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.