北师大Summary讲解+练习+范文写法

To write your summary, first scan the document you are summarizing to get an overall
impression.
Then read it carefully, highlighting or underlining the most significant information.
You will want to especially pay close attention to the first and last sentence of each paragraph.
Usually the first sentence is the topic sentence and the last a summary of the paragraph so they
will have the most important ideas.
The First Sentence:
An easy way to begin writing a summary is to refer to the author and what they have written
about.
Ageneral format for the first sentence is as follows:
First Sentence Examples
In his/her/the article {“Article name,”} {Author’s name} + {primary verb} + {main idea}.
In his/her/the article {“Article name,”} {Author’s name} + {primary verb} + {main idea}.
Example: In his article “Children and Video Games,” Steve Peterson strongly recommends that
parents should not allow their children to play video games.
 There are a number of primary verbs that can be used in a summary. Some of the most
common are listed here.
1. Claims 2. Recommends 3. Argues
4. Reports 5. Shows 6. Insists
7. Explains 8. Describes 9. Suggests
Note: Many of these verbs will often be followed by the word “that”.
Other First Sentence Examples
 In the article “Men are different than women”, the author describes 10
important differences between men and women.
 In this article, the author explains how the Chinese economy has developed so
quickly in the last ten years.
The Rest of the Summary
The first sentence should be followed by the main ideas and supporting ideas in the same
order that they appear in the text. Remember that all sentences should be stated in YOUR OWN
WORDS. If you absolutely must use a sentence or phrase from the original text, make sure that
it is put within quotation marks (" "). Also remember that you are just restating what is
expressed in the text; you should NOT be adding any of your own opinions.
Longer Summaries
 Most summaries will be quite short. But if you are writing a longer summary
you can add some phrases like the ones below.