Types of Summaries

A summary is to be accurate and while 100% objectivity isn't possible, the summary writer should be as close as possible to this demand : he has to fairly represent the author's ideas. Writers of summaries have no right to express their own ideas and interpretations.

Types of summary depend on reasons they are written, as the reader's needs and interests must be taken in consideration.

There are three types of summary: Main Point Summary, Key Points Summary and Outline Summary

Outline Summary

This type of summary copies the structure of the text being summarized. It includes the main points and argument in the same order they appear in the original text. The especially effective technique is used when the accompanying response will be analytic, such as an evaluation of the logic or evidence used in a text.

Main Point Summary

A main point summary is read much like an article abstract, giving the most important «facts» of the text. It should identify the title, author, and the main point or argument. When relevant, it can also include the text's source (book, essay, periodical, journal, etc.). As in all types of summary, in a main point summary we may use ‘author tags’, such as «In the article, the author states...,» or «The author argues/ explains/ says/ asks/ suggests...». These tags help to understand which ideas belong to the author and which ones to the summary writer. In this type of summary one may also use quotes from the text, but these quotes have to serve understanding of the text's main idea . A main point summary is often used when one need to write an academic paper to introduce the reader the main point of the context as an argument in discussion .

Key Point Summary

This type of summary has all the same features as a main point summary, but it includes the reasons and evidence (key points) the author uses to show the main idea of the text. In this type of summary one may use direct quotes of key words, phrases or sentences from the text. This summary is used when the writer of it explains the author's idea to the reader. The key point summary includes a complete representation of the author's set of ideas. It is used when the writer intends to respond to the author's argument using an agree/disagree response model. In such a case, there are some of the author's ideas that the writer agrees or disagrees with.

Review

The very word ‘review’, both as noun and verb, tells us what we’ll do . As the Latin root indicates, ‘to review’ means to see again.

The first step in a review is to describe the work and its topic.

The second task is to describe the work itself.

Review articles, including meta-analyses, are critical evaluations of material that has already been published. By organizing, integrating and evaluating previously published material, the author of a review considers the progress of current research towards the clarifying problem. In a brief, a review is an article in which the author defines and clarifies the problem; summarizes the previous work in order to inform the reader of the state of current research; identifies relations, contradictions, gaps and inconsistencies in the literature; suggests the new stages in solving the problem.