Q: What are the things you need to consider when summarizing the text you have read or listened to?

As you have mentioned ‘text,’ you are probably referring to a shorter piece of work, around 1-2 pages or at the most 4-5 pages. Many research papers would come within the higher limit (excluding the abstract). If you had mentioned ‘book,’ of course, that would be much longer, and therefore, your summary too would be longer.

Anyway, here are key points to consider when summarizing the text.

• Main idea: What is the main idea or premise of the text? You should seek to identify it and then crystallize and present it in your summary, preferably early on.
• Message(s): What is/are the key message(s)? At times, especially for a longer text, there may be multiple. In some cases, this may be similar to the main idea, but in most cases, it’s usually distinct. The message is more like what the writer seeks to inform the reader; the idea is the foundation on which the text is built.
• Audience: As we mentioned readers, it may also be necessary to talk about the intended reader for the text.
• Length: As mentioned earlier, the length of the summary has to be proportional to that of the original text. As this is a summary, it needs therefore to be succinct.

For more tips on writing summaries, whether for academic text or otherwise, you may find the following resources helpful.

• How can I write a proper summary?
• How do I write the summary of an entire book?
• How can we write a summary of a thesis?

All the best for your summary!