Definition of summarizing: " give a brief statement of the main points of (something)"
(Definition of this word came from the Oxford American Dictionaries Apple computer widget)
Guidelines for summarizing:
Example of a summary:
The original text. Notice the student started by crossing out what was unnecessary to help identify the main point:
The beginnings of America’s air force can he traced to a New Hampshire man, Prof. Thaddeus Lowe(1832–1913), who used a balloon to observe the movements of Confederate troops in the Civil War.Lowe was fortunate in that Confederate gunfire failed to wreck his ship. The Union forces credited Lowe’s up-to-the-minute reports with saving them at the Battle of Fair Oaks (1862). The South had little success with balloons. (FactCite, 2009.)
Summary written by the student:
During the Civil War, Thaddeus Lowe spied on Confederate forces from a hot air balloon contributing to the success of the Union.