UFV ASC Summarizing a Scholarly Journal Article

Available online at: https://ufv.ca/asc/student-resources/

Students are often required to summarize scholarly journal articles or to base reviews or

critiques or research papers on scholarly sources, all of which require acts of summary.

Summary is one of the most prominent features of academic writing because it gives writers

access to the ideas of others. You will find that most of the academic writing you do will

respond to or be based on the ideas – the writing – of others.

that before an article can be published in a scholarly journal it has to be considered worthy of

publication because it meets the scholarly goal of generating new knowledge about a specific

topic. To be published, the article must have taken into account most of what is already

known about a topic. So current research articles are useful because they incorporate

(sometimes explicitly) what is understood about a research question.

Summary Reports; Summary Does not Evaluate

The goal of your summary, then, is to report in a brief and yet accurate manner the main gists

(“gist” refers to the main or essential parts of the article, its main line or lines of reasoning) of

the article. The goal of summary is not to offer an evaluation or opinion of the original

concrete details from the original, though you may need to include one or two brief examples

that illustrate the writer’s main point or points. Think of a summary as the child of the

original document: fully formed and able to make sense and stand on its own, a new text, not

exactly the same as its original, but bearing the features of its parental origins, so much so

that anyone who sees the summary might be heard to remark, “Oh, you have your parents’

main features; you even sound like your parents, but you are much shorter!”

CONTACT: [email protected] www.ufv.ca/asc

UFV ASC Summarizing a Scholarly Journal Article

To begin, flip through the entire article, noting any headings the author may have used

to indicate main sections or topic shifts in the article. These headings reflect the writer’s

organization or structure in the article. Pay special attention to the title of the article; it

should indicate the writer’s topic and approach to that topic. If you can get a sense of how

the writer has structured the information in her article, you are well on your way to

summarizing it.

Read the abstract at the beginning of the article if there is one. The abstract is an even

more concise summary of the article than the summary you will do.

notes in the margins of the paper to capture essential ideas) and sorting more abstract,

general information or ideas from detailed, concrete information (by highlighting these

different kinds of information with differently-coloured highlighter pens).

writer’s ideas, leaving behind information that is too detailed, that if retained would

extend the summary, making it far too long.

Summary cannot capture all of the abstract ideas within an article and the detailed

supporting material which the writer includes to help the reader to interpret those abstract

concepts or ideas. Neither can summary report all of the technical terminology of the

original, though it should retain some of the key terminology. After all, your summary has

CONTACT: [email protected] www.ufv.ca/asc

UFV ASC Summarizing a Scholarly Journal Article

to resemble its source.

This suggests that summary involves acts of sorting (general, abstract concepts from

detailed examples or cases), acts of connecting important ideas, and acts of translation

(rephrasing complex ideas into more concise, portable forms), which can make a long,

As you write the first draft of your summary, you will likely notice that the writer has

located important ideas and the connections between them at various places in the article.

Because of this, you may not be able to summarize the article in the same linear pattern of

the original. You may notice for example, that the most important point the writer makes is

located in her final paragraph. This would then need to come forward in your summary;

your reader would look for it near the beginning. You may also notice that between main

ideas, and between material that connects one main idea to another, may be located several

paragraphs of detailed description. Your summary does not need to capture all of the

detailed description, but it should capture the connection between ideas, suggesting that you

shouldn’t expect to retain a key idea from every paragraph of the original article.

him or her to let you know if it makes sense. Above all, your summary needs to be a

coherent document that both makes sense on its own and accurately reflects its

original source.

Express your summary in a scholarly style. This involves introducing your source in a

scholarly way, describing what kind of writing your source is and its main finding, and

keeping in touch with your source throughout your summary.

CONTACT: [email protected] www.ufv.ca/asc

UFV ASC Summarizing a Scholarly Journal Article

Here is an example of a summary that displays a scholarly style:

CONTACT: [email protected] www.ufv.ca/asc