Summary: What It is, Types, Characteristics, How To Make One

We explain what a summary is and the types that exist. Also, what are its main features and how to do one.

What is a summary?

A summary is a writing that synthesizes the main ideas of a text or a subject of study, in a faithful way to the concepts raised in the original documents. In case a summary contains personal opinions or deductions from other ideas that were not originally raised, it would no longer be a summary, but would be a different article or opinion article.

The objective of a summary can be diverse, such as introducing the reader or the audience to the topic, being a support tool to facilitate the learning of a subject matter (that is, it synthesizes the same topic raised by several different authors) or transmitting only the main data of a news story so that the reader or viewer feels interested in accessing the full story .

See also: Expository texts

Summary types

There are different types of summaries:

• Informative. Synthesizes and provides an overview, from the important data of a document. For example, a scientific article or a press summary.
• Descriptive.  It synthesizes in a deep way the structure of the document or of a literary work. For example, you can mention the sources of information and the position of the author.
• Of research . Collect information from various sources on the same topic. Unify the concepts taking only the main aspects and elaborate a synthesis of the matter in an objective way, citing the sources and avoiding self-criticism.
• Synopsis.  It summarizes in a general way a particular literary or audiovisual work. The word synopsis comes from the Greek and means “vision as a whole.” For example, the synopsis of a book explains what the work consists of, without revealing the end of the story.
• Review. It summarizes the content of a work, but from the personal evaluation of the person who analyzes it. For example, the review of a movie, work, musical composition, sports match, among others. It is not a synthesis, but an opinion criticism that can be positive or negative.

Summary characteristics

A summary provides an overview of a topic.

Some characteristics of a summary are:

• It is short and clear.
• Provides an overview on a topic.
• Maintain objectivity in the description and avoid self-criticism.
• Synthesize the most relevant data of an article, speech or writing.
• It facilitates the learning of a subject of study.
• It unifies the knowledge of different authors who work on the same subject of study.

How to make a summary?

A summary can be made by following the following steps:

• Read the entire document carefully.
• Underline information or paragraphs that contain important information.
• Make notes, if necessary, next to each important concept.
• Highlight the most important words with color.
• Clean up important concepts in a notebook as underlined, annotations and highlighted.
• Rewrite that information passed in clean, this time more synthesized.
• Review the synthesis and eliminate data that do not add to the general understanding of the topic or are not so important.