Below, we summarize this article, which scientifically investigates the old saying “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”ĭavis et al. The best way to do this is to put the article aside and write out your own understanding of the author’s key points. Do not copy and paste parts of the article, not even just a sentence or two. To avoid plagiarism and show you’ve understood the article, it’s essential to properly paraphrase the author’s ideas. Now that you know the key points that the article aims to communicate, you need to put them in your own words. In that case, pay particular attention to the thesis statement-the central claim that the author wants us to accept, which usually appears in the introduction-and the topic sentences that signal the main idea of each paragraph. If the article takes a different form, you might have to think more carefully about what points are most important for the reader to understand its argument. What are the implications of the results?.How does the author explain these results?.What is the overall answer to the research question?.What research question or problem was addressed?.Key points of a scientific article Introduction In a scientific article, there are some easy questions you can ask to identify the key points in each part. Your goal is to extract the essential points, leaving out anything that can be considered background information or supplementary detail. Keep in mind that a summary does not involve paraphrasing every single paragraph of the article. What does your reader need to know to understand the overall argument or conclusion of the article? Now it’s time go through each section and pick out its most important points. Step 3: Identify the key points in each section If several paragraphs cover similar topics, you may group them together. Tip: To see at a glance what each part of the text focuses on, try writing a word or phrase in the margin next to each paragraph that describes the paragraph’s content. But most articles and essays will be structured around a series of sub-points or themes. Other types of articles may not be explicitly divided into sections. If the text is a scientific paper that follows a standard empirical structure, it is probably already organized into clearly marked sections, usually including an introduction, methods, results, and discussion. To make the text more manageable and understand its sub-points, break it down into smaller sections. Step 2: Break the text down into sections Read the introduction and the conclusion together and compare them: What did the author set out to do, and what was the outcome?.These should give you a good sense of what each part is about. Pay attention to headings and subheadings.This already contains the author’s own summary of their work, and it tells you what to expect from the article. There are some tricks you can use to identify the key points as you read: Skim the article again to confirm you’ve understood the key points, and reread any particularly important or difficult passages.Read the article carefully, highlighting important points and taking notes as you read.Scan the article quickly to get a sense of its topic and overall shape.It’s often effective to read in three stages: You should read the article more than once to make sure you’ve thoroughly understood it. Follow the five steps outlined below to write a good summary. In any case, the goal of summarizing is to give your reader a clear understanding of the original source. You might use a brief quote to support your point, or paraphrase a few sentences or paragraphs.īut it’s often appropriate to summarize a whole article or chapter if it is especially relevant to your own research, or to provide an overview of a source before you analyze or critique it. When you’re writing an academic text like an essay, research paper, or dissertation, you’ll integrate sources in a variety of ways. To give an overview of other researchers’ work in a literature review.To keep notes that will help you remember what you’ve read.As a stand-alone assignment to show you’ve understood the material.There are many situations in which you might have to summarize an article or other source: Frequently asked questions about summarizing.Step 5: Check the summary against the article.Step 3: Identify the key points in each section.Step 2: Break the text down into sections.
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