English
How do you summarise a text?
Quick answer
Summarising means retelling the most important ideas of a text briefly, in your own words, leaving out small details and examples.
In one sentence
Summarising is boiling a text down to its main ideas, in a few sentences and in your own words.
Explained
If a friend asks What was the film about?, you do not describe every scene. You give the main events in a minute. That is a summary. Summarising a book, chapter or article works the same way.
A good summary is:
- short: much shorter than the original
- complete: covers the beginning, middle and end, or all the main points
- in your own words: not copied sentences
- neutral: no opinions or guesses, unless you are asked for an inference or a view
It is different from retelling, which goes through events in order with lots of detail. A summary picks out only what matters.
Step by step
- Read it all firstYou cannot pick the main ideas until you know the whole text.
- Find the main idea of each paragraphOften one sentence, the topic sentence, tells you. Note a few words for each.
- Cut the extrasLeave out examples, descriptions, repeated points and minor characters.
- Join it upWrite the key points as a few connected sentences in your own words.
- Check itWould someone who has not read the text understand what it is about?
For stories, a handy frame is Somebody... wanted... but... so... then...: A girl (somebody) wanted to win the race, but she fell, so she got up and kept running, then she finished proudly in third place.
For information texts, ask who, what, where, when, why and how.
book
notebook
pencil
Examples
Text: Bees visit flowers to collect nectar, a sugary liquid. They carry it back to the hive, where it is turned into honey. While they visit flowers, pollen sticks to their bodies and is carried to other flowers, which helps the plants make seeds.
Summary: Bees collect nectar to make honey, and they help plants make seeds by carrying pollen between flowers.
Common mistakes
- Too long. If your summary is nearly as long as the text, cut harder.
- Only the beginning. Many summaries stop halfway. Make sure the ending is there.
- Copying sentences. Change the wording, keeping the meaning.
- Adding opinions. This boring story is about... belongs in a review, not a summary.
Quick quiz
Summarising
Check what you know with 4 quick questions.
Question 1 of 4
What should a summary include?
Practise it
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Reading comprehension practice
For grown-ups
Related topics
Inference
Inference means working out something the writer has not said directly, using clues in the text plus what you already know. It is often called reading between the lines.
Paragraphs
A paragraph is a group of sentences about one main idea. Start a new paragraph when the time, place, topic or speaker changes.
Fact and opinion
A fact is something that can be checked and proved true or false. An opinion is what someone thinks or feels, and other people may disagree.
Mind maps
A mind map is a diagram with one main idea in the centre and branches spreading out to related ideas. It helps you organise a topic and see the connections.
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that describes a noun, telling you what kind, which one or how many, like a huge elephant, a sour lemon or three red balloons.
Adverbs
An adverb gives more information about a verb, adjective or another adverb, telling how, when, where or how often, like slowly, tomorrow, outside or always.