A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main point of the text as you see it. A summary is written in your own words. A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.

D. The summary, or conclusion, is usually the last paragraph in the essay to sum it up.

The conclusion basically asks us to do a few things:

1. Restate the main idea of the paper (why you wrote this entire long piece to begin with).
2. Summarize all the key points you made throughout the body of the paper (things that proved your thesis statement).

Answer: The best way to summarize an essay is to start by quickly reading it through. After you read it once, write down what you think the main idea of the author is (or pick the one sentence which seems to tell the main point or thesis of the article). Next, read it again more slowly.

Summarizing means giving a concise overview of a text’s main points in your own words.

The main idea is a complete sentence; it includes the topic and what the author wants to say about it. If the author states the main idea in his paragraph it is called a “topic sentence.”

A main point summary reads much like an article abstract, giving the most important “facts” of the text. It should identify the title, author, and main point or argument. When relevant, it can also include the text’s source (book, essay, periodical, journal, etc.).

To summarize, you must read a passage closely, finding the main ideas and supporting ideas. Then you must briefly write down those ideas in a few sentences or a paragraph. It is important to understand the difference between a summary and a paraphrase. A paraphrase is simply a rewriting of a passage in your own words.

The difference between a summary and a main idea is length. They both provide only the important details from the text, but the main idea sums up the text in a single sentence. Therefore, a main idea is defined as a single-sentence summary.

The main idea is usually a sentence, and it is usually the first sentence. The writer then uses the rest of the paragraph to support the main idea. Let’s use the paragraph below as an example. the main idea (what the writer is saying about the topic) is that summer is a wonderful time at West Beach.