Summarising Sources

A summary is selective

A source may contain examples, background information, explanations, statistics and side points. A summary does not include everything.

What you keep depends partly on your purpose. If your task is about the effects of sleep on learning, information about the history of sleep research may be less relevant than the source's main findings about concentration and memory.

Find the central idea first

Before writing, ask: What is the source mainly trying to explain, argue or report?

Then identify the few supporting ideas that are necessary for understanding that central point.

Use your own wording and structure

A summary should normally be written in your own words. Changing a few individual words while keeping the source's sentence structure is not enough.

You may need to combine several sentences from the source into one sentence of your own.

Keep source and writer separate

The reader must be able to see which ideas come from the source.

Useful attribution phrases include:

• According to the article,...
• The author explains that...
• The study reports that...
• The researchers found that...

Stay accurate

Shorter does not mean simpler at any cost. Do not remove qualifications that change the meaning.

If a source says that a policy may help some students, your summary should not turn that into 'the policy helps all students'.

Source idea

Imagine a source explaining that students who sleep too little often find it harder to concentrate, but that sleep is only one of several factors affecting school performance.

Weak summary

Students who do not sleep enough perform badly in school.

This is too absolute. It removes the source's qualification and changes the claim.

Stronger summary

The source suggests that insufficient sleep can make concentration more difficult, while also noting that academic performance is influenced by several other factors.

The main idea is preserved without copying the original wording or exaggerating the claim.

1. Read the whole relevant section before writing.
2. State the source's central idea in one short sentence.
3. Choose only the supporting points that matter for your task.
4. Put the source aside and write the summary from your notes.
5. Use attribution so the reader knows whose ideas you are reporting.
6. Compare your version with the source and check that the meaning has not changed.
7. Remove unnecessary detail, examples and repetition.

Retelling everything

A summary is not a shorter copy of every paragraph. Select the information that carries the source's main meaning.

Changing the strength of a claim

Words such as may, often, some and tends to matter. Removing them can make a cautious source sound far more certain than it is.

Adding your opinion

A summary reports the source. Your own evaluation belongs in a separate part of the text unless the task asks you to combine them.

Source idea: A report states that many employees value remote work because it offers flexibility, although some workers also report greater isolation.

Which is the best summary?

• A. Remote work is better than office work.
• B. Everyone working from home feels isolated.
• C. The report presents remote work as offering greater flexibility while also noting that it can increase feelings of isolation for some workers.
• D. Remote work has many advantages and disadvantages and is very interesting.

Answer: C. It keeps both central ideas, preserves the qualification and clearly attributes the claim to the report.

• Identify the central idea before you start writing.
• Select information according to the purpose of your task.
• Use your own wording and sentence structure.
• Preserve important qualifications and uncertainty.
• Make it clear when the ideas come from a source.