Sometimes, when faced with a large amount of information, we need to summarize it to quickly grasp the key content. Writing a summary also helps us deepen our understanding of the article. So, how to summarize an article? What should we pay attention to?
What Is An Article Summary？
It is a concise yet comprehensive overview of an article’s content, aiming to allow readers to quickly understand the core points, research purpose, methodology, main results, and conclusions of the article without reading the full text. It should act like a mirror, truthfully reflecting the full picture of the article, without adding subjective assumptions or personal emotions.
Why Summarize Articles?
1. Improves reading efficiency
In modern society, where information is overwhelming, many people lack sufficient time to read an article thoroughly. Through summaries, people can understand the main ideas of an article in a short time, quickly judge its value to themselves, and decide whether to read the full text.
2. Strengthens understanding and memory
The process of writing a summary is also a process of repeatedly understanding the original text. Creating a summary requires analyzing and refining the article, which demands that you gain a deep understanding of the content through careful reading. During this process, you will develop deeper insights and fresh perspectives on the original text while also reinforcing your memory of it.
3. Develops thinking skills
Summarizing articles requires readers to possess analytical, inductive, and summarizing abilities. By continually practicing summarization, you can enhance your logical and critical thinking skills, learning to extract valuable content from complex information and express it in concise, accurate language.
4. Facilitates information dissemination and communication
In academic, work, and other fields, there is often a need to share important information from articles with others. Summaries can present the core content of an article in a concise format, making communication and discussion more efficient.
Steps to Summarize An Article
▲ Read the Article
First, read through the entire article once to understand its general content and core message.
Next, read it carefully several times to grasp the details and sub-points that support the main arguments. Mark that information as you read—you can underline or highlight them in the text or jot them down in a separate document.
Finally, read it once more to ensure no critical information is missed.
▲ Create an Outline
Use a mind map or other organizational tools to list the article’s main arguments, sub-points, supporting materials, conclusions, and other key information, forming a structured outline.
▲ Write the Summary
Convert the outline’s content into a summary using your own words. Ensure clarity and logical flow, and avoid adding personal opinions. The length of the summary will depend on the requirements or purpose, but it should generally be a fraction of the original article’s length.
▲ Review
After writing, check your summary to confirm it accurately and completely reflects the key content of the article. Also, ensure it does not contain any formatting issues or grammatical errors.
Key Considerations for Summarizing Articles
1. Content accuracy. The summary must remain faithful to the original text, accurately summarizing the article’s core content, main ideas, key viewpoints, and important facts, avoiding distorting or misinterpreting the original meaning.
2. Maintain objectivity. Stay objective and impartial during summarization. Do not include personal subjective evaluations, emotional biases, or additional opinions—only present the information explicitly stated in the article.
3. Concise language. Use clear and succinct language to condense the content. Avoid lengthy sentences, complex structures, and excessive modifiers to ensure brevity and clarity.
4. Logical clarity. Organize the summary in a logical order (e.g., following the article’s structure) to ensure coherence and systematic presentation.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your Article Abstract
❌ Including subjective assumptions: Adding personal evaluations, speculations, or viewpoints not grounded in the original text to the summary, which compromises its objectivity and accuracy.
❌ Disorganized logic: Poorly structured content in the summary with unclear logical connections between key points, making it difficult for readers to grasp the article’s logical framework.
❌ Verbose language: Excessive use of modifiers or repetitive phrasing that renders the summary unnecessarily lengthy and cluttered.
❌ Copying original content: Avoid directly replicating text from the source material in the summary; instead, you can rephrase the ideas.
❌ Grammar or spelling errors: Language mistakes caused by inadequate proofreading, which undermine your professionalism and credibility.
Summary Example
Original link:
https://religionmediacentre.org.uk/factsheets/death-funeral-rituals-in-world-religions/
Summary：
This factsheet outlines funeral practices across major world religions, emphasizing their historical focus on aiding the deceased’s transition to an afterlife and the modern shift toward comforting mourners, particularly in Christian traditions. Buddhism lacks universal rites, with practices varying regionally: Tibetan Buddhists perform sky burials (offering bodies to scavengers as an act of charity) or recite texts like the Bardo Thodol to guide the deceased, while cremation or burial follows local norms. Christianity shows denominational diversity: Catholics and Orthodox Christians prioritize burial for bodily resurrection, permitting cremation only if it respects this doctrine, whereas Protestant traditions often emphasize soul-body separation and accept cremation. UK trends reveal declining church funerals in favor of secular or crematorium services. Islam mandates rapid burial (ideally within 24 hours), prohibits cremation due to beliefs in physical resurrection, and requires ritual washing and shrouding of the body, positioned toward Mecca. Hindu funerals typically involve cremation (viewed as purification through fire), with ashes ideally scattered in sacred rivers like the Ganges, though UK Hindus adapt to local crematoria. Exceptions include infants and ascetics, who are buried. Judaism traditionally buries quickly, with communal rituals like shiva (seven-day mourning) and grave visits marked by stone placements; Orthodox groups reject cremation, while Reform branches permit it. Sikhism emphasizes cremation (Atam Sanskar ceremony) with prayers from the Guru Granth Sahib, discouraging prolonged mourning due to faith in divine judgment. Both Sikh and Hindu communities advocate for legalizing open-air pyres in the UK.
How to Use AI to Summarize Articles?
Smallppt’s AI Summarizer can easily summarize an article for you. Simply paste your text or upload a file into the AI Summarizer’s box, and you will effortlessly obtain the key content of the article.
✔️ Copy the text to be summarized into the provided box, or directly upload a TXT, DOCX, PDF, or URL file.
✔️ Wait a minute—the AI Summarizer will generate an accurate summary of the article.
✔️ If unsatisfied with the summary, you can revise your instructions (e.g., request "more concise" or "summarize into five points") to regenerate it.
✔️ Supports multilingual use—it works regardless of the document’s input language or your desired output language.
Now that you know how to summarize an article and what to pay attention to when summarizing, try summarizing an article yourself. You can use smallppt to help you.
