Writing a one-page Summary

Some assignments will ask you to write a one-page summary of that evening’s
reading.

Being able to write a summary of a longer document or

set of materials is a real-world skill, which every
educated person needs to develop. If you become a
scholar in the world of academics, you will be asked
to develop an “Abstract” of any article you write for
publication. Typically the abstract is a few
paragraphs long and contains only the main points of
your longer essay; and it appears immediately before
your article in a scholarly journal. If you join the
business world, you will find yourself writing “Executive
summaries” of long reports for the General Manager or President of your
company. In either case, the ability to read through large amounts of
material, pull out the main ideas, and organize them into a package that
transmits the content of the original work with integrity is a sought-after
skill. You’ll get practice doing that in this course.

Here are the steps:

1. Read the article (chapter from Land of the Firebird).

2. Sift through the mass of ideas to find the two-three main points.
3. Organize your summary this way:
a. Introductory paragraph. Here you give the reader a general idea
of the material to be covered. A dull, but often-used, way is to include your
main points by name in the introduction. But there are better ways to lead
into your summary. One is to pose a question.
b. Paragraph for each main point. Ideally you will include a transition
at the end of each paragraph to the next.
c. One final paragraph to conclude your summary. Often a final
paragraph places the summary’s information into some helpful context –
historical, political, etc.