With your readers'
key question in mind to help you define the content of your summary, keep
the following tips in mind:
-
Be concise - Formal summaries typically have length limits
(250 or 500 words for abstracts, a single page or 10% of the total
document for executive summaries). Even informal summaries must
be short to truly serve their purposes. If you are working specific
limits, make sure that you reduce wordiness without eliminating
important ideas! For specific hints on "trimming" your
prose, review the tips on Clarity
in the Style module, or check the Online
Handbook at the University of Wisconsin Writing Center.
-
Include only the most important information - The whole
point of a summary is to highlight key information and provide an
overview, not hash through details.
-
Include all the important information - Summaries need to
provide a clear overview of a document or talk. Because people often
use a summary to evaluate whether or not to read the entire document
(or stay for the talk), it needs to accurately forecast the contents
of the document. Leaving out a key piece of information may mean
the document goes unread by those who need it most.
- Organize the information accessibly - Unlike mystery readers,
who want the novel to build suspense and reveal "whodunnit"
only in the last pages, people who read summaries want the most important
information up front. Typically, summaries begin with a very brief
problem statement and clear conclusions; subsequent paragraphs reveal
the pertinent details and forecast the document.
The next sections of this module provide you with more specific guidelines
for individual types of summaries.
Abstracts-->
