How to Write a Summary: Five Steps, Length Rules and a Worked Example

A summary is a short account of a text's main ideas, written in your own words, with no opinions added. Aim for roughly a tenth to a quarter of the original length. Read the whole text, mark the main point of each section, write from memory, then check every fact against the source. This guide shows one article at three lengths.

What is a summary, and how long should it be?

A summary is a shorter version of a text that keeps the author's main ideas and leaves out the examples, detail and opinion. You write it in your own words, in your own sentence structure, and you attribute the ideas to the author. A good summary lets someone who has not read the original understand what it says.

A practical length rule is about 10 to 25 percent of the source. A 1,000-word article becomes a summary of roughly 100 to 250 words. This is a working guideline, not a standard set by any style guide, so always follow the word limit in your assignment. If your instructor gives a number, the number wins.

Five steps to write a summary

1. Read the whole text first

Read once without a pen to get the shape of the argument, then a second time more slowly. Note the title, the headings, the first and last sentence of each section, and any sentence that begins "In conclusion", "The main finding" or "The author argues". Do not start writing after a skim: summaries written from the first page alone tend to miss the point of the last page.

2. Mark the main idea of every section

In the margin, write a few words for what each section does: "defines the problem", "gives two causes", "reports the result", "rejects the objection". Cross out examples, statistics that only illustrate a point, anecdotes and quotations. What is left is the skeleton of the text.

3. State the main point in one sentence

Complete this sentence without looking at the text: "The author's main point is that ___." If you cannot, you have not yet understood the text, so go back to step 2. This sentence becomes the opening of your summary, which is why it is the first thing to write.

4. Write from your notes, not from the page

Close the source and write the summary from your margin notes. This is the simplest way to avoid copying the author's sentences. Keep the original order of ideas, use present tense for what the author argues ("Okafor argues", "the report finds"), and keep the proportions fair: a section that takes up half the article should not shrink to half a sentence.

5. Check it against the source

Reopen the text and test your draft:

• Is every claim something the author actually said?
• Are names, dates and numbers exact?
• Did you add an opinion, a judgment or a fact from somewhere else?
• Did you copy any run of four or more words in a row? If so, rewrite it or put it in quotation marks.
• Could a reader who has not seen the original follow it?

One article, three lengths

Here is a short sample passage written for this guide, followed by three summaries of it. The passage is invented for illustration.

Sample passage (about 170 words). The city of Millbrook runs its public library on a budget that has been flat for five years, while the cost of books, journals and digital subscriptions has risen. In response, the library board voted last spring to cut opening hours on Sundays and to stop buying print copies of most newspapers. Supporters of the change say the money saved, about a tenth of the annual materials budget, lets the library keep its children's programs and its free internet terminals. Critics, including several retired residents who relied on the Sunday newspaper room, say the cuts hit the people who use the building most. The board has promised to review the decision after twelve months and has asked residents to complete a survey about which services matter most. A final report is due to the council next fall, and the board says opening hours could return if the budget increases.

One sentence (about 25 words): Millbrook's library board has cut Sunday hours and most print newspapers to protect children's programs and internet access, and will review the decision in a year.

Short paragraph (about 60 words): Facing a budget that has not grown in five years, Millbrook's library board cut Sunday opening hours and most print newspaper subscriptions. Supporters say the savings protect children's programs and free internet access, while critics, including older residents, say the cuts hurt regular users. The board is surveying residents and will review the decision after twelve months, reporting to the council next fall.

Longer summary (about 110 words): Millbrook's public library has had a flat budget for five years while the cost of books and subscriptions has risen. The library board therefore voted to shorten Sunday opening hours and stop buying print copies of most newspapers, saving about a tenth of the annual materials budget. Supporters argue this keeps the children's programs and free internet terminals running. Critics, among them retired residents who used the Sunday newspaper room, argue that the cuts fall hardest on the library's most frequent visitors. The board has promised a review after twelve months, has asked residents to complete a survey about priorities, and will report to the council next fall. It says Sunday hours could return if funding increases.

What was kept and what was dropped

The pattern is the same for any article: the main claim and its reason survive, then the opposing view, then the next step. Evidence, examples and descriptive detail go first.

Summary, paraphrase, abstract and quotation: what is the difference?

These four are often confused, and mixing them up is a common cause of points lost in coursework.

For the difference between paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting in an essay, see paraphrasing vs summarizing vs quoting. To restate a single sentence or paragraph, see how to paraphrase. Note that a summary still needs a citation: the ideas belong to the author even when the words are yours.

Do summaries need citations?

Yes. In academic work, a summary of someone else's ideas is cited like any other source use, usually with an in-text citation in the style your course requires, such as APA 7, MLA or Harvard. In APA 7, for example, you give the author and year, and a page number is encouraged for specific passages but not required for a summary of a whole work. Check your style guide for the details, and see how to avoid plagiarism if you are unsure where the line falls.

Common mistakes

• Copying sentences and deleting words. Trimming the author's sentences is still copying. Rewrite from notes.
• Adding your opinion. "Unfortunately", "wisely" and "I think" belong in a response, not a summary.
• Retelling instead of selecting. If your summary follows every paragraph in turn at the same level of detail, it is a shortened copy, not a summary.
• Losing the proportions. Giving the same space to a minor point and the main claim misleads the reader.
• Missing the attribution. Phrases such as "the author argues" or "the report finds" keep the ideas with their owner and keep the voice neutral.
• Changing the meaning. Words like "may", "some" and "most" carry weight. "Some critics" is not "critics".

Checklist before you hand it in

• The first sentence states the author's main point.
• The length matches the assignment, or sits within 10 to 25 percent of the source if none is given.
• Every claim can be found in the source.
• No opinions, evaluation or outside facts.
• No copied runs of words without quotation marks.
• Names, dates and numbers are exact.
• The source is cited in the required style.

Using AI to summarize: a fact-check routine

An AI summary can save time on long reading, but it can also drop a qualification, merge two ideas or state something the author never said. Treat it as a draft that you verify.

1. Read the original at least once so you know what to expect.
2. Run the summary tool on one section at a time.
3. For each sentence in the summary, find the matching sentence in the source. If you cannot, delete or fix it.
4. Check every number, name, date and technical term against the source.
5. Look for words that overstate: "proves", "always", "all". Compare them with the source's wording.
6. Rewrite the result in your voice if the summary is going into your own work, and cite the source.

The Text Summarizer on AdeptWrite works this way. You paste up to 6,000 characters per run (about 900 English words) and choose one of three formats: bullet points (3 to 7 points), a paragraph (3 to 6 sentences) or one sentence of up to 35 words. It is told to use only ideas that are in your text and to keep key numbers, names and terms. It is free and needs no account. It is still an AI tool, so it can make mistakes, which is why the routine above matters. For a longer article, summarize it section by section and then join the results. If your course restricts AI help, follow those rules and disclose use where required.

A few other tools help around the edges:

• Use the Word & Character Counter to check your summary against a word limit.
• Use the Sentence Shortener & Expander to tighten an over-long sentence.
• Use the Paraphrasing Tool when a sentence in your draft stays too close to the source.
• Use the Plagiarism Checker as one extra check on overlap with public sources. It reports similarity to the sources it can search, so a clean result is not proof that nothing is copied.
• Use the Grammar Checker for a last proofread.

Summaries in school, university and work

Conventions differ between courses, so treat these as general patterns and check your own rubric.

• School reading tasks. Teachers usually want the main idea and two or three key details in your own words, often in one paragraph.
• University coursework. Summaries appear in literature reviews, article responses and annotated bibliographies, where a summary is often followed by a sentence of evaluation. Keep the two parts clearly separate.
• Exams and tests. In reading-and-writing tasks, you are graded on whether you picked the right points and on your own wording, so copying phrases from the passage costs points.
• Work. An executive summary, a meeting note or an email recap should open with the decision or the result and the action needed, then give the reasons.

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