TL;DR:
A summary states the author's main idea and key points, in your own words, without your opinion.
Read twice, mark the main idea, write from memory, then check against the article.
Cut detail, not meaning: examples and repeats go first.
Your teacher asks for a 120-word summary of a news article. The article is far longer, full of quotes and numbers, and you are not sure what to keep. A summary is not a shorter copy. It is a new, short piece of writing that tells a reader who has not read the original what it said.
What a summary is and is not
A summary reports the main idea and the key points of the original, in your words, in proportion to how much space each had. It leaves out your reaction. A response or review says what you think. A summary says what the author said, fairly, even if you disagree.
Worked example: a 120-word summary of a news article
To keep this honest, the article below is invented for practice. It is about 600 words long, and you do not need the full text to see how the method works. Here are the notes from reading it twice.
Main idea. The city council voted to add protected bike lanes on Maple Street, and shop owners are worried about lost parking.
Key point 1. Supporters: safer for children riding to two schools; two cyclists were hurt there last year.
Key point 2. Opponents: about thirty parking spaces would be removed, which shop owners say will cost them customers.
Key point 3. The council response: extra short-term parking on side streets and a sales review after one year.
Key point 4. Timing: construction next spring, about three months; the design can change if it fails.
Left out: a long quote from a shop owner, the history of the street, the names of council members, and a paragraph about cycling in other cities.
Now write the summary from the notes, without looking at the article, in about 120 words:
The city council has voted to add protected bike lanes along Maple Street, a main route to two nearby schools. Supporters say the lanes will make the street safer for children cycling to class, and they note that two cyclists were hurt there last year. Shop owners object that losing about thirty parking spaces will cost them customers. In response, the council promised extra short-term parking on nearby side streets and a review of shop sales after one year. Construction is planned to start next spring and should take about three months. Council members added that the design can be changed if the lanes do not work as planned, which they hope will ease the owners' concerns about the change.
The word count is exactly 120. Check it against the article's main idea (bike lanes versus parking), both sides, the council's answer and the timeline. Nothing in it is your opinion, and no sentence is copied from the article.
The method step by step
Read for the gist: Read the article once without marking. Ask what the whole thing is about in one sentence.
Read again and mark: Underline the main idea and each key point. Cross out examples and repeats mentally.
Write from memory or notes: Close the article and write from your notes. That forces your own words.
Check and trim: Reopen the article. Fix any errors, add anything vital that is missing, and cut to the length you need.
Your own words, not the author's
Changing a few words of a sentence is not summarising. Rebuild each idea in your own structure. If a key phrase has no substitute, such as a name or a technical term, you may keep it in quotation marks. For anything beyond that, rewrite, and name the source: "According to the article,..." or a citation in the style your class uses.
Keep opinions out
Words like "unfortunately", "clearly" and "sadly" add your view. If the article says something is a problem, say "the article describes it as a problem" or report who said so. In a summary, "Shop owners object" is a fact about the article, while "the shop owners are being selfish" is an opinion.
Choosing what to cut
Cut quotations first, keeping their point.
Cut examples and repeated points.
Cut background history unless the main idea depends on it.
Cut adjectives and filler words.
Never cut the main idea or a key point to save space.
Note: Length targets differ. Use the word count your teacher gives, and do not stop at 100 words if the assignment says 120. Ask what the extra space should include.
A quick check before you hand it in
Could a reader who has not seen the article say what it was about after reading only your summary?
Does it include both sides if the article presents two?
Is each sentence your own wording, with any borrowed phrase in quotation marks?
Is it within the word limit you were given?
Your plan for this week
Pick a short article you have to read for class. Read it twice, write the one-sentence main idea, then write a 100-word version from notes. Then ask DuckyHelper to quiz you out loud on what the article said, without the page in front of you, as a test of whether you really understood it.
Frequently asked questions
Should the summary be in present tense?
The usual convention is the present tense for what an article says ("the author argues"), but follow your teacher's preference.
Can I include a quote?
Sparingly, and only when the exact words matter. Mark it with quotation marks and cite it.
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