Several days ago, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) made political history by speaking over 25 hours on the Senate floor, falling silent only briefly to take sips of water from a bottle. As a writer and former public speaking instructor, I considered a question that probably few others considered: How would you summarize his speech? Emily King, a writer for BuzzFeed, cited 15 “highlights” from Booker’s marathon oration, including his late father’s struggle with Parkinson’s Disease, the unconstitutionality of deporting immigrants without due process, and the need for everyone to have access to affordable health care. But identifying highlights of a speech or an essay does not necessarily lead to a good summary of the key points it covered. King admits, “there’s no proper way to summarize a 25-hour speech.” However, since most rhetorical efforts — whether written or spoken — are less formidable than Booker’s oratorical odyssey, it might be helpful to consider what one should keep in mind when writing a summary of either their own or someone else’s work.

Here are five guidelines to keep in mind when writing a summary:

• Look at the opening sentences of each paragraph. The key ideas of the composition will likely be presented in these sentences. To be sure, some paragraphs will merely elaborate on information presented in earlier paragraphs but be alert to those opening sentences that introduce a topic not covered previously.
• Once you’ve identified the key ideas, list them in a logical order and consider transitional words or phrases (e.g., therefore, however, on the other hand) that might connect them.
• Use your own words, rather than the writer’s words, when summarizing the composition. If you feel some passage should be expressed exactly as the writer did, then cite the passage word-for-word and put quotation marks around it.
• Write objectively. Avoid inserting your own opinion on the points being made by the writer. If you feel strongly about the writer’s arguments or ideas, consider expressing those feelings in a critique separate from the summary,
• When your summary is completed, it should answer the same questions that the first paragraph of a newspaper article answers: who what, where, when, why, and how.

Just within the past month, I have faced the challenge of summarizing my YA novel, The Secrets We Carry: Journal of a Girl in Trouble. A magazine in which I hope to promote the book has asked for a summary, so have the organizers of some upcoming book fairs in which I hope to participate. Accordingly, my next blog will focus on how I applied the guidelines above to the summary of my own work.

Note: This post is based in part of material from the Southern Illinois University Writing Center and Matt Ellis’s May 10, 2023 blog post for http://www.grammarly.com.