Using a Summary in Academic Writing
Using a summary in an assignment is a way to convey the main ideas or relevant themes of another piece of research.
If you want to analyse ideas, research, data, and information created by researchers and draw conclusions from across the published research you may use a summary in your writing to do this.
Summarising is a critical thinking tool that requires you to engage with the subject matter and describe it in your own words.
This is important because you need to understand a topic or theme before you can summarise it in a way that will make sense in the context of your coursework.
What is a summary
A summary is a concise description of the key points discussed in a source. The summary will cover the important points from the published material in a few sentences without changing the meaning.
The summary can provide an overview of the most important points, ideas or arguments of the original text or a single point.
Written in your own words a summary explains the point or points raised by the original author and includes a citation referencing the published source of the information.
How to use a summary in your writing
Learning to summarise and incorporate a summary into your academic writing is an important skill for students.
Students are exposed to large volumes of information in lectures, seminar groups, and individual research.
Being able to create a summary of the main points, discussion elements, and conclusions can be helpful when writing assignments and coursework where you need to bring these elements together.
Using a summary you can build an overview of a topic, collate similar ideas from multiple authors and provide context for your own research question.
Use a summary to process information
Throughout your academic journey, you will read and listen to vast amounts of information and opinions, so much, it will be impossible to remember it all. Writing notes in your own words will help you learn and understand the information.
It takes effort to listen, read and understand new information. Summarising new information through notetaking is one way of processing that helps comprehension.
By taking notes, you can organise the new information in a way that makes it easier to understand and remember.
Writing notes that summarise the key ideas, concepts, themes, and data in your subject area builds a strong reference tool that you can rely on throughout your academic career.
Use a summary to create an overview
Building your own reference library of notes through summarising your reading will help you create a "bigger picture" of the research in your field that you can draw on in your assignments.
Describing the subject-level overview using published research will allow you to position your research and observations within context.
Demonstrating your understanding of the subject and how your research will contribute to the overall field.
Using your library of notes will allow you to be more productive with the time you have available by using your notes to direct your research efforts and maximise your time for new research and writing.
Use a summary for future research
Notes that summarise the sources you have read will be useful in future research if you can trust and rely on them.
Good quality notes should include references to key themes and concepts you have researched and learned as well as full bibliographic citations so you can reference and cite the source giving your writing credibility.
Use citations for every summary
When you’re summarizing someone else’s work or your own previously published work, you need to follow the right citation style so readers can follow up.
In the Harvard Referencing style after the summary, you would cite the author’s surname, year of publication, and page number.
In the APA Referencing style the author’s name and date of publication are required and a page number isn’t mandatory but is recommended.
Similar to any other time you use someone else’s research, ideas, data or concepts in your assignment or writing, you must include an in-text citation and reference to avoid plagiarism and acknowledge the original author.
When should you use a summary in academic writing
You should use a summary in academic writing when you need to provide a brief overview of a longer piece of writing or text, such as an article, book, or research paper.
Here are some specific situations where using a summary could be useful:
Introducing a topic
Summarizing a research study or literature review
Clarifying a point
Providing context
If you are writing about a complex or unfamiliar topic, you may want to use a summary to provide a brief introduction or overview of the key points.
If you are writing a research paper or literature review, you may need to summarize the main findings or arguments of previous studies or research articles.
If you are making a complex argument, you may need to use a summary to clarify a particular point or to provide evidence to support your argument.
If you are using a quotation or reference to a longer piece of writing, you may want to use a summary to provide context for the quotation or reference.
A summary is a useful tool for conveying the main ideas or arguments of a longer piece of writing in a concise and clear way. Use it wisely and appropriately to support your arguments and enhance the clarity of your writing.
Summary
Using a summary in your assignment can be a useful way to include the main ideas of another source.
If you understand the meaning and content of the source, you can translate it into your own words and incorporate into your coursework assignment.
A summary must not change the meaning of the source or include any personal opinion about the information, this is not the goal.
When including a summary in your writing the aim should be to enhance your writing, demonstrating the scope of your research and how your research question is related to subject area.
