Summaries tell readers the main points of an article or report. Readers may use summaries to decide whether to read the entire article or report, to get the gist of the article or report without reading it, or to preview the material before reading it.

Your goal is to write the main point of the article in one sentence. Then briefly list the topics or divisions of the article, or explain each of the support points in the same order as they appear in the article, or create a minipaper in which you rearrange the way the parts are presented in order to give a helpful sense of the point of the paper. Be brief (usually one paragraph to one page) and give your readers enough detail so that they can carry out their goal (to get the gist).