Why are Summaries So Important?
One of the most highly valued skills in any workplace that generates a lot of words—whether written or spoken—is the ability to effectively summarize that information into a more concise and readable form. That is essentially what summarizing is. Good summaries are valuable because they keep busy readers informed without demanding more time than necessary to get the information they need.
Today we generate and exchange information at a volume and speed that never diminish. Administrators may deal with reports, proposals, policy documents and briefing notes that together easily reach hundreds of pages. The only way busy administrators can deal with the flood of information is to rely on effective summaries that can efficiently present the most important information. A good summary tells readers enough about a topic that they can decide whether they need to read more.
Just think of some of the summarizing tasks you might encounter in a typical government workplace. You may have to report on discussions at a meeting, summarize the responses received as part of a public consultation or report on a teleconference. You may have to write an executive summary of a report, describe how a project is going, convey the recommendations arising from a lengthy study. In every case, you will have to sort through the original information, extract the essential details from all the rest and then create a coherent abbreviated version of the information that the reader can rely on as an accurate representation of the most important points.
What Defines a Summary?
Summaries always have two important features:
- they are shorter than the source
- they capture the same message as the original but without the same words
Whatever you're summarizing, the task is the same: to convey the essential message (or information) accurately and succinctly, in your own words.
The essential message in any well-written document is easy enough to identify. Try it with the following excerpt from a report on Canada's seafood inspection systems.
Canada has one of the world's most respected fish inspection and control systems. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) sets the policies, requirements and inspection standards for fish products, federally registered fish and seafood processing establishments, importers, fishing vessels, and equipment used for handling, transporting and storing fish. All establishments which process fish and seafood for export or inter-provincial trade must be federally registered and must develop and implement a HACCP-based Quality Management Program (QMP) plan. A processing establishment's QMP plan outlines the controls implemented by the fish processor to ensure that all fish products are processed under sanitary conditions, and that the resulting products are safe and meet all regulatory requirements. Canada's fish-inspection and control system contributes to Canada's worldwide reputation for safe, wholesome fish and seafood products.
The essential message is made up of three ideas:
- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is one of the world's most respected inspection and control systems.
- Any company that processes seafood for internal or external trade must be registered with the CFIA and have a plan outlining what controls they use to ensure their products meet all regulatory requirements.
- Canada's inspection and control system contributes to its reputation for safe, wholesome fish and seafood.
We could turn these statements into the following summary:
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) contributes to Canada's reputation for safe seafood by requiring that all fish and seafood processors meet the agency's safety requirements.
This summary is about 20% of the original because the original itself is short. With a longer original, a summary might be 5% or less. But length is less important than informative value: an effective summary gives readers just what they need and no more.
The language of the summary puts the original ideas into new words. If statements are taken directly from the original, they are enclosed in quotation marks.
What are the Characteristics of an Effective Summary?
An effective summary captures the most important information
The important information usually includes controlling ideas (purpose statements and topic sentences), major findings, and conclusions or recommendations.
It usually doesn't include any of the following: non-essential background information; the author's personal comments or conjectures; introductions; long explanations, examples, or definitions; visuals; or data of questionable accuracy.
An effective summary is highly readable
People read summaries to get the information they need as efficiently as possible. In a large document, the summary may be the only part a reader actually reads. Make sure to write in a readable, clear style. Translate specific details into general statements (e.g., instead of "47.3% of respondents polled said they agreed or strongly agreed that food labels should include information about the percentage of transfats the food item contained," summarize to "Almost half of respondents want food labels to include transfats").
An effective summary can stand on its own
Think of your summary as a highly condensed version of the source document. All the extras have been squeezed out, but the essential meaning should still be there. A reader should be able to read, understand and find the essential meaning by reading your summary. Readers should have to turn to the source document only if they need more detail—not to get the main ideas.
An effective summary is faithful to the original
As a rule, add nothing to the original. Avoid adding comments or modifiers that add meaning that was not in the original (e.g. "The authors correctly point out," "The report seems to suggest," "This important recommendation").
An effective summary is as concise as possible
Use the fewest words possible that still preserve all the essential meaning. Whatever you do, don't sacrifice clarity for economy.
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