How to Write a Summary of an Essay for Your Homework?

Writing summaries of books and articles are common homework assignments since the early grades. It is an essential part of the learning process, which helps students demonstrate that they can understand the study material provided in the classes. 

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

A summary often means that you have to read an article, book, poem, or essay and rewrite the thoughts using your own word. It does not require your opinion on the topic, but it must reflect the author’s stance on the matter and how he or she supports it.

Writing a summary is often more complicated than it sounds. To get good grades for your homework, you have to ensure that you provide all that your professor is looking for. If you are not entirely sure about writing a summary, you can seek help from experts online.

Several websites provide quick online help to students who feel stuck with their assignments. They can help you find what you need to write the article. If you are struggling at a particular stage of your summary, the experts can tell you how to overcome the hurdles. 

Moreover, your professor would look for something more than a restatement of the arguments from the article that you won’t be aware of. The homework experts can guide you to include the information so that you can get higher grades. 

In this blog post, we are going to discuss the various steps of summarising a piece of literature so that you can get the best possible grades for it.

Study the Abstract

If you wish to draw a summary for the article or essay, start with the abstract. An abstract is an author’s summarization of his work, so it will contain all the necessary information that you will need. The abstract is also useful to draw an efficient structure of your report so that you don’t miss out on any vital information. An abstract often contains the following matters that you can utilize:

  • The background of the information provided in the essay
  • Essential statistics to support the information
  • A short explanation of the topic
  • Objectives of providing the information
  • Goals of writing the essay

Read the Essay Thoroughly

The second step to write a summary for any essay is to read it thoroughly once or twice. Don’t bother writing any points when you read or initially, but instead focus on scanning the article for the vital information that the author wishes to provide. If you feel that the study is complicated, read it one more time to ensure that you understand it.

If you are still not entirely sure of what the author is trying to say, look for information online or seek help from experts. Without a proper understanding of the author’s point of view, you will not be able to write a good summary. 

Take Notes

Once you have understood what the article is about, start taking notes. You will not only need to talk about the information that the author intends to provide, but also the source of that information, the author’s views, and the arguments provided to support those views. Look for the vital keywords provided in the article, so that you can highlight the use of these keywords in support of the author’s opinion. 

Writing the Summary

Once you have taken the vital notes related to the article, it is time to start writing the summary. Before you start writing your homework, make an outline using the points you have noted from the essay. It will help you to stay on track with your assignment and ensure that your report is well structured.

You must remember that your objective is to reflect on the author’s view about the topic, and not that you think or feel about the subject. You are to analyze the author’s arguments instead of providing your thoughts on the matter. 

Your report must demonstrate how well you have understood the views presented by the author and the arguments offered. You must identify the premises in which the author has based his opinions and the methodology used to provide those views. You also need to analyze the success of the author concerning the presentation of the viewpoints and arguments. 

In your report, you must also examine the sources used by the author to obtain the information. You can include your opinion on whether you think it was the right decision to get information from the sources chosen by the author. If you feel that the author could have chosen better sources, you will need to prove evidence to defend your view. 

Paraphrasing and Quoting

An effective summary must be balanced with paraphrasing to show that you have understood the author’s intention and views behind writing the article. You must demonstrate that you can present your deductions in your own words. You can also use direct quotes from the essay to support your viewpoint once in a while. Make sure that you follow the rules of quotations and paraphrasing to avoid plagiarism. 

A summary report for your homework must be more than rewriting what the author has said in the essay. It must also present your examination of the author’s viewpoints, the source of those views, and the effectiveness of the arguments presented. Your summary should explain what the author was trying to achieve with the essay and how successful were the efforts.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top