The main purpose of the summary is to inform the readers about the content of some book, article, or scientific work and your text comprehension.The summary performs such functions as informational – it informs the readers about the structure of the book and its relevance in the modern life, and indicative – describes the methods and language tools of the author. Here are some tips to help you understand how to write a summary essay.

Rules of Summary Writing

  • NOTE ALL IMPORTANT FACTS

To write a good summary of the book, you should have a notebook and pen in your hands and note all important facts at the reading stage. Write down all valuable thoughts and your own opinion about the text you have read, focus your attention on details. There is no need to add information about the author and unnecessary facts of his or her biography.

  • CHOOSE A CORRECT FORMAT

The summary can be written in the form of a free essay, and it is enough to lay out your opinion and view on the theme of the plot lines and characters of the work, to provide pieces of evidence that your ideas are right.

  • STUDY THE AUTHORS POSITION

At this stage, you must examine the text from the author’s position. Learn all details and guess what was the writer’s message for people. Write down all his or her ideas and describe what social issues he or she was talking about. Use different quotes from the book.

  • THINK ABOUT YOUR WRITING STYLE

If you are going to create a summary for a wide range of readers, it can be written in a lively, artistic style. For students, writers, and journalists, the journalistic style is the most relevant. The form of the text can also be different. Your summary can be written in the form of a letter to your friend, where you can show your position on the book. You can also create a critical letter, describe your ideas of the work of literature, and address it to publishing house.

The mood of the summary is also of special importance. You can write it in a form of review and demonstrate your critical thinking. Tell the audience about the moments, which you do not understand or do not agree with. Say that you have read the work and found out a lot of inconsistencies and false information in it. A neutral recall is a more relevant option for compiling the summary.

In order to facilitate the task of writing a review, take a notebook and a pen and take some notes about the book you have read. Write down your main ideas and highlight the points you liked.

  • CREATE A CLEAR OUTLINE OF YOUR TEXT

Outline is a very important stage of writing any text and with the help of it, you can build your summary correctly. Write down all your ideas and find the most important from them. They will become your main points of your plan. Describe each thought in detail and start creating your paper. Here are some simple yet useful recommendations for the summary essay writing.

  • MAIN PHASES OF SUMMARY WRITING

First, write about general information, notice the name of a book, tell about its author, place, and time of its creation and publishing, describe the events of the book, show your attitude to the book, and evaluate its relevance at the moment. Characterize all controversial issues of the text. Show your personal opinion about the text as the whole and evidence that it is correct. Use quotations and interesting facts about the writer’s life. Make conclusion and find out both positive and negative (if you have any) sides of the book, show their essence and value for society. Note your recommendations for the age of which the readers should familiarize themselves with this book.

As you can see, the key moment of the summary essay is your impression of the book, and it simply needs to be correctly designed, written competently, and presented to other book lovers. Try to create your own text as it is a very interesting and useful writing practice.