Summaries- 8 principles

1. First sentence should include the author, the main idea, and the title,

2. I break a story or text into sections, then I try to give equal coverage to each section,

3. If it has sections, I include the section names,

4. Use transition words between sections,

5. Beware of adjectives and adverbs.  One can usually summarize a text without them

6. Summaries are sometimes Cliff's notes (all major details), but sometimes summaries are for a different purpose (only the details that relate to the purpose.)

7. A useful place to look at summaries is by looking at movie spoilers.   Think of a movie that you know well.   Then google "movie spoilers+ the movie title."    For a large number of famous movies, two types of spoilers will be available: retellings of the entire movie and actual summaries of the movie.   Only spoilers that leave out many of the details of a film are proper summaries.

8. As a rule of thumb, try to keep summaries under 100 words.  A longer summary is usually not necessary.