Thinking and practising the art of writing summaries

Today we looked at a core aspect of research and writing for academic purposes: summarising.

I gave out a copy of 675 words of text from part of the Wikipedia entry on Ansel Adams (the bit about his "Contribution and influence").

I gave out (and talked through) a handout on summary writing tips and then asked you to summarise the piece to about a third of its original length. This is not an easy task but you all worked hard on that.

Once you finished I handed out a copy of my 229 word summary and a copy of the original text with my notes on it.

I asked you to think about what you found it easy or difficult about it. Some common points came up in our discussion and your written reflections on the task:

• It can be quite hard to move away from the words of the original text. I showed one technique that I use which involves first using a highlighter and then making brief notes in the margin in my own words. I then use my scribbled notes in the margin, rather than the original text itself, as a guide when writing the summary. This may not work for everyone but a lot of students find that this is a useful way of producing a accurate and non-plagiarised summary.
• Another point was that the summary that you produce will be based on the purpose of the task and the reader's knowledge of the subject.
• More than one person commented that, once they had read my version, that the task may not have been as difficult as it first appeared.
• A very important point made in your written comments is that we need to understand something before we start to summarise.
• I like the comment that a summary is not just a shorter version of the original.
• More than one person self-confessed to waffling a bit too much - a common trait in all of us sometime.
• Some folk felt they could do a better job of they had more time. A valid point - and it goes back to the idea that in order to summarise we first need to understand or fully digest the information.
• And finally more than one person used the term "ruthless" - in the sense that, having seen my version, that they could have been more ruthless in cutting it down.

Anyway, thanks for your hard work today ...

... next time I see you, you will be doing a short (5-7 min) presentation on a specific source of information that you found useful for your research.