Writing A Summary

• Start with a sentence naming the writer and the article title and stating the essay's main idea. Then write your summary, omitting nothing important and avoiding unimportant details. Strive for overall coherence through appropriate transitions. Put the title of the article in quotation marks.
• Be concise in order to compress your ideas. Focus on the most important general ideas put forth by the writers and leave out the supporting details.
• Refer to the writer of the article throughout your summary. Ex. John Brown believes that poverty in Canada is caused by unemployment.
• Never include you own opinions in a summary.
• Conclude with a final statement reflecting the significance of the article - not from your own point of view, but from the writer's.