How to write a summary essay

What is a summary and how to write a summary essay?

Writing a summary means to capture the gist of the whole content that is produced. The main idea of an essay is to promote a topic with convincing information and a proof if required.

It becomes significant on the part of a summary to recap the points which were mentioned earlier in a concise manner. The main intention of writing a summary essay is to make readers understand a complex subject or a topic in a convincing way.

It usually quotes or cites what already the original author has written, thereby summarizing it using words like “therefore as stated...” and similar words. Care must be taken to cite the original author’s work else,it might lead to plagiarism. 

How to write a summary essay? 

1.Divide the essay: To summarize a content, it must be divided into 3 sections namely: an introduction part, a body section, and a conclusion section. Each section must then be explained in detail bit by bit.

2.Include a thesis statement: Formulating a thesis statement in a summary essay is very important which brings out detailed information of it in an engaging manner.

3. Length: As mentioned summary essay is not a copy of the original write-up therefore, it should be of the same length as its original but only must take the gist of it and present it in a well-structured manner. It must be concise yet delivering the right amount of information.

4.Organizing an essay: Each point in the summary essay must be formulated in such a way that it can give sufficient amount of information to the reader. For this, an essay must be organized in a certain manner.

5.Transitions: Once all the sections in an essay are organized, they must be well-connected with the help of transitional sentences. Each section must contain transitional sentences in the form of hook statements and thesis statements in the introductory part, arguments and its supporting points in a body section and sentences which connect to the conclusion section. 

Characteristics of a summary essay

1.Summary essay must reflect the original essay(here it does not mean to be a copy of it but the essence of it must remain intact) thus reader need not have to worry about reading the original back again.

2.Summary essay must not deviate from the point nor should it form a different opinion on an essay being written. It must bring out the natural essence that an original essay has.

3.A summary essay must be written in third person which means to refer to someone. Here it means to refer to the author’s work. Example: “The essay is about...”

4.Summary essay must be written in own words by only including the content that is to be displayed. There is a discouragement to use quotes or paraphrasing of the originally written content.

5.Summary essay must contain the details of original work such as the name of author, name of the work etc.

Structure of a summary essay

Here follows a skeleton of a summary essay:

A.Introduction section:

     1.Introdcution with hook statements

     2.Thesis statement

B.Body section:

     1. Paragraph 1

       Summary point 1 along with its evidence

       Transitional sentences

    2. Paragraph 2

       Summary point 2 along with its evidence

       Transitional sentences

C.Conclusion section:

Strong conclusion sentences