The summary is a synthesis technique of the most relevant information in the text that we are going to study using the student’s own words. Or what is the same, IT IS NOT A LITERAL COPY OF WHAT WE ARE GOING TO STUDY.
Don’t be afraid to put your own order and personal focus on the summary you write. It may be that the book develops the subject to study in reverse or providing a lot of previous information that you already master and do not need to have in your summary.
The length should be based on the needs that arise regarding the difficulty of the subject, the previous knowledge that one has or the purpose, but the average is usually around ¼ of the original text.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD SUMMARY
- It is not a simple list of ideas but they are perfectly hierarchical, integrated, linked and related.
- The summary begins with the underline and will go from the general to the particular avoiding unimportant details.
- It has to be seen as a complete expository text , having few paragraphs but well cohesive.
- It is not essential to follow the order of presentation that appears in the topic. Reflect by establishing criteria of interest or methodology .
- Before you start writing you should have a time of reflection, underlining and mental structure , so that when you start writing you have clear ideas.
Due to this last characteristic, the summarizing technique is considered one of the culminating activities of intellectual work. Hence, by requiring a certain degree of maturity, aptitude to analyze, compare and relate, it has to be introduced progressively throughout the teaching.
This means that students must start in this task at basic levels to improve it, especially in the fact of not copying in the summary literally what it says in the book.
It is a technique that they can start from a very young age by asking us to make a synopsis of a chapter of drawings or to tell what they have done at school.
Think that for children between 4 and 6 years old, drawing a picture about a story they have read is the perfect way to synthesize.
I insist that learning to study is something that can begin to be done very early with study techniques that a priori may not seem like they are.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PREPARATION
- Use short sentences.
- Use your own language
- Develop each concept with its argument in a single paragraph
- Includes all technical terms or expressions
- Formulas, principles, laws or definitions is THE ONLY thing that must be transcribed literally.
- It should not exceed ¼ of the original text.
