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Writing Summaries
and Reports
CULTURE NOTE Ernest Hemingway
Known for his painfully proud protagonists, Ernest Hemingway made his mark as
a writer of human—usually masculine—experience. His trademark minimalist style,
which won him a Nobel Prize in 1954, has been imitated widely, though no one
else has yet succeeded in capturing the angst of Hemingway heroes. From Jake
Barnes in The Sun Also Rises to Frederick Henry in A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway
heroes exhibit what Dorothy Parker identified as “grace under pressure,” handling
tragedy straight-backed and silently.
A Man’s Man
Ernest
Hemingway wrote about overtly
masculine men, men who
participated in traditionally “manly”
pursuits such as hunting, camping,
and fighting. Today, however, some
people laud men for their sensitivity
and ability to communicate their
feelings, something Hemingway
detested. To what extent are men
stereotyped today? Observe
advertising, entertainment, and other
media to determine what
characteristics comprise a
stereotypical man today.
OBSERVE YOUR WORLD
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Summaries Are Useful
Imagine a world where no one could get to the point quickly. If you made a
visit to a hospital emergency room, a chatty nurse might ask you about all
sorts of irrelevant details: what sort of car you drive, where you live, what your
hobbies are. While these questions might be interesting, they don’t help you
get the aid you require. What you need is a nurse who can ask pertinent questions and sort through your answers to determine what kind of help to send.
Summaries act the same way as an effective emergency room nurse. A
summary concisely restates a longer document such as a lecture, essay, article, or book, emphasizing the key points and eliminating the less important
details. When you write a summary, you use your own words, though you
may want to borrow key phrases from the original. Summaries do not contain your opinions or views of the material you’re summarizing. Summaries
present only what the original writer had to say. A summary contains the
main points of the original but not the specific details unless one or more
of them is unusually important. Thus, to write a good summary, you need
to be able to tell the difference between what is important in a particular
reading and what isn’t.
Here are some examples of real-life situations in which summaries are
helpful.
■ In meetings or academic group projects. Summaries are useful
where a small group of people needs to understand a lot of material
quickly. For instance, if each group member reads just two or three articles and summarizes them, the whole group can learn a great deal of
important information without having to read each article. Being accurate, then, is extremely important in summaries.
■ As study tools for students facing essay tests. Summarizing textbook
chapters or class readings is an effective memory aid. Once you’ve written a summary, producing the same information under pressure (for
example, during an essay test) is easier.
Writing an Effective Summary
A good summary must be based on a thorough, thoughtful reading of the
original text. A summary presents the main support points without misrepresenting the original. Here’s how to proceed.
■ Look over the document for clues about what’s most important. The
most important ideas in a reading will stand out in some way: in the title,
the thesis statement, the introductory paragraph, the topic sentences of
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■
■
■
■
■
■
■
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body paragraphs, or the final paragraphs. Important ideas may also be
identified through headings, italicized words, or words in bold type.
Read the entire document to get a full understanding of it. The only
way to accurately summarize a reading is to understand it completely.
Read the full document slowly and carefully to get a general idea of
what the writer is saying.
Reread the document and underline the important ideas. If you can
“connect” with the material you’re summarizing, you’ll be more likely
to understand and remember it. After your first reading of the material, reread it and underline or highlight key ideas. If you’re not sure
whether to underline a section, mark it and move on. Then, when you’re
writing your summary, decide how important the questionable details
are; you can include or omit them at that time.
Summarize using your own words but keeping the same order as
that of the document. It may be tempting to use the author’s style
when writing your summary, but resist that temptation. Your job is not
to entertain or persuade anyone; all you have to do is present the
author’s material accurately. Present the information in your summary
in the same order that the writer uses in the original document. Do not
use expressions like “the author claims” or “the writer points out,”
which are unnecessary and make the summary longer than it has to be.
Check your summary against the original. After you’ve drafted your
summary, make sure that you have included the important details and
omitted secondary or irrelevant details. Your summary should devote
space, proportionately, to key points as the original does. For example, if
an article devotes one paragraph to each of two points and three paragraphs to one point, then you should give that same percentage of space
to those points in your summary. Additionally, make sure the information in your summary is accurate—don’t exaggerate or downplay details.
Since a summary will often be used in place of the original, accuracy is
essential.
Revise your version for the first three of the four Cs: concise, credible, and clear writing. Check to make sure that your summary has no
unnecessary words or phrases. Remember: the benefit of a summary is
brevity, so omit anything not absolutely essential to communicating the
points of the original. Also, make sure that the connections between
ideas are clear and logical.
Proofread your summary. Correct any errors in spelling, punctuation,
and grammar. Follow the tips from Chapter 7 for help with proofreading.
Document your source. In a note at the end of the summary, include
the author’s name and the title and publication dates of the book, magazine, journal, or newspaper where you found the original article.
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A Model Summary
The following is a summary of an essay that appears in Chapter 21 (page
325). The original is approximately 1,300 words long, but the summary is
about 190 words. Note that the writer includes some quotations from the
essay but few specific details.
Summary of Ernest Hemingway’s “Camping Out”
In the essay “Camping Out,” Ernest Hemingway explains how
knowledge of bugs, bedding, and cooking is necessary for successful camping. First, you must come prepared to repel insects by
bringing, and later rubbing on, oil of citronella and by sleeping
under a mosquito net. Otherwise, your neck will resemble “a relief
map of the Caucasus.” Second, you need to prepare an outdoor bed.
To sleep “warm and get your rest,” bring “just double the bedding”
you think necessary, and then place two-thirds of that bedding
under you. Finally, cooking is the most significant skill in terms of
making or ruining a camping trip. Hemingway explains the necessary tools and ingredients—from a frying pan and cans of shortening to prepared pancake flour and bacon—to make a tempting meal.
He also offers specific cooking details, including how to cook over
coals, use bacon to baste trout, and time different dishes to finish
cooking together. Hemingway’s final cooking instructions give stepby-step instructions for a man to make a pie “as good as his wife.”
Following these steps, says Hemingway, make “the real woodsman,”
or someone who can be “really comfortable in the bush.”
Hemingway, Ernest. “Camping Out.” Patterns of Reflection. Ed. Dorothy Seyler.
New York: Longman, 2004: 240.
EXERCISE 1 A N A LYZING A SUMMARY
Read the summary of Hemingway’s essay on camping. Then, answer the
questions below.
In his essay “Camping Out,” Ernest
1. What is the thesis of the summary? _____________________________
Hemingway explains how knowledge of bugs, bedding, and cooking is
______________________________________________________________
necessary for successful camping.
______________________________________________________________
2. What three areas does Hemingway organize his essay into? _______
Bugs, sleeping, cooking
______________________________________________________________
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3. What suggestion does Hemingway offer for repelling insects?
Using oil of citronella
______________________________________________________________
4. To which of the three areas of camping does Hemingway give his
Cooking; he describes necessary
greatest attention? How can you tell? ___________________________
tools and ingredients and gives pie-making instructions
______________________________________________________________
Someone who
5. How does Hemingway define the “real woodsman”? ______________
can be really comfortable in the bush
______________________________________________________________
EXERCISE 2 SUMMARIZE A READING FOR THIS CLASS
Choose one of the following readings from this book.
“Anywhere But Here: More Connected But More Alone” by Anne Taylor
Fleming (page 371)
“Always Running” by Luis J. Rodriguez (page 260)
“Urban Renaissance Meets the Middle Ages” by Steve Lopez (page 346)
Write a one-paragraph summary of the reading. Be sure to follow the
guidelines for writing a summary.
EXERCISE 3 SUMMARIZE A READING FOR ANOTHER CLASS
Write a one-paragraph summary of a chapter from a book you are reading for another class. Concentrate on including those ideas that you think
you’ll need to remember for an exam. Then, follow the guidelines for
writing a summary.
Reports Are Relevant
We often find ourselves giving a summary of something that happened—an
event at work or school, a situation involving friends or family, or an occurrence on the road, for instance—and then explaining how that event
affected us. Telling a friend how the three-lane pileup on the freeway was
poorly handled by the highway patrol, causing you to be unnecessarily late
to work, makes clear not only what happened but why the occurrence was
relevant.
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If you are explaining or evaluating a situation or event after you’ve given
a summary of it, you are giving a report. Essentially, reports are summaries
with an analysis or evaluation added. Reports are useful in everyday situations such as the following:
■ In school. When you need to write an analysis of a movie, play, concert,
display, or book, a report gives your reader the necessary details to
understand what the event was and why it was or was not effective or
entertaining.
■ At work. When you need to evaluate a new product, program, or
employee, a report is effective. Further, understanding your company’s
review system can help you prepare for your own employee evaluations.
Writing a Report in Two Steps
Writing a report requires all the same skills as writing a summary plus one
more: analysis. While the purpose of writing a summary is to communicate
a longer piece of information in a brief format, the purpose of a report is to
offer your view of the work in addition to the summary. Here are the steps
in preparing a report.
■ Write a summary of the piece, including all necessary publication
information. Include the title, author, publisher, and place and date of
publication.
■ Write your opinion of the piece. Be sure to include a thesis statement
that makes clear your view of the piece, and support your thesis with
examples from the original work. If you claim that a product is ineffective, for instance, you need to show the ways in which the product is
ineffective. Depending on the type of report you write, you may evaluate the piece based on criteria determined by someone else (an
employer or instructor, say) or based on your own criteria: what you
look for in this type of piece, product, or film; how this particular piece,
product, or film measures up to your expectations and experiences.
A Model Student Report
The report at the top of the next page was written by Brian for an American literature course.
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A Review of Ernest Hemingway’s
The Old Man and the Sea
While Ernest Hemingway’s short novel The Old Man and the Sea
revitalized his career, it is really a depressing book. The entire story
revolves around the old man, Santiago, trying to land a prizewinning marlin, the catch of a lifetime. For eighty-four days, Santiago
catches nothing, and the parents of his devoted apprentice force the
boy to work for a more productive boat. Santiago, however, never
gives up; he remains confident that his luck will change. On the
eighty-fifth day, Santiago’s luck does change: he hooks a marlin and
begins a two-day (and two-night) battle. Eventually, after being
dragged in his boat while holding the fishing line, Santiago hauls in
the fish. However, the sea reclaims its prize, and Santiago ends up
as he began: poor, tired, and luckless.
I can’t say I enjoyed the book because it’s so sad, but there’s a
sort of triumph in the way Santiago keeps fighting, even when he’s
exhausted and bloodied from the battle. However, the victory of the
story comes with Santiago’s success in battling the fish; even though
he is old, tired, and hungry, Santiago “fights the good fight” and
catches the fish of a lifetime. Ernest Hemingway is known for writing about people who ultimately lose—their jobs or battles, their
loves, their lives—but who are triumphant in simply making a good
showing. Santiago certainly puts up a good fight, one I’m sure Hemingway would be proud of, but the fact that he ultimately loses the
marlin and returns, beaten and bloodied but without his catch,
makes the short novel hard to enjoy.
Notice that Brian’s work includes two parts: a summary of the book and
Brian’s evaluation of it. Brian’s opinion—that the book is depressing—does
not have to agree with what professional critics would write. As long as he can
support his main ideas using examples, which Brian does, his report works.
A Professional Report
Read the following movie review by a professional writer.
Review of A Farewell to Arms
Michael W. Phillips
I recently read Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms,
which is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking novels
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I’ve ever read. This early adaptation of it, a prestige picture that was
nominated for four Oscars, is an acceptable adaptation. It keeps
the main themes of the book, telescopes a lot of events because of
time constraints, and puts a censor-acceptable stamp of approval
on the relationship at the center of the film. It’s not as good as
the book, but it succeeds in its own right, which is really all I ask
of adaptations.
Gary Cooper stars as Frederick Henry, the American ambulance
driver who enlisted with the Italians so that he could fight the good
fight in World War I; his own government hadn’t gotten around to
realizing that Continental affairs affect the United States too. (None
of this is explained in the film; he might as well have been an Italian driver who spoke English with a Montana accent.) He spends
his time carousing with his best friend and “war buddy” Rinaldi,
played with zest and energy by the great Adolphe Menjou, who calls
him “baby” and entices him to go on a double date. Rinaldi has his
eye on a British nurse, Catherine Barkley (Helen Hayes), and the
idea is that Frederick will pair up with the dour Ferguson (Mary
Philips), but he has other ideas after he sees Catherine.
I was going to say “luminous Catherine” or “beautiful Catherine,” but Helen Hayes was not really either. I wrote in my notes “odd
little face,” and she certainly has one. She didn’t start to be really
luminous and beautiful until she was in her forties, when she started
to play “mom” and then “grandma” roles; she was most arresting as
the little old lady in her Oscar-winning turn in Airport. Here, she
looks like, well, a young little old lady. It doesn’t help that she only
comes up to just under Cooper’s shoulder. Real-life relationships are
often like this—I’ve dated women a full foot shorter than me—but
they look a bit odd onscreen.
Catherine and Frederick quickly become attached to each other.
There’s a creative diegetic ellipsis the first time they make love:
he kisses her, and the camera pans up to the city skyline, where
bombs can be seen exploding. The screenplay gets a little hesitant
in discussing the consummation of their relationship, which occurs
quite early and well before the bonds of matrimony; there are
veiled statements about “it” and “last night.” Frederick is sent to
the front, where he’s injured, and Catherine is sent to Madrid, but
the two of them are reunited when Rinaldi pulls some strings.
There’s some odd first-person camera work as Frederick is initially
brought into the hospital, where doctors lean down into the camera to talk to “him,” and Catherine shoves her face into the lens for
a kiss, her cheek squashed onto the glass, as Frederick informs her
that she’s beautiful.
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They share a happy few weeks together, and are even sort of
married, until Frederick is sent off to the front again. But nothing
can separate true love, especially star-crossed love like this, and both
Frederick and Catherine are willing to abandon everything—including their loyalty to the Italian army and the British medical corps—
to be together.
Admittedly, the film goes in fits and starts. There are great individual scenes, then extremely rushed transitions as the film runs to
catch up with Hemingway’s plot. The highlight of the film is a wordless one: a devastating montage illustrating Frederick’s desertion
from the army explains concisely the statement “war is hell.” It is in
this montage that the film earns its Oscars for Best Sound Recording and for Charles Lang’s cinematography. The melodramatic ending bothered me a bit, but it’s because I was expecting the novel’s
understated resignation. It’s still pretty darned good.
Gary Cooper is a little stiff, as he often was; this was one of his
first starring roles, and he’s listed as second fiddle to Helen Hayes,
who was coming off an Oscar-winning performance in The Sin of
Madelon Claudet. Indeed, she’s the real star here. She captures the
character’s eccentricities very well. There’s just enough of a touch of
the unstableness that helped define Hemingway’s character to come
across without having her resort to histrionics. Adolphe Menjou is
a delight as Rinaldi, and Jack La Rue is quietly moving as the priest
who has grown disillusioned with humanity’s prospects in the face
of constant war.
In addition to the two Oscars it won, the film was nominated for
Best Art Direction and Best Picture, which it lost to Cavalcade.
Phillips, Michael W. Review of A Farewell to Arms, dir. Frank Borage. goatdog’s
movies, 2004. 3 Jan. 2006. <http://goatdog.com/moviespage.php?movieID=637>.
EXERCISE 4 A N A LYZING A REPORT
Read the review of the movie A Farewell to Arms by Michael W. Phillips.
Then, answer the questions below.
It’s an “acceptable
1. What is the writer’s overall opinion of the movie? ________________
adaptation.”
______________________________________________________________
2. What areas does the writer discuss in order to support his opinion?
Character development, acting, action, photography
______________________________________________________________
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Helen Hayes is
3. What are some of the writer’s criticisms of the film? ______________
too short; odd first-person camera work; rushed transitions; Gary Cooper
______________________________________________________________
seems stiff.
______________________________________________________________
Keeps
4. What does the writer say are some of the film’s strengths? ________
the main themes from the book; “telescopes” a lot of action; has good
______________________________________________________________
acting; communicates central relationship with a “censor-acceptable stamp”
______________________________________________________________
EXERCISE 5 WRITING A REPORT FOR SCHOOL
Write a report about a book you’ve read for school this year. The book
may be fiction or nonfiction, and it may be assigned for your writing
course or another course.
EXERCISE 6 WRITING A REPORT FOR WORK
Write a report about a procedure at your job. (If you do not work, write a
report of a procedure—such as registration or adding/dropping a
course—at your school.)
WRITING PRACTICE 1 Write a Summary of an Article
Read an article from a magazine or newspaper. Then, write a one-paragraph
summary of it. Make sure you include only those details that are necessary
to communicate the main point of the article. Include a copy of the article
when you hand in your summary.
WRITING PRACTICE 2 Write a Summary of an Oral Presentation
Watch a television program, or listen to an interview on the radio. Then,
write a one-paragraph summary of the program or interview. Begin your
summary by stating the name and date of the program or interview you’re
summarizing. For instance, write, “On July 24, 2005, the Discovery Channel’s program Tour de France showed Lance Armstrong cycling to his seventh consecutive Tour de France France victory.”
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WRITING PRACTICE 3 Write a Review of a Recorded Performance
Watch a concert, film, or other performance. Then, write a review of the
performance. Be sure to include both a summary of the work and your
views of the recorded performance.
WRITING PRACTICE 4 Write a Review of a Live Performance
Attend a sporting event, concert, speech, or other performance or event.
Then, write a review. Be sure to include both a summary of the material and
your views of the live performance.
Lab Activity 28
For additional practice with writing summaries, complete Lab Activity 28 in
the lab manual packaged with your textbook. If you did not receive a lab manual, you can complete this activity online at www.ablongman.com/long.
Click on College Resources for Writers and then click on Activity 28.