The document provides guidelines for summarizing texts effectively in 3 sentences or less. It explains that a good summary deepens understanding, identifies key ideas and examples, and captures the main ideas concisely without copying directly from the original text. Good summaries should be shorter than the original and refrain from irrelevant details or opinions. The document also offers formatting tips and recommends using reporting verbs to incorporate sources.

2. SUMMARIZING?
• Deepen your understanding of the text;
• Learn to identify relevant information or key
ideas;
• Combine details or examples that support the
main ideas/s;
• Concentrate on the gist or main idea and key
words presented in the text; and,
• Capture the key ideas in the text and put them
together clearly and concisely.

3. NOT SUMMARIZING?
• Write down everything;
• Write down ideas from the text word-to-
word;
• Write down incoherent and irrelevant
ideas;
• Write down ideas that are not stated in the
text; or
• Write down a summary that has the same
length or is longer than the original text.

4. GUIDELINES IN
SUMMARIZING
1. Clarify your purpose before you read.
2. Read the text and understand the meaning.
Do not stop reading until you understand the
message conveyed by the author. Locate
the gist or main idea of the text, which can
usually be found either at the beginning, in
middle, or in the end.
3. Select and underline or circle the key ideas
and phrases while reading: another strategy
is to annotate key

5. GUIDELINES IN
SUMMARIZING
4. Write all the key ideas and phrases you
identified on the margins or on your
notebook in a bullet or outline form.
5. Without looking at the text, identify the
connections of these key ideas and
phrases
using a concept map.
6. List your ideas in sentences form in a
concept

6. GUIDELINES IN
SUMMARIZING
7. Combine the sentences into paragraph.
Use
appropriate transitional devices to
improve
cohesion.
8. Ensure that you do not copy a single
sentence
from original text.
9. Refrain from adding comments about the

7. GUIDELINES IN
SUMMARIZING
10. Edit the draft of your summary by
eliminating redundant ideas.
11. Compare your output with the original text
to ensure accuracy.
12.Record the details of the original source
(author’s name/s, date of publication, title,
publisher; place of publishing and URL(if
online).
It is not necessary to indicate the page
number/s

8. GUIDELINES IN
SUMMARIZING
13. Format your summary properly. When
you combine your summaries in a
paragraph, use different formats to show
variety in writing.

9. FORMATS IN SUMMARIZING
• Idea Heading Format - The summarize
idea comes before the citation
Example:
Bench marking is a useful strategy that has
the potential to help public officials improve
the performance of local services (Folz,
2004; Ammons, 2001). Once the practice of a
particular city is benchmarked, it can be a
guidepost and the basis for the other
counterparts to improve its own

10. FORMATS IN SUMMARIZING
• Author Heading Format - The summarize
idea comes after the citation. The author’s
name/s is/are connected by an appropriate
reporting verb.
Example:
The considerable number of users of FB has led educators to utilize FB for
communicating with their students (Grant, 2008; as cited in Donmus, 2010). The study of
Kabilan, Ahmad and Abidin (2010) shows that the students perceived FB as an
online environment to expedite language learning specifically English. Donmus
(2010) asserts that educational games on FB fecundate learning process and make
students’ learning environment more engaging. As regards literacy, this notion reveals
that FB could be used as a tool to aid individuals execute a range of social acts through
social literacy implementation(ibid). Blackstone and Hardwood (2012) suggest the
facilitative strength of FB as it either elicits greater engagement on collaboration
among students.

11. FORMATS IN SUMMARIZING
• Date Heading Format - The summarized
idea comes after the date when the
material was published
Example:
On the other hand, active participation of the citizens in development contributes to a
sound and reasonable government decisions. In their 2004 study on the impact of
participatory development approach, Irvin and Stansbury argue that participants
can be valuable to the participants and the government in terms of the process and
outcomes of decision making.

12. USING REPORTING VERBS
• A reporting verb is a word used to discuss
another person’s writings or assertions.
• They are generally used to incorporate the
source to the discussion in the text.
Having a syntactically, correct sentence is not enough to create
meaning. As Noam Chomsky pointed out, a sentence can be
perfect in terms of syntax and still not make sense. He showed this
by coming up with the famous sentence, “Colorless green ideas
sleep furiously” (Chomsky, 1957)

13. USING REPORTING VERBS
• Hyland (1999) lists a frequency of
reporting verbs used according to
discipline.Discipline Reporting Verbs from left to right, most common to least common
Biology Describ
e
Find Report Show Suggest Observe
Marketing Suggest Argue Find Demons
trate
Propose Show
Linguistics Suggest Argue Show Explain Find Point
out
Sociology Argue Suggest Describ
e
Note Analyze Discuss
Philosophy Say Suggest Argue Claim Point
out
Hold Think
Overall Suggest Argue Find Show Describ
e
Propose Report