writing a summary of nonfiction

Writing a Summary of Nonfiction

Essential QuestionsWhat is a summary?What makes a good summary?How can I write a summary of nonfiction?

What is a summary?A summary is all of the ideas from a text, written in your own wordsA summary is your opinions about a textA summary is a shortened form of a text, with all of the main ideasA summary is a review of a text, with main ideas and your opinions

Why do we write summaries? Readers can write a summary of a text to let someone else know the main ideas

Why do we write summaries? Summarizing a text helps you to understand itas you figure out the most important ideas, your brain is engaged in understanding the text

Why do we write summaries?Students often write summaries as a school assignmentSummaries are also included on tests, to see how well you understood a text

How long should a summary be? It depends!

How long should a summary be?The length of a summary depends on the length of the original textA summary should always be shorter than the original text

What makes a good summary? Here are four basic rules for writing a summary of nonfiction:

Include the important ideas from the textPut ideas in your own wordsLeave out little details and repeated informationUse the text structure of the text

Include important ideas from the text This is easy to say, but sometimes hard to do! As you read, its important to think about what ideas are most important to the author

Include important ideas from the text If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed.

Which ideas are important in this text? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed.

Which ideas are important in this text? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed. Even though you might have some personal connection with some of the ideas, you need to think about whats important to the author. Look for the topic sentences and big ideas.

Which ideas are important in this text? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed. Do you agree that these are the big ideas in the text?

Finding important ideasWhat strategies do you use to find important ideas in a text?

Why do you think this is important for summarizing?

What makes a good summary?


Putting ideas in your own wordsPutting ideas in your own words is also called paraphrasingInstead of just copying down the authors words, we need to use our own words

Putting ideas in your own words Can you paraphrase this sentence from the text?

Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive

Putting ideas in your own words Hint: Try using synonyms for important words


Putting ideas in your own words Hint: Try changing the order of ideas


Putting ideas in your own words Heres one way to paraphrase the sentence. How does it compare to yours?


Butterflies need specific plants to live

Paraphrasing There are some words that you cant change when you paraphrase. These key words are the important words from the passage.

For example, in the passage that we read, the words butterfly and caterpillar cannot be replaced

Trivial Details Small details can be called trivial detailsthey might be interesting, but are not important to the main ideas of the passage

We do not need to include these small details in summaries

What small details do you notice? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed.

What small details do you notice? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed. While this example supports the main idea, it is not needed for a summary

What other small details do you notice? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed.

What other small details do you notice? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed. The description of the Xerxes Society is not needed in a summary.

Repeated Ideas Authors also might repeat ideas. When the same idea is restated, we only need to include it once in a summary.

Using text structure The text structure of a text refers to how the text is organized

DescriptionCause and EffectChronological OrderProblem/SolutionCompare and Contrast

Using text structure When you look at the text structure of a text, you can find the big ideas and see how to organize your summary

DescriptionCause and EffectChronological OrderProblem/SolutionCompare and Contrast

What is the text structure? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed.

What is the text structure? If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed. Overall, this paragraph shows the text structure of cause and effect.

Text Structure in a Summary If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed. In your summary, you need to show the cause and effect!

What makes a good summary? What do you remember about the four rules for writing a good summary?


Now, its your turn! Look back at the butterfly text. Can you write a summary?

Write your own summary If butterflies cannot find the food source they need for their eggs, the next generation will not survive. When habitats are changed, such as when wetlands are drained or forests are cleared, butterfly populations may drop dramatically. According to the Xerxes Society, an invertebrate conservation group, over 50 kinds of U.S. butterflies are at risk.Many butterflies depend on certain plants to survive. As adults, butterflies drink nectar. But caterpillars eat leaves. Some caterpillars only eat the leaves of specific plants. Monarch caterpillars, for example, eat only milkweed.

by Emily Kissner

See Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Retelling for more on summarizing

writing a summary of nonfiction

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