and descriptive ones.

 

An informative abstract summarizes the entire paper, including the key themes and purpose of the paper, major facts bearing on the conclusion, and a summary of key findings. This is the most common type of abstract.

 

A descriptive abstract, on the other hand, concentrates on identifying the purpose of the paper, and describing the major areas to be covered in the report. It would be appropriate, for instance, in a review paper reporting on a survey of literature in a particular field.

 

Task: look through the rules of summarizing, annotating and abstracting given above and prepare informative and descriptive summaries (1200 and 300 symbols accordingly) of articles. Prepare informative and descriptive annotations as well.

 

Adapted: Алмазова Н.И., Никитенко О.А., Попова Н.В., Степанова М.М. Учебное пособие по английскому языку для магистрантов гуманитарного профиля. /Н.И. Алмазова [и др.]; под ред. Акоповой М.А. – СПб.: Изд-во Политехн. ун-та, 2010. – 190 с.