Summaries condense longer passages by including the most important ideas and omitting minor details. Essentially, you are restating the central idea of the author into your own words.
Include an in-text citation (often called "parenthetical referencing," meaning citing within a paragraph) to indicate where the passage you summarized begins and ends. Attributive tags indicate where a summary begins, and are good for long passages.
Some examples include:
"Sociolinguist Suzanne Romaine suggests that..."
"Paul Krugman, an economist at Princeton University, once stated..."
"Dr. Mitsunaga, in his address to an international audience of orthopedic surgeons, relayed the story of a most unusual surgical technique practiced in the South Seas..."
Avoid including opinions or "feelings" about the passage. Opinions can be included in your paper, but must be clearly distinguished from summaries. Remember your audience! You are summarizing for the benefit of your readers, and your job is to do that clearly and efficiently.
To summarize a passage, read it and put it down. Using your memory, explain the passage in your own words. Double-check the passage to make sure you have remembered the author's exact words and have not misrepresented his or her ideas.
