The summary is the brief presentation of the essentials of a topic or subject, both orally and in writing. It consists of reducing or synthesizing the content of a reading, text, document or an oral presentation; making an extract in which the most important of these is collected, with precision and using our own words. It is important to note that the main ideas should be taken into account without altering the initial meaning of the topic.
What is Summary?
Table of Contents
It is an elaborate synthesis that is obtained from the main ideas underlined in a text, or from the notes taken in an exhibition, to elaborate it in the correct way, the order of the ideas must be understood, also, the connection between They that have been exposed in the different paragraphs, in the same way, the material should be organized, write with accuracy and brevity only the basic contributions of the author in the subject matter, with short sentences and without critical judgments.
However, the length of the abstract can vary, but generally does not exceed 25% of the length of the original. The abstract must show the logical links between the ideas explained in the initial text, although this implies changing the order in which they appear, and the writing must adopt an independent and objective tone from the point of view of the author of the base text.
In this same context, it is important to mention that in case of including textual chunks, they must be enclosed in "quotation marks". For example: in journalistic language, the entry of a news item summarizes it and is written with the guidelines mentioned above.
Abstracts can be produced for different purposes, such as:
- To present a literary work, in which case its plot is summarized.
- Likewise, to show a scientific article, in this case it is called a documentary or abstract summary, it details the objectives of the research and the problem that is being addressed.
- It is also presented to demonstrate a sufficient level of reading comprehension in school.
- And to synthesize the information for further study or consultation.
Summary structure
As already mentioned, the summary is a great technique to acquire information, among its advantages we can mention: understanding and discovering ideas, highlighting important relationships, facilitating revision and also allowing complex texts to be easily remembered, this is done more evident when the researcher studies another language, for example: when preparing an abstract in English.
In general, the structure and parts of the summary are as follows:
1. Header: the upper part of the summary must in turn be composed of:
- Title of the text, document or book.
- The author or authors of the consulted text or book must be placed.
- The publisher, the city and the year of the text or book.
2. Introduction: it is the initial part where the development of the content will be explained.
3. Development: it is the development of the body or the important parts of the abstract structure, which must necessarily start from the main idea of the text or book.
4. Conclusion: it is the final part of the work, in which the main ideas are addressed.
5. Bibliography: it is the identification of the type of text using APA standards.
Summary Importance
The importance of the summary is that it is much easier to understand a topic (in particular) when it is analyzed in depth, but using some tools such as: read the text very well to get the most out of it, coupled with this, the main ideas are essential because this process makes the understanding of the subject more secure and comprehensive.
Summarizing helps and ensures that the study time you have invested is more productive and successful. It is ideal for searching and finding the fundamental points, the most important ideas, the key details of each paragraph and the objectives of the message.
Summary types
There are several types of summaries, such as:
Executive Summary
It is a document that is delivered as an appendix to a business plan and that summarizes said document in approximately two pages, it will be delivered to potential investors in a first contact.
Press Summary
Also known as " clipping ", it is a slightly different type of summary, developed within the area of news press, both in print and online summaries.
Within it, the news of the day is simplified, choosing them according to the importance it has for public opinion.
A series of summaries of the response to a given news item is concentrated, through the press.
Literary summary
It is essential in academia, both school and university. These book summaries not only help to facilitate the study of an author or a literary text, but they also have the techniques of summary, in the case of writers, when sending a synopsis of a book to different publishers.
Examples of summaries
A summary must be impeccably written. Several examples are presented below:
- Executive summary example
Executive summary of online company
This synthesis is presented with the question and answer technique, but without showing the questions, it should be shown as follows:
There are remains of accumulated products, occupying space and being an asset that is not producing any benefit. Also many commercial establishments accumulate unsold products.
The business consists of creating a classified ads website for companies, with offers and demands of production surpluses and serial scraps, in which they can liquidate their stocks easily and efficiently. In addition, registering and operating on it will be free.
The source of income will be the sale of a package with value-added services for sellers (for example: offers will appear in bold, and will be among the first positions. Another source of income will be the sale of both on the website and in the emails, notice and in the weekly newsletter.
For the creation of the website, as well as to have sufficient own funds during the first 2 years will require a basis for investment. Entrepreneurs will contribute 50% of the amount, but external investors are needed for the rest.
- Press Brief Example
Found as printed abstract or online abstract
Actor Tom Hanks, who is infected with coronavirus along with his wife Rita Wilson, sent a message to baseball fans emulating the movie "A League of Their Own."
"Hello people. Rita Wilson and I want to thank everyone here in Australia who takes care of us as well. We have covid-19 and we are isolated so as not to infect anyone else. For some people it could result in a very serious illness situation. We're taking things one day at a time, ”Hanks said on Twitter.
Additionally, there are things that can be done to survive this, following expert advice, taking care of ourselves and others. Remember, despite all current events, you don't cry in baseball. Hanx.
That phrase alludes to the movie that commemorates women who played baseball when World War II broke out, in which Tom Hank was the manager of a team.
Commissioner of the League Major Baseball, Rob Manfred, announced Thursday that MLB activities are suspended to prevent the spread of the coronavirus and the regular season will be delayed.
- Literary Summary example
In literature there are many works from which summaries can be extracted that could help to carry out any type of research or school task, one of them is the summary of the little prince, a text that has been an icon of contemporary literature and that, thanks to its simple style, it is listed as a text for children.
It shows one of the most famous stories in literature, it tells the adventures of a child, who comes from a distant planet, the size of a small toy box.
In this same context, there is another theme exploited by literature and cinema, which is the summary of World War II and in the same way, the film summary also takes place in this context. Especially with regard to the Nazi question and the Holocaust, it is also perhaps the largest known horror story in human history and in all of them there is a conflict between fear and revulsion that generate certain problems with the need to know more about them.
To continue with literary themes, there is also the summary of La Independencia de México, which was a political and social process that took place over eleven years. It began on September 16, 1810 and ended on September 27, 1821 by liberating Mexico, formerly the Viceroyalty of New Spain, from Spanish rule.
5 Techniques to summarize a text
To create a text, there are a series of techniques that are explained below:
Summary tabs
It is a card in which a student or researcher stores their personal summaries and allows to save any type of data, the most important thing is to capture the main idea expressed by the author of the source studied.
The summary sheet is used to facilitate the study of a topic, since it contains the most important aspects of it. It is made in the following way; It has a title that goes in the heading, where the subject to which it refers is mentioned and then the specific subject is said in a very simple way. In this card the researcher or student must save the most important points of the topic.
Scheme
It is the graphic expression of the most important ideas in a text. And the rules to make a good scheme are:
- It should be done after underlining and mastering the content of the text.
- The fundamental elements are: title, sections and ideas, the latter must explain each section.
- It must be written in your own words.
- Each idea will go online and with a script in front.
- It must be attractive to awaken the desire to learn.
- White must predominate over writing, that is, neat and orderly.
Ideas list
This technique is mainly based on highlighting the main ideas and secondary ideas of the text under study.
The idea around which the information revolves is called the dominant idea, however, not all dominant ideas have the same relevance; therefore, a distinction must be made between main ideas and secondary ideas.
- The main ideas are ideas that express basic information for the development of the topic in question.
- Secondary ideas express aspects derived from the main theme. Most of the time, they serve to expand, demonstrate, or exemplify a main idea.
In conclusion, both main ideas and supporting ideas are expressed in a sentence.
Summary
Summary is a synonym for summary, it establishes a document that comes to exercise summarizing a plan. Among the main characteristics that it must have is that it should not be longer than three pages and that it is presented with a much more agile and direct wording than that used in the plan.
It is composed of the following points for its preparation: description of the business model, brief analysis of the market, brief review of the team, investment calendar, summary of financial aspects and, finally, an analysis of the different management areas.
It is significant to mention that there are no rules for summarizing; Ideally, the topic should be presented in a few lines and the editor convinced of its importance, interest, potential or attractiveness.
Underlined
Underlining consists of making lines underneath words and phrases to highlight what is most important in a text. And there are the following rules to underline well:
- First, the entire text is read and after the first reading it is underlined.
- It is emphasized paragraph by paragraph.
- In each paragraph there is usually a fundamental idea (almost always at the beginning) and a complementary idea.
- Only essential elements are underlined.
- Anything underlined will have to make sense on its own.
There are texts that have no structure. In this case, it is convenient to do it by placing a short title in the left margin that indicates what each paragraph talks about.
It is not convenient to study a text without having previously underlined it because it facilitates learning, improves attention and makes writing shorter and more effective.
Summary FAQ
What are the characteristics of the abstract?
Topic: one in particularOrder of ideas and hierarchy: must have a structure and hierarchy.
Authorship: be personal, to avoid plagiarism.
Compilation: collect and order sentences and paragraphs.
Concise: clear, with main ideas and most essential data.
Congruent: have a logical sequence.
Content: condensation of the minimum necessary information on a topic.
Originality: information in a concise and clear way.
Bibliography: it is optional.
How does a summary?
A good summary must meet from the general point of view, with the following requirements:- Read all the text silently.
- Separate it into paragraphs.
- Underline the most important ideas in each of the paragraphs and write notes that are important to the writer.
- Write everything underlined in the notebook.
- Order and write the summary trying to be clear, precise, consistent and faithful to what it will summarize.
- Review your writing and remove inappropriate terms while correcting punctuation and spelling.
What is a summary for children?
For children, it is explained that it is a writing of a text that conveys the information of another text in an abbreviated way. It is a fundamental study technique: it requires careful and exhaustive reading to identify the most important information included in the book, article to be studied and currently in online summaries.Any summary must be consistent between the different parts of the summary and maintain a sequence without overlooking any point, characteristic or main information.
