summary

English 102 Name: __________________

Summary Worksheet

Before working on a draft of your summary paragraph, go through this work sheet to help you properly prepare to complete a successful summary. Remember that an academic summary is objective meaning that a writer avoids their own thoughts/opinions and only shares ‘what the author/text’ said. Begin a summary by establishing the source and topic in the first sentence.

1. Create a potential topic sentence with proper attribution of the author and title of article as well as stating what the text’s topic/purpose was:

2. Now, identify and restate (paraphrase) 6-8 key ideas and examples from the text. Try to present them here following the same order as they were in the text and in ‘note form’ using your own words. Be aware and note whether this point was presented by the author themselves or whether the idea is coming from a source used by the author:

a. ____________________________________________________________________________

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b. ____________________________________________________________________________

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c. ____________________________________________________________________________

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d. ____________________________________________________________________________

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e. ____________________________________________________________________________

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f. ____________________________________________________________________________

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g. ____________________________________________________________________________

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h. ____________________________________________________________________________

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3. One aspect of a successful academic summary is that the writer maintains a clear connection between the ideas being shared and ‘whose ideas they are’ (either the author of the article or source support that they used). To do this, writers have to use attributive or author tags throughout the summary. While they aren’t necessary to use with every sentence, sprinkle them in periodically and definitely use them when shifting ‘sources’ -> i.e. from the author to their support/source and back to the author.

Examples using my name: Joyce states that… Author Kevin Joyce argues… The author goes on to point out… Joyce believes… etc.

Go back through your key ideas/examples and prepare for your summary by practicing some ‘attributive tags’ (like the examples above) setting up the author’s, or their support’s (sources they used), connection to the point:

a. ____________________________________________________________________________

b. ____________________________________________________________________________

c. ____________________________________________________________________________

e. ____________________________________________________________________________

f. ____________________________________________________________________________