Project instructions:
Summary Checklist

? Include the author?s full name, the title of the piece and the thesis in the first sentence.
Throughout the rest of the summary, refer to the author periodically by their last name only.
? Remember to stay in the present when referring to the author. For example, write ?King believes . . .? rather than ?King believed . . .? These references also serve to remind your reader throughout the summary that these are the author?s ideas, not yours.
? Include all of the author?s main ideas. (Remember that the summary needs to be significantly condensed, but it must also be complete).
? Include one or more of the author?s supporting details. (Usually one example or supporting detail per main idea will be sufficient. If there are lots of main ideas in the text you are summarizing, you may want to omit all details. When a main idea has several supporting details, you can simply choose one of them to include in your summary, or you can mention the details ?in passing.? For example, you can write, ?King discusses several specific examples of how cooperating with the oppressor is wrong.?
? Omit any personal opinion. This needs to be entirely objective.
? Be sure to put all of the author?s ideas into your own words, using the author?s words sparingly, and always in quotation marks. (You may choose to quote a few words or phrases, or even a complete sentence or two from the original text when the author?s language is especially powerful or elegant or distinctive. But be sure not to overdo your quotations.)
? The predominant sequencing for summaries is to present the information in the same order that it appears in the original.