Summarizing Long Texts
You’ve learned a strategy for summarizing an article or another short text. But how does this transfer to a longer text, such as an entire book?
You can use the same strategy. Beginning with the first chapter, make notes in the margins. Use sticky notes if the book is not your own. As you finish each chapter, use your notes to write a summary until you have one for each chapter in the book. When you finish, use only your chapter summaries to write your book summary.
Another strategy some readers use when reading books or plays is to keep a running outline. They write on the book’s inside flap or on a large sticky note attached to the inside front cover.
With this strategy, add to the outline as you read each chapter, act, or scene. When you’ve finished the book or play, you will have an outline of the entire work. You can use the outline to write a summary.
If you use this strategy, remember that fiction is not always written chronologically. Flashbacks are common, and authors often write each chapter from a different character’s point of view. So, when you write your summary, you may have to adjust your ideas so your summary tells events chronologically.
Let’s look at an outline a reader made as he read Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. If you’ve read the play or seen the movie, you can probably write a summary from the reader’s outline. If not, you might want to read the play at this Shakespeare site from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Romeo and Juliet
by William Shakespeare
Source: The “Chandos” portrait of William Shakespeare, Wikimedia Commons
Act I
Prologue: Short summary given. Two families in Verona. Old enemies. Their children fall in love.
Scene 1: Fight breaks out between Capulets and Montagues. The Prince warns that the families will pay with their lives if battle breaks out again. Romeo is lovesick.
Scene 2: Capulets want Paris to marry Juliet. They set up a party for Paris and Juliet to meet. Benvolio encourages Romeo to go to the Capulet party.
Scene 3: Lady Capulet talks with Juliet about getting married. Juliet is not happy about the idea of marrying Paris.
Scene 4: Romeo and friend Benvolio prepare to crash the party.
Scene 5: Romeo notices Juliet at the party. Tybalt (Juliet’s cousin) notices Romeo and tells Lord Capulet. Lord Capulet refuses to throw Romeo out. Romeo flirts with Juliet. Romeo finds out Juliet is a Capulet. Romeo and Benvolio leave the party. Juliet finds out Romeo is a Montague.
Act II
Prologue: Summary given of Romeo’s situation. He’s now in love with Juliet but has no access to her.
Scene 1: Benvolio and Mercutio (another friend) joke about how Romeo has fallen in love again.
Scene 2: Juliet speaks her love for Romeo out the window of her room. Romeo, hidden in the Capulet orchard, hears Juliet and confesses his love for her. They agree to meet.
Scene 3: Romeo discusses his new love for Juliet with Friar Laurence.
Scene 4: Romeo and friends are joking around. Juliet’s nurse comes to plan a meeting where Romeo and Juliet can get together.
Scene 5: The nurse tells Juliet to meet Romeo at the friar’s.
Scene 6: Romeo and Juliet get married.
Source: Romeo and Juliet, Frank Dicksee, Wikimedia Commons
Act III
Scene 1: Tybalt comes to quarrel with Romeo, but Romeo refuses to fight. Tybalt kills Mercutio. Romeo gets revenge by killing Tybalt.
Scene 2: Juliet learns that Romeo killed her cousin.
Scene 3: Romeo is banished.
Scene 4: Lord Capulet plans for Juliet to marry Paris on Thursday.
Scene 5: Romeo tells Juliet he must leave. Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she is to marry Paris. Juliet argues with her parents.
Act IV
Scene 1: Paris tells Friar Laurence that he and Juliet are to be married. Juliet tells the friar that she wants to commit suicide. Friar Laurence gives Juliet a potion that will put her to sleep so her parents will think she is dead. He will send a message to Romeo to come for her.
Scene 2: Juliet returns home and tells her parents she will marry Paris.
Scene 3: Juliet and the nurse prepare for the wedding. Later Juliet takes the potion.
Scene 4: The Capulets prepare for the wedding.
Scene 5: Capulets find Juliet “dead.”
Act V
Scene 1: Romeo learns that Juliet is dead and decides to kill himself.
Scene 2: Friar Laurence learns that his letter to Romeo was never delivered.
Scene 3: Romeo goes to find Juliet’s body, presumably dead. Paris stops Romeo at the tomb. Romeo kills Paris. Romeo takes poison and dies. The friar finds Romeo’s and Paris’s bodies. Juliet wakes up and will not go away with the friar. She sees Romeo’s body. She tries to kill herself with Romeo’s poison, but instead stabs herself with his dagger. Families learn of the deaths and make peace.
Now look over this outline, and write a summary of the play. Download the outline as an editable document to help you take notes on individual acts. Use the notes to build your summary like we did with Kristof’s newspaper column. Write your summary using your notes.
Again, remember the elements of a summary, and apply them to the book or play summary as well. The summary should not include your own ideas, opinions, or judgments.
A good summary of the original text, however, should include
- the title and name of the author;
- the main ideas and supporting details; and
- your words rather than those of the original writer.
Go ahead and edit your summary if you have forgotten any of these components. Copy and paste your new summary into the space below to see if it’s short enough. If your summary doesn’t fit, cut out unimportant details to make it fit. When you’re finished, check your understanding to see another possible summary of the text.
Sample Response:
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a tragic story of love, death, and poor timing. The play begins with a battle between the Capulet and the Montague families. Following the battle, the prince threatens death to anyone from the feuding families who starts another battle. The party was already planned; he simply adds Paris to the guest list. He also does not really express a desire for her to marry Paris, at least not at this time. Romeo, the son of the Montagues crashes the party. Instead of falling for Paris, Juliet meets Romeo, and the two fall in love.
Hiding in the orchard below Juliet’s house, Romeo overhears Juliet confess her love for Romeo. He responds with similar sentiments, and soon the two are secretly married. Unfortunately, Juliet’s cousin Tybalt ignites a fight with Romeo for crashing the party and kills Romeo’s best friend. Enraged, Romeo takes revenge and kills Tybalt. Having broken the law, Romeo is banished. While Romeo is away, Juliet’s parents engage her to Paris and begin wedding plans. To help Juliet with her predicament, the friar gives Juliet a potion that will put her into a death-like sleep. The friar sends a note to Romeo to let him know the plan, but the note never reaches Romeo. Instead, everyone believes Juliet is dead, and word of her death reaches Romeo. He returns to find her “dead,” and takes poison to kill himself. When Juliet wakes to see Romeo dead, she stabs herself.
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