How Do You Summarize An English Essay?
When you need to summarize an essay, you write an abstract. A descriptive abstract describes the content of the essay for the reader without going into detail. It does, however, briefly include all the important points. Abstracts are always short and they can serve two purposes. They help readers to assess whether the essay’s content may help them in their own studies, and they help the essays’ writers to assess whether the essay is focused and tightly written. Read the first two paragraphs of the essay carefully. Highlight the thesis or statement of purpose, which should appear in the first paragraph or at the beginning of the second paragraph. The thesis is the sentence that tells you what the writer will argue; a statement of purpose tells the reader what the essay will discuss if it is not an argument. Once in a while, a sophisticated writer will place the thesis at the end of the essay. Read the rest of the essay carefully, highlighting the main point of each paragraph or section