What is a Summary
Imagine you are in college and your English literature test is the next day; you haven’t read a single word the whole month. What will you do? Read each story distinctly or just look at the summaries? Going with the latter is the ideal option, isn’t it? Well, that’s the essence of book summaries; they give you a clear insight into the book in a way that you easily comprehend the storytelling. However, writing it demands skills and efficiency, for it’s not as easy as it looks. So, let’s take a deep breath and explore what a summary is, its elements, types, and some examples.
A Look Into Summary
A summary provides a clear insight into the book’s contents in a short and clear form. If you haven’t read the book and want a quick sneak peek into the story, then turning to its summary is always fruitful, as it will give an idea of the main concept, key points and crucial information without having to read the entire book.
A coherent summary is concise, accurate, and excludes all personal opinions, bogus or new information, and analysis.
Key Elements of a Summary
Now that you understand the concept of a summary, let’s take a look at its key elements.
Main Idea
Writing a book summary without alluding to its main idea or the focal point defeats the purpose of making the story understandable without actually reading the whole book. Ensure to write the argument or the central part of the book concisely so that readers know what the book is about.
Supporting Details
Adding trivial details that offer context and evidence to the focal point of the story is as crucial as the story’s supporting characters. These supporting details ensure that the summary presented before the readers is factually or educationally accurate.
These supporting details could be anything, like themes, instances, or pivotal events from the book.
Conciseness
The purpose of writing a book summary is to offer readers a concise insight into the story, enumerating additional information, irrelevant characters, and personal opinions drags the summary down. Readers prefer crisp, concise, and clear language that’s easy to grasp when reading a book summary.
Objective Tone
Ensure that you don’t let your personal opinions influence you when you are writing a book summary. Keeping a neutral and accurate tone in your summary keeps its credibility and improves clarity, making it universally acceptable; a summary that’s not biased by any judgment or feelings.
Types of Book Summaries
Once you become well-versed in the concept of a summary and its elements, the next step is to understand what type of summary you are willing to write. Let’s take a look at the types of book summaries.
Descriptive Summary
As the name suggests, a descriptive summary provides a detailed synopsis of the book, characters, and plot. It largely covers all the major points of the book without losing its essence. It’s comprehensive, not analytic, though.
Therefore, if you ever aim to write a simple and clear summary that is easily understandable by the readers, then you must write a detailed one.
Analytical Summary
An analytical summary provides insight beyond the basic book’s description; it offers ideas, arguments, and the impact of the book on the readers, rather than summarizing the book’s contents.
An analytical summary is mainly used to explain the context of educational or technical books, which helps a reader comprehend the essence of the book on a deeper level.
Critical Summary
A critical summary evaluates a book’s ideas and elucidates its advantages and disadvantages in a simple manner. You can add your personal opinions and observations while writing a critical summary; the idea is to make readers comprehend what the book is about using analysis.
Examples of Book Summaries
We understand that writing a book summary is more daunting than we have explained the process; therefore, we are giving some bookish examples for you to understand it in a better way.
White Nights
White Nights is a fictional novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky that revolves around a solitudinarian narrator who finds a woman named Nastenka against the railing on an embankment and falls for her, only to end up being heartbroken, for she chooses her first love over him on the third night.
So, you must ensure to add how the narrator is a loner and a dreamer who imagines pure love rather than romance. The summary should also explain the concept of emotional dependence, while keeping the tone introspective and melancholic instead of hopeful.
Road Not Taken
The Road Not Taken is a terrific poem by Robert Frost that’s widely praised among all members of the poetic society. Therefore, when you write a summary of this poem, ensure to focus on choice and interpretation instead of regret. You can highlight the poem’s ironic and reflective tone, along with accentuating the illusion of uniqueness in decision.
Also, check – What is Plot Structure
On a Parting Note
Writing a book summary demands careful consideration, but you can always excel at it if you understand the concept of the book and focus on elucidating the primary intent of the book, instead of rambling on about your personal opinions or observations. Ensure to assist your book’s summary with supporting details that act as legitimate evidence to your concise summary.
