Research

Review of Common Summary Writing Issues & How to Fix Them

Just looking at the name of the assignment, you approximately know what task you will need to accomplish. Summaries present a short version of a source text, focusing attention just on key points. It sounds very easy to accomplish. Students write about what they read.

However, when it comes to preparing the paper, different issues occur. Creating high-quality texts to score top grades is not that easy. You gain writing experience only by trying. Meanwhile, learning about common difficulties allows avoiding them in the future.

Selecting Correct Information for Summary

Tutors are often assigned to summarize different articles or even large books to see how students have understood the material. While reading essays or watching movies, the main task is to define key points. Memorizing facts helps, but you must explain their importance. As summary has size limits, you cannot simply rephrase the original text.

That is why the common problem is to find what info to leave and what to omit. A-grade students recommend reading texts at a slow pace. Make sure you understand everything. Otherwise, read the same passage again or clarify difficult information using the internet. It mostly refers to complicated terms and notions.

Every passage of text conveys some ideas. Writing short notes allows collecting major points of publication. While writing summaries, you can briefly describe each one. Besides, pay attention to the title and general subject. Most ideas support the main thesis of the paper. Thus, you can define what information is relevant to the main subject and what you can leave out.

Using Subjective or Objective Viewpoint

When students must sum up academic text, essays, TV shows, etc., they struggle with selecting the correct approach. You can evaluate data objectively and subjectively. The first one focuses on facts and results. While using it, you must not write in the first person.

The second one allows describing materials through personal opinion. Thus, which one to choose? Always check assignment requirements. Professors may indicate the needed approach. Otherwise, pay attention to the source text subject. In arguments, express personal thoughts in a subjective way. While evaluating articles, statistical and scientific materials, try remaining objective.

Writing Too Long Summaries

The longer the target text is, the longer summary will be. However, there are still limits, which you must follow. Make sure always to know them. After reading the materials, you can gather wonderful ideas. Feel free to describe them. However, avoid making too long sentences.

Three is always a possibility to explain something shorter. Students commonly write too long summaries and then must remove paragraphs to fit the requirements. You can greatly save time on that by preparing assignments correctly from the beginning.

Citing Statements & Referencing Styles

Quoting the author’s words allows supporting your statements in summary. However, students often use citing too much. You must present a short overview of the text rather than retelling it. It is better to describe information in your own words. Sometimes, you should not use citations at all.

Another issue is formatting. You can write a personal opinion on a subject with great interest. However, do not forget about referencing style. Most academic assignments have such specifications. Each style contains a set of rules, which your paper must follow. Always check formatting requirements and adjust them after finishing writing.

Delivering Highly Original Texts

Reaching maximum uniqueness with summaries is a tough challenge. This type of assignment requires describing materials, which involves using the same words and phrases. That increases the similarity between the two texts. Paraphrasing helps to reduce plagiarism in the paper. Using matching synonyms allows reaching needed originality.

Another issue is online samples. Students find already written papers online. Their uniqueness is definitely low. In case you are struggling to write a paper alone, using a summaries website with experts can really help.

What You Must Avoid in Summary

Never add information that is outside of the text. While studying a certain subject, you can know some additional details. However, if you describe data objectively, just evaluate the given information. In subjective summaries, requirements are not so strict. However, be careful of writing more than needed.

Always remember that a summary is not an outline. While gathering the main points of the text, do not list them with brief details. Conduct deep analysis of the message that the author wants to convey. Pay more attention to difficult statements, which require more explanations.

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