how to make a summary of a newspaper article

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How to Write Article Summaries, Reviews & Critiques

Writing an article summary.

• Writing an article REVIEW
• Writing an article CRITIQUE
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When writing a summary, the goal is to compose a concise and objective overview of the original article. The summary should focus only on the article's main ideas and important details that support those ideas.

Guidelines for summarizing an article:

• State the main ideas.
• Identify the most important details that support the main ideas.
• Summarize in your own words.
• Do not copy phrases or sentences unless they are being used as direct quotations.
• Express the underlying meaning of the article, but do not critique or analyze.
• The summary should be about one third the length of the original article. 

Your summary should include:

• Give an overview of the article, including the title and the name of the author.
• Provide a thesis statement that states the main idea of the article.
• Use the body paragraphs to explain the supporting ideas of your thesis statement.
• One-paragraph summary - one sentence per supporting detail, providing 1-2 examples for each.
• Multi-paragraph summary - one paragraph per supporting detail, providing 2-3 examples for each.
• Start each paragraph with a topic sentence.
• Use transitional words and phrases to connect ideas.
• Summarize your thesis statement and the underlying meaning of the article.

 Adapted from "Guidelines for Using In-Text Citations in a Summary (or Research Paper)" by Christine Bauer-Ramazani, 2020

Additional Resources

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How to Write a Summary - Guide & Examples  (from Scribbr.com)

Writing a Summary  (from The University of Arizona Global Campus Writing Center)

• Next: Writing an article REVIEW >>
• Last Updated: Aug 16, 2023 11:47 AM
• URL: https://libguides.randolph.edu/summaries

How to Do a Summary of a News Article

How to Teach Second-Graders to Write Book Reports

News articles can be long and often take too much time to get to the point. Because of this, writers may want to summarize a news article to uncover the objective faster. A summary offers readers a chance to understand the main idea of the piece, without needing to read the actual text itself. It helps present the reader with the main points in a shorter amount of time, by excluding details that aren't necessary. You can summarize any piece of writing, but many students get assigned a summary of a news article as a writing task at some point in their coursework.

The Goal of Summarizing a News Article

You can summarize a news article in several ways, but the main purpose is to take all the information and make it shorter. News articles can be very long, and sometimes they do not tie together ideas or details well. Summarizing a news article is a good opportunity for people to develop their writing skills, as most high school and undergraduate students will likely need to summarize heavier texts as they continue down their career path. There are several steps that a writer will need to follow in order to successfully summarize a news article.

Active Reading

Active reading is one of the first steps in summarizing a news article. While most people tend to just skim an article to get the main point, an active reader will read closely, perhaps highlighting points or taking notes. You will need to read the article or sections of the news article that you choose to summarize over and over again, in order to fully understand what it's about. To do this, you can ask yourself some questions:

• What's the main idea?
• Why did the author write this?
• Who published the article (what company?) and does it fit their theme? Why?
• What's the tone of the article?
• If the article was a photo, what kind of photo would summarize it?

Create an Outline

Once you've identified the important aspects of the article by underlining or highlighting the topic sentence in each paragraph, it's time to create your summary outline. To create an outline for a summary of a news article, you need to take those important points as well as the answers to the questions you've asked yourself, and organize them nicely.

Make sure to get rid of any "fluff" or unnecessary details that don't support the main idea. For example, if the news article is about a hurricane which hit the coast of Florida, then the important details are regarding the type of hurricane, where it hit, who was affected, and how they are going to rebuild. If you read in the article that a family said their power went out, and they couldn't watch TV for four days after the storm, then that's not necessarily a detail that directly supports the main idea. It can, therefore, be left out of the summary.

Write the Summary

Once your outline is complete, take those points and blend them together to create your summary. Every summary should start with a description of the piece you're summarizing, especially its title and author. Then, using those key points you've outlined that directly support the main idea, re-write them in order to briefly discuss what the piece is about in your own words. Lastly, the length of a summary can depend on the length of the original piece. But, a good summary can be done in as little as a few sentences to a paragraph if the writer really focuses on the crucial details.

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• Owlcation: How to Write a Summary of an Article
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• Read. Write. Think: Newspaper Article Summary Questions
• Remember to include the name of the publication the article came from and the author's name.
• If you paraphrase or use quotations, be sure to cite the sources.
• Failure to cite the proper sources, or cutting-and-pasting from the article is plagiarism, which can have serious consequences in school or professional organizations.

Hana LaRock is a freelance content writer from New York, currently living in Mexico. Before becoming a writer, Hana worked as a teacher for several years in the U.S. and around the world. She has her teaching certification in Elementary Education and Special Education, as well as a TESOL certification. Please visit her website, www.hanalarockwriting.com, to learn more.

How to Summarize the News

• Reading time: 2 min.

The purpose of a summary is to state what importance a piece of news contains. Follow these 6 steps to summarize the news clearly and comprehensively.

Before you begin to summarize the news, you need to know the intended audience of the summary. Different audiences drive different motivations for summarization, for example you might need to help your boss determined whether or not a piece of news is important. Or, on the other hand, inform a colleague of a new process.  Regardless of the audience, there are a few key components to include in every news summarization.

1. Find the contextual topic sentence.

Reporters typically summarize the topic of story in the first few sentences so you should find it in the beginning of the article. First, re-write the topic sentence and try to include data from later in the story to provide context.

2. Identify the magnitude of the story.

Next, look for data points that give context to the total impact of the event such as:

• Is the percent of the population is affected quantified?
• How about the percentage change discussed?
• What is the absolute value of the change?
• How does the data compare to the past?
• Has this happened in the past, how many times?
• What happened last time this issue was reported on?

3. Note the who and when.

Then, document the exact audience and scope of who the news impacted and when.

• Factual: Where did it happen?
• Factual: When did it happen?
• Factual: Did an important person make a claim or statement?
• Quote: Is it a projection about the future?
• Judgement: What has to happen for the outcome to occur?

4. Highlight why the news is important for the audience.

Once you have the facts, consider why this matters. To clarify – why does the audience need to know about this news and how is the status quo altered?

5. Evaluate the source.

This is imperative – the publishing source can’t be ignored. Consider the sources contributing to the article and potential motivations for a publisher (for instance, money, values or political affiliation). Look for validity in the form of awards or how often the source is cited by other publications or organizations.

6. Projections, Estimates, Opinions: Clear the noisy quasi-data.

Finally, use your own judgement. Projections, estimates and opinions are subject to uncertainty, therefore you, as the reader and messenger, have to judge the credibility. If you do trust the source’s credibility, try to gather factual historical data that gives context to support the claims.

By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to present any news article in a clear and concise manner for your audience.

Pro tip: Save time and supercharge your research efforts with Skim AI’s 1-click summarization tool .

• Instant summarization.
• Fact and quote extraction.
• Clip, save and retrieve sentence level information.
• Manage citations by topic or saved data point.

Automatically generate summaries on news articles, research papers, PDFs and more with Skim AI’s summarization tool.

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6 Steps to Write Clear Summarized News

Table of Contents

Writing clear and digestible summarized news stories that maintain a level of depth without interfering with the details of the story can be challenging. Follow the steps to create compelling news article summaries that captivate the audience in no time.

What is a News Summary?

A news summary is a shortened version of information that focuses on specific areas of daily events. They cover world events, including national, international, and breaking news of the day. The main headline is followed by a few sentences that explain briefly what the said article is about.

Why is Summarized News Important?

A news article summary highlights the key points and gets the most out of every minute when reading the news. By summarizing the article, you make learning what happened in the article easier and more effective.

Many online platforms such as Facebook make it easy to share and follow the news articles that interest you. Summarizing news articles helps you stay on top of world events by increasing the time spent reading each summary.

6 Steps to Summarize News Articles

Before summarizing, you must first determine who the summary is intended for. You should take certain steps to make your article look great, shareable, and attractive to your targeted audience. Below are six steps to writing clear, concise, and logical summarized news articles.

1. Find the topic sentence in context

The story’s theme is usually summarized in the first few phrases, so look for it at the start of the piece. Try rewriting the topic sentence first and then include new information from later in the story to add context.

2. Determine the significance of the story

Look for data points that provide context for the event’s overall impact by asking a few specific questions.

To identify the intensity of the story, consider the percentage change, the population affected, old and new data, and the frequency of the event.

3. Take note of the who and when

Keep track of whom the news affected and when. To enhance the summary and make it more authentic, ask a few factual questions first.

Analyze the location and timing of an event, any statements made by significant figures, and any predictions for the future.

4. Discuss why the news is significant to the audience

Once you have the facts and figures, consider why it matters to the audience. To be more specific, highlight why the public need to know about certain information and how it will affect the status quo.

5. Examine the publishing source

The publishing source is crucial and cannot be overlooked. Evaluate the source that contributed to the story.

Also, consider if the publisher’s intention was money, political affiliation, or anything else. Examine the source’s validity by looking for accolades or how frequently other media or organizations acknowledge it.

6. Assess the authenticity of uncertain data

In the end, trust your own judgment because projections, predictions, and opinions are all susceptible to uncertainty.

Therefore, you must assess their reliability if you’re not confident about the source’s authenticity and credibility. Gauge past factual data to back up the claims.

News article summaries are essential in giving news reports the surface treatment they deserve.

The principles and processes described in this article will help you write a strong and comprehensive account of any article you choose. So let’s take a break from the news and write our own summarized versions of it!

Pam is an expert grammarian with years of experience teaching English, writing and ESL Grammar courses at the university level. She is enamored with all things language and fascinated with how we use words to shape our world.

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How To Summarize News Articles: Traditional Methods and AI Tools

Elise Williams

In today's fast-paced world, staying informed about the latest news is crucial. However, with the overwhelming amount of information available, it can take time to keep up with everything. This is where the art of summarizing news articles comes in. Summarizing news articles involves condensing the essential information of a news story into a shorter version that is easier to read and digest.

Traditionally, summarizing news articles has been done by journalists and editors who are trained to extract the most important details from a news story. However, with the rise of the internet and social media, anyone can now access news articles from around the world, and there is a growing need for new methods of summarization that are accessible to a wider audience. This has led to the development of AI tools and other technologies to help people quickly and efficiently summarize news articles.

In this article

Traditional ways of summarizing news articles.

Summarizing a news article means condensing the story's key points into a shorter version that conveys the most important information. This is a critical skill for anyone who wants to stay informed about current events but needs more time to read every news article. By summarizing news articles, readers can quickly get an overview of the main points of a story and decide whether it is worth reading the full article.

The traditional ways of summarizing news articles involve techniques such as skimming and scanning. Skimming involves quickly reviewing the text to identify the most important information, such as the headline, subheadings, and the first and last paragraphs. This technique is useful when trying to get a general understanding of a story. On the other hand, scanning involves looking for specific information within a text, such as names, dates, and statistics. This technique is useful when finding particular information within a story.

Tips for Summarizing News Articles

Following a systematic approach to capturing all the essential information is important when summarizing news articles. Here are some tips and techniques to help you summarize news articles effectively:

• Identify the topic sentence: Look for the article's main idea or topic sentence, usually found in the first few sentences, and rewrite it in your own words to provide context.
• Note the magnitude of the story: Identify relevant data points that give context to the impact of the event or issue discussed in the article.
• Note the who and when: Document the audience and scope of whom the news impacted and when it happened.
• Highlight why the news is important: Consider why this matters and how it alters the status quo for the audience.
• Evaluate the source: Consider the credibility of the publishing source and potential motivations for a publisher.
• Clear noisy quasi-data: Be wary of projections, estimates, and opinions and use your judgment to evaluate their credibility. Gather factual historical data to support the claims.

Common mistakes to avoid when summarizing news articles include paraphrasing the original article too closely, leaving out essential information, and failing to identify the article's main idea or topic sentence. Additionally, it is important to remain objective and avoid injecting personal biases or opinions into the summary.

The Rise of AI Tools for Summarizing News Articles

As the volume of news articles grows, more traditional methods of summarizing news articles may be required. Fortunately, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has opened up new possibilities for summarizing news articles more efficiently and accurately.

One of the challenges with summarizing news articles is the variety of formats in which they are available, including PDFs. PDFs are commonly used for publishing scientific research papers, and summarizing them can be particularly challenging due to their length and complexity. However, AI tools can help summarize PDF news articles using advanced algorithms to extract key information and provide concise summaries.

The Advantages of AI Tools for Summarizing News Articles

The benefits of using AI tools for summarizing news articles are numerous.

• Time-saving: AI tools can summarize a news article in seconds, which would take significantly longer for a human to do.
• Increased efficiency: With the ability to process and summarize large volumes of articles, AI tools allow for increased efficiency in news curation and research.
• Consistency: AI tools produce consistent and unbiased summaries, eliminating the possibility of human error or personal bias.
• Accessibility: AI tools are available 24/7 and can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection, making news summarization more accessible to a wider audience.
• Customization: AI tools can be customized to cater to specific needs, such as summarizing news articles related to a particular industry or topic.
• Improved comprehension: AI-generated summaries can help readers quickly grasp the main points of an article, which can improve overall comprehension and retention of information.

How AI Tools are Changing the Way We Consume News

AI tools are changing how we consume news by making it more accessible and convenient. With AI-generated summaries, readers can quickly and easily get the main points of a news story without reading the entire article. This is particularly useful for busy readers who need more time to read every news article in detail.

Additionally, AI tools can help readers to filter out irrelevant or repetitive news stories. By summarizing multiple news articles on the same topic, AI algorithms can identify and highlight the key points, helping readers to stay informed without being overwhelmed by a flood of information.

The Future of Summarizing News Articles with AI Tools

The use of AI tools for summarizing news articles is still in its early stages but rapidly evolving. As AI algorithms become more sophisticated and accurate, they can provide more nuanced and detailed summaries of news articles. In the future, AI tools may be able to generate summaries tailored to individual readers, taking into account their interests and preferences.

AI tools are revolutionizing the way we summarize news articles. They can help us to quickly and accurately digest large amounts of information and provide more comprehensive and objective summaries. AI tools will likely become an increasingly important part of the news industry as technology improves, benefiting journalists and readers alike.

How to use PDFelement Summarize Tool to Summarize News Articles

Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor is a versatile PDF editor that offers a wide range of features to simplify document processing. Among its many features is the PDFelement summarize tool, powered by Lumi, an AI robot trained by ChatGPT. This tool can help users quickly and accurately summarize news articles in PDF format, saving time and effort.

Here are the steps to use the PDFelement summarize tool to summarize news articles:

Step 1 Open the PDF file containing the news article in PDFelement.

Step 2 Click the "Lumi PDF AI robot" button at the software interface's bottom right corner. Alternatively, you can click the corresponding button in the floating toolbar.

Step 3 From the pop-up menu, select "Summarize."

Step 4 Import the current file or browse your local drive to add another PDF into the Summarize window.

Step 5 Click "Analysis" to initiate the process.

Step 6 View the output under the Response box.

Step 7 Copy and paste the response into your file and edit it as needed.

The PDFelement summarize tool has several features and functionalities, including accuracy and speed. The tool can quickly and accurately analyze PDF content and comprehend the document, enabling it to easily summarize the key information. Users can also summarize the text rather than import a PDF file.

An example of how to use the PDFelement summarize tool to summarize a news article is as follows:

Suppose you have a 5-page news article in PDF format and need to summarize it for a presentation. Follow the steps above to use the PDFelement summarize tool, and in a matter of minutes, you will have a summarized version of the article. The output will contain the most critical points of the article, making it easier for you to present the information concisely and clearly.

Tips for Using PDFelement Summarize Tool

Here are some tips for using the PDFelement Summarize Tool effectively:

Choose the Appropriate Summarization Mode

Select the appropriate summarization mode (summary or content) based on your requirements.

Adjust the Summary Length

Customize the summary length to suit your needs. You can adjust the summary length by specifying the number of sentences or words you want in summary.

Edit the Summary

Even though the tool provides an automatic summary, it is essential to edit the summary to ensure its accuracy and completeness. Edit the summary to ensure it covers all the article's essential points.

Proofread the Summary

After editing the summary, it is essential to proofread it for grammatical errors, typos, and sentence structure.

Use the Highlight Feature

Use the highlight feature to identify the most critical sections of the article. This will help you focus on the article's essential parts and create a more accurate summary.

Some common mistakes to avoid when using the PDFelement Summarize Tool are:

• Not proofreading the summary: Failing to proofread the summary can result in errors that may misrepresent the original article.
• Relying solely on the tool: While the tool is useful in summarizing articles, it is essential to verify the accuracy and completeness of the summary by cross-checking it against the original article.
• Using the tool on low-quality PDFs: The tool may need to be revised on low-quality PDFs, resulting in accurate or complete summaries. Use high-quality PDFs for better results.

By following these tips and avoiding these common mistakes, you can use the PDFelement Summarize Tool effectively and create accurate and informative summaries of news articles.

AI tools for summarizing news articles have revolutionized how we consume and process information. With the PDFelement Summarize Tool, users can quickly and accurately summarize news articles in just a few clicks. Users can get the most out of its features and functionalities by customizing the tool's settings. This tool is an excellent addition to staying informed while saving time and effort.

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How To Summarize A News Article

• Success Team
• December 14, 2022

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Are you a small or medium-sized business, marketing agency, market research firm, organization with 51 to 1,000 employees, marketer, qualitative researcher, customer experience manager, market researcher, product researcher, SEO specialist, business analyst, data scientist, academic researcher, or business owner? If so, you know the importance of summarizing a news article. Summarizing a news article is a great way to stay informed and up-to-date on the latest news and trends. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how to summarize a news article and why it’s important.

What Is A News Article?

A news article is a written piece of journalism that is published in a newspaper, magazine, or online. It is typically written by a journalist and contains information about current events, trends, and newsworthy topics. News articles are typically short, concise, and to the point. They are written in an objective and unbiased manner, and they often include quotes from experts or sources.

Why Summarize A News Article?

Summarizing a news article is important for a number of reasons. First, it allows you to quickly and easily get the gist of a news article without having to read the entire piece. This is especially useful if you’re short on time or if you’re looking for a quick overview of a news story. Second, summarizing a news article can help you identify key points and main ideas. This can be especially helpful if you’re looking for specific information or if you’re trying to understand a complex news story. Finally, summarizing a news article can help you remember key points and main ideas.

Summarizing a news article is not as difficult as it may seem. Here are a few tips to help you get started:

1. Read the Article

The first step to summarizing a news article is to read the article. This may seem obvious, but it’s important to read the entire article in order to get a full understanding of the topic. As you read, make sure to take notes on key points and main ideas.

2. Identify the Main Points

Once you’ve read the article, the next step is to identify the main points. This can be done by looking for key words or phrases that are repeated throughout the article. These key words or phrases can help you identify the main points of the article.

3. Write a Summary

Once you’ve identified the main points, the next step is to write a summary. A summary should be concise and to the point. It should include the main points of the article and any key information. Make sure to avoid using any jargon or technical language, as this can make the summary difficult to understand.

4. Check for Accuracy

Once you’ve written the summary, it’s important to check for accuracy. Make sure that the summary accurately reflects the main points of the article and that all of the information is accurate. If there are any inaccuracies, make sure to correct them before publishing the summary.

Summarizing a news article is a great way to stay informed and up-to-date on the latest news and trends. By following the tips outlined in this blog post, you can easily and quickly summarize a news article and get the gist of the story without having to read the entire piece. So, the next time you come across a news article, try summarizing it to get the most out of the article.

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