How to write and organize summaries of technical docs and speeches.

1. Summarizing
Technical
Communication
PRESENTATION BY:
SARTHAK
MCA, BHU

2. Roadmap
 What is technical communication?
 Why summarizing is important?
 Important criterias for writing summaries.

3. Technical Communication
Technical communication is a broad field and includes any form of
communication that exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:
 Communicating about technical or specialized topics, such as computer
applications, medical procedures, or environmental regulations.
 Communicating by using technology, such as web pages, help files, or social media
sites.
 Providing instructions about how to do something, regardless of how technical the
task is or even if technology is used to create or distribute that communication.

4. Why Write Summaries?
 You might be required to write a summary if,
for example, your boss is planning to give a presentation at a civic
meeting and needs some up-to-date information for his or her
presentation.
Bosses often are too busy to perform research or attend a conference
at which new information might be presented. Therefore, your boss asks
you to research the topic and provide a summary of your findings.

5.  Then, in condensed form** you’ll report on the author’s main points.
Preparing a summary puts to good use your research, analyzing, and
writing skills.
** a summary is no more than 5 to 15 percent of the length of the
original source.

6. Important Criterias
 A summary is a condensed approach to writing.
 Although the summary will not cover every fact in the original, after
reading the summary you should have a clear overview of the main ideas
from the original speech or document.
 If you are summarizing a meeting or seminar, take notes. If your boss or
instructor gives you the source of information, one major obstacle has
been overcome.
If, however, you need to visit a library or go online to research your
topic

7.  Once you’ve located your research material, immediately write down the
author’s name, the article’s title, the name of the periodical or book in
which this source was found, the date of publication, and the page
numbers.
Doing so will save you frustration later.
This will ensure that you do not waste time searching for the missing
article

8. Organization of
Summary

9. Roadmap
 Overall summary organization.
 Development prospective.
 Length { What to omit? }
 The writing process at work.

10. Overall Organization
As in any well-written document, a summary contains an introduction, a
discussion, and a conclusion.
 Introduction: It begin with a topic sentence which will present the primary
focus of the original source and list the two or three major points to be
discussed. You must also tell your reader what source you are summarizing.
You can accomplish this in one of the ways:
 Preface your summary with a references notation providing the author’s name,
title, publication date, and page numbers.
 Follow your topic sentence with a footnote and give the works cited or
reference information at the bottom of the page.

11.  Discussion : In this section, briefly summarize the main points covered in the
original material.
 To convey the author’s ideas, you can paraphrase, using your own words to restate
discussion of how to the author’s point of view.
 Also use transitional words and phrases to create a coherent and unified summary.
 Conclusion: To conclude your summary, you can do one of the following:
 Reiterate the focus statement, reminding the reader of the author’s key ideas.
 Highlight the author’s conclusions regarding the topic.
 State the author’s recommendations for future activity.

12. Development
To develop your summary, focus on the following:
 Most important points. Because a summary is a shortened version of the
original, you should include only the two or three key ideas within the article. Omit
irrelevant details, like explanations, or descriptions.
 Major conclusions reached. Once you’ve summarized the author’s key ideas,
state how these points are significant. Show their value or impact.
 Recommendations. Finally, after summarizing the author’s major points and
conclusions, tell your audience if the author recommends a future course of action
to solve a problem or to avoid potential problems.

13. Length
As mentioned earlier, the summary will be approximately 5 to 15 percent the
length of the original material.
To achieve this desired length, You can omit materials such as…
 Past histories
 Definitions (unless needed by the audience for understanding of concepts)
 Complex technical concepts
 Statistics
 Tables and figures
 Lengthy examples etc.

14. The Writing process at work
To write a summary, follow the writing process of prewriting, writing, and
rewriting.
 Prewriting:
Conduct your research and determine which information is to summarize. Then
consider how your summary will be used by audience. To prewrite the summary, the
student made marginal notes as he read the article about virtual worlds.

15.  Writing:
Organize your content using modes such as problem/solution, cause/effect,
chronology etc.
Document your source correctly and abide by rules for correct paraphrasing.
 Rewriting:
Revise your draft by,
Adding details, Deleting biased comments, Simplifying words,
Proofreading and correcting errors etc.

16. So this was a summary of how to summarize your
technical communication which is a very important part
with respect to future job prospective.
Thank you