Summary and Critique

A shortened version of a text that highlights its key points without repeating every detail

The primary purpose of a summary is to give an accurate representation of what the work says.

As a general rule, you should not include your own ideas or interpretations

What is a summary?

Condenses in your own words the main points in a passage

Summary

You can prove that you’ve picked up on important themes in what you’ve read by condensing those themes into an overview

Why summarize?

Objectivity is essential when summarizing.

A summary should not include your opinions about the subject matter or the author.

Even if you disagree with the text’s content, you must relay only its factual elements.

Stick to the facts!

Do point out the author’s purpose for writing (Ex: to inform, to persuade)

Do take note of the thesis statement and main ideas in a text.

Do keep your reader in mind. Your summary should provide readers with a clear understanding of the original text, even if they’ve never read it.

Dos and Don’ts about writing a summary

Don’t offer an opinion on what you are summarizing.

Don’t use direct quotes. Express the author’s ideas in your own words.

Don’t include too many minor details in your summary. Focus on the “big ideas” within the text.

Dos and don’ts of writing a summary

Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness.

Summary Example

The process of objectively and critically evaluating the content of a text

Like a summary, a critique identifies the central point

What a critique adds to a summary is the writer's own analysis and evaluation of the text.

What is a critique?

Critiquing lets you provide your own unique insight on a text.

You will not only prove that you understand the text, but you will also show that you can develop and support your own arguments in response to the text.

Why critique?

Do determine the author’s purpose for writing.

Do examine how the arguments within a text are supported.

Do include direct quotes from the text to support your argument. Make sure you explain their relevance to your opinion about the text.

Dos and don’ts for writing critiques

Don’t confuse a critique with a review. You are not writing about whether or not you liked the text. Instead, you’re presenting why you agree or disagree with the author’s ideas.

Don’t include too much summary in your critique. However, you may begin your critique with a brief summary of the text in order to introduce readers.

Dos and don’ts of writing a critique

It requires some knowledge of the subject matter

Your job is to point out strengths, as well as weaknesses.

Critique

Through Shakespeare’s depictions of Ophelia, one can determine that the expectations for seventeenth- century women were more restricting than those of men. For example, the first time Ophelia appears, she is talking with her brother Laertes upon his departure to France (1.3.1). One may notice that Ophelia is not going anywhere; she is staying at Elsinore Castle, while her brother is leaving the country. Indeed, we do not see Ophelia doing any activity except for “sewing in [her] closet” (2.1.74).

Critique Example

The book Night is an autobiographical novel about Elie Wiesel’s experiences during the Holocaust.

Summary Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl is required

reading for many middle-schoolers, and it will be rightfully upsetting to many of those readers. Though the events within the diary offer only a glimpse of the horrors inflicted on Jewish people by the Nazis, there is a disturbing element of fear throughout. 

Critique

Summary or Critique?

The Franks, along with another family, the Van Daans, hide in order to avoid capture during the German occupation of Holland. Aided by friends on the outside, Anne and the others spend two years in the "secret annex": several rooms enclosed in the warehouse of Anne's father's business.

Summary

Summary or Critique?

Summary or Critique?