If you are a professional writer or author, then there is a strong chance that you may come across the need to summarize the book. So that readers can quickly get familiar with the core concept of the book without reading it as a whole.
Remember, summarizing a book is not an easy task, because it requires explaining information that is described in hundreds of pages into a few paragraphs. But don’t worry, by following the right steps, you (the author or writer) can become a master of book summary writing.
In this article, we are going to explain some steps that you need to follow to become a master of book summary writing.
How You Can Master The Book Summary Writing
Below are the steps that you need to follow to become a master summarizing book efficiently and accurately.
Read Or Understand The Book (Even If You Have Written It Yourself)
To summarize a book into a few paragraphs, it is recommended to first read it completely. So that you can get familiar with the information or arguments that are discussed in the book.
This is an essential step, how you can perfectly summarize the book when you don’t even know what details are covered in the book. Remember, if you have written the book by yourself, then it is still necessary to read it at least once so that you can rewind everything that you have covered in it.
One useful tip from us is that you should read the book in a noise-free and distraction-free place. So that, your all focus is on reading.
Additionally, you can cause delays in reading as it will require stamina a thoroughly read a book that has hundreds of pages. However, causing delays does not mean you should take a rest for multiple days. Doing this will increase the chances of forgetting details that you have read.
Extract And Note Down The Points While Reading
Since books are usually quite lengthy, it would be good if also extract the main points or arguments while reading. If you don’t do this, then you have to spend time and effort again after reading the book to extract the main points.
Additionally, you also note down the extracted points separately. This is also essential because due to human nature, there is a strong chance that you may forget a necessary point that will damage the overall quality of the summarized book.
One tip that you can follow is that you should divide the book into different sections. Then you can extract and note down the main or best points from each point.
Start Summarizing By Using The Main Points
This is the step that will require most of your time and effort. Here, you will start summarizing the book by utilizing all the data or information that you collected in the previous step.
Remember, there are two approaches that you can follow for book summary writing. One approach is the extractive approach and the other one is the abstractive approach.
The extractive approach involves using the same words and phrases that the original or source text contains, and then generating a summarizing. This summarizing approach is quite simple as it just requires selecting main sentences and then combining them to create a summary.
On the other hand, abstractive summarization involves creating a summary of a text by using new words and phrases that the original text does not contain. This summarization approach is relatively difficult and may require more time due to the requirement of using new words.
If you are facing any difficulty in following this approach, then there is no need to worry. Because you can get help from an online summarizer. It will quickly summarize the given text by introducing new words and phrases in it.
So, you can use any of the summarizing approaches according to your personal preferences or summarizing requirements.
Proofread
The final step is to proofread the summarized book. Because we are all humans right and no matter how efficiently and carefully, we perform a task, there is still a chance that we may make some unintentional mistakes due to our nature. That’s why proofreading is an essential step that you should follow.
While proofreading, you will make sure the summary that you have created is completely accurate according to the original source. If you find anything out of context, do not hesitate to change it. Apart from this, you also need to make sure the summary is free from any kind of grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes.
By taking all these steps properly, you can become a master of book summary writing.
Final Thoughts
Summarizing hundreds of pages of a book into a few paragraphs is not a cup of tea, even if you are a professional author or writer. In this blog post, we have a step-by-step procedure that you need to follow in order to perfectly write short summaries of books.
