In daily life, we have many occasions to sum up someone. When we talk about a book or a movie that we saw to a friend, when we have to summarize a meeting that a collaborator could not attend, etc.
The summary of text in French or the contraction of text is write a convincing summary a common test of certain exams : preparation for HEC, the DELF (diploma of studies in French language), the DALF (Diplôme Approfondi de Langue française), etc.
In the professional context, sometimes we need to include a summary note. Through aprofessional emailor a PowerPoint presentation, we must render an analysis or the course of an event. This is often the case when you are a Manager in particular.
Whatever summary you need to make, the rules are the same. This exercise seems difficult for some. It is for this reason that we wanted to share a simple methodology to make an excellent summary. You will not necessarily become a Mozart of synthesis, but you will have the guidelines and you will know what mistakes you must avoid.
A summary simply consists in giving the essential information of a text, a presentation, a news item… It allows those who consult this summary to become acquainted with the main .
It is therefore not necessary to give more than the broad outlines and to go into the details. It doesn’t have to be very descriptive. We can also refrain from talking about numbers, dates, statistics, that kind of thing. Unless one of these pieces of information is essential for the recipient’s understanding.
A summary uses as few words as possible while remaining understandable. The recipient need not have seen the event or consulted the original text to understand.
Finally, a summary must be as faithful as possible. It must not distort the facts or the words of the author (for a text). We must not add our ideas to it.
How to write a summary
If you are taking an exam, the instruction gives the number of words required. The key is to be methodical and to respect the instructions. If you are in a professional setting, you are simply expected to be synthetic.
But, there is however a criterion not to be neglected: you must also show that you know how to write in good French! Spelling can be as prohibitive for an exam as it is in writing a professional email.
If you are canvassing a potential client or applying for a job offer, you need to take care of your spelling.
The best of your written expression.
MerciApp analyzes and corrects everything you write in real time to ensure you make a good impression in writing.
Step 1: Take a first reading
To make a good summary, you must fully understand the original text. That’s why you have to do a first reading without any objective. You read the text. Nothing more.
Step 2: Do a second reading
Once you have an overview, you can do a second reading to determine the structure of the text .
It is at this stage that you will extract the main ideas. You can underline them to make them stand out.
Step 3: Cut out the text
Now share the text according to the key ideas of each part. You can use colors to make this cutout stand out.
Do not confuse an example or illustration of the main idea with the main idea itself. Remember that you don’t have to go into details.
Then, you can write next to each part the main idea.
For an exam, depending on the number of words requested, assess how many words you have to summarize each part.
Extra tip: if you have to summarize in 220 words for 5 parts, you have to make 44 words for each part. If some are larger than others, we distribute by granting 50 words for the largest and 40 for the smallest, making sure that we arrive at 220 in total.
Step 4: identify the articulations of the text
This step highlights the way the ideas are linked together. Articulations of a text are visible through logical connectors .
Wikipedia provides a fairly comprehensive list oflogical connectors. You can use it to find them more easily.
Tip: Identify these logical connectors and circle them. You can then determine the nature of each part:
Logical connectors play a very important role.
Step 5: Proceed to writing the text
Once the text is marked up and properly cut out, you can move on towriting.
A summary often consists of a sentence which gives the subject and other sentences which give the main information around this subject.
