Summarizing

1. Summarizing Overview

summarizing

2. How to Summarize a News Article in 1 Sentence

Your Task: Read the article and write a one- or two-sentence summary of what it says.

Before you do the task:

  1. Articles give you many clues about what an article is about even before you start reading. For instance, look at the headline: What hints does it give you about what you’re going to read?
  2. Next, look at the main photo, reproduced at the top of this post, as well as this slide show of photos that accompany the article. What kind of story do the images tell you?
  3. Read the article with these questions in mind: What is this piece mainly about? What is the central message or idea? What details support that idea? As you go, underline the sentences or details you think are most important.
  4. What ideas are repeated throughout the piece, or described in many different ways? Finding those will often help you zero in on the “main idea” of a piece.
  5. Turn to a partner and practice describing the piece orally in a few sentences before you write. What are the most important ideas and details to get across? Then, listen to him or her do the same. What did the two have in common? What “main ideas” did you both emphasize? Why?

After you’ve finished:

  • Read how The New York Times summarized the article and compare yours. Keep in mind, however, that there is no one “right answer” to this task, and your summary might actually be better than the one The Times ran. Here it is:

The Yankees and fans honored Mariano Rivera with an emotional, 50-minute retirement ceremony before their game against the Giants.

Play a Summary Game: Here are some recent summaries of Times articles pulled from section fronts. Can you match the headline to the summary? What clues helped you?

Headlines

a. “Ground Gives Way, and a Louisiana Town Struggles to Find Its Footing”

b. “Peacock Feet”

c. “Day Devoted to Hoisting Guinness Starts to Leave a Bitter Taste”

d. “Scraping Away the Decades”

e. “To Renovate or Not to Renovate?”

f. “An Arm-Twister in the Oval Office”

g. “Rutgers Updates Its Anthem to Include Women”

h. “Roll Over? Fat Chance”

Summaries

  1. Somewhere under all the ugly 20th-century additions was the simple 1850s-era home two Brooklyn designers had been searching for.
  2. Bryan Cranston is Lyndon B. Johnson in “All the Way,” a play set immediately after President Kennedy’s assassination.
  3. The university is the latest formerly all-male institution to bring its alma mater in line with its new demographics.
  4. Critics say Arthur’s Day, which began in 2009, is nothing but an excuse for binge drinking.
  5. Almost nothing in Bayou Corne has been the same since a voracious sinkhole opened up in 2012, and a year later it’s still growing, swallowing trees and belching methane.
  6. More than half the dogs in America are overweight, giving rise to diet and exercise programs.
  7. Is it more effective to cloak Shakespearean text in contemporary imagery, or to hew to a more “classical” line?
  8. View embellished sneakers from Pierre Hardy, Christian Louboutin, Maison Martin Margiela and more.