How to Summarize an Article: Your Guide to the 5 Best Ways

Writing with AI

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How to Summarize an Article: Your Guide to the 5 Best Ways

Learn how to write an effective article summary with our guide on key steps, tips, and common mistakes to avoid, along with summary examples.

Written by

Catherine B.

Published on

Apr 25, 2025

Table of contents

What Is Summarizing?
5 Steps to Summarize an Article Effectively
6 More Tips for Writing Summaries Like a Pro
5 Common Mistakes to Avoid
In Closing

Table of contents

What Is Summarizing?
5 Steps to Summarize an Article Effectively
6 More Tips for Writing Summaries Like a Pro
5 Common Mistakes to Avoid
In Closing

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Any student has to learn to summarize articles at one point or another, and not just as a standalone assignment. You’ll have to provide summaries of your key sources when you write literature reviews, essays, term papers, and most other assignments.

Whether you want to generate summaries with the StudyPro all-in-one AI academic tool or write them yourself, you need to know what makes for a good article summary. Conciseness and a good grasp of the source material are just two pieces of the puzzle, as crucial as they are.

Keep reading to find out:

5 steps to summarize an article
6 tips for writing a good article summary
5 common mistakes to avoid when writing a summary
Article summary examples

What Is Summarizing?

Article summarization is the process of writing a concise, objective overview of the article’s thesis statement and main points. The summary should be written in your own words and can span a single paragraph or comprise a whole assignment.

As part of other assignments, article summaries are typically limited to a single paragraph. Such a one-paragraph summary follows this structure:

Introductory sentence: Title, author, and thesis statement
Main body: Main points and ideas with important details (one sentence per supporting detail)
Closing line: Reiteration of the main idea

As a standalone assignment, the article summary should be around a third of the original source’s length. Here’s what it should include:

Summary parts	Elements to include
Introduction	Author Title Thesis statement/main idea Research methods (if any)
Body paragraphs	Key supporting evidence (one point per paragraph). Key findings of the article
Conclusion	Reiteration of the thesis statement as proven or disproven by the article’s evidence Author’s own conclusions

5 Steps to Summarize an Article Effectively

In short, you’ll need to read the source material, identify its main idea and important information, write the draft, and polish it off. It might sound simple, but every step is more intricate than you might think initially. Let’s break down how to summarize an article in five steps.

N.B. If you’re tasked with summarizing an article as a separate assignment, take some pointers on creating a compelling narrative from our guide on how to write a story.

Step 1. Read (and Re-Read) the Article

Whether you sum up news articles or academic articles, you’ll need to understand exactly what the author wanted to communicate before you even think about your article summary.

Here’s how to gain a full grasp of your source material:

Skim through the original article. Focus on the overall topic and the text’s structure. Read the abstract and pay attention to chapter headings or subheadings.
Read the text. Highlight or take notes on the most important details. Reflect on the material as you read it.
Look through the article once more. Read the parts of the original article you haven’t quite managed to wrap your head around one more time.
Compare the introduction and conclusion. Did the author manage to achieve the goals stated at the beginning?

Can’t make sense of a particularly difficult article? Consider using a summarizer tool like StudyPro’s AI writer to break down convoluted passages!

Step 2. Break Down the Original Text into Chunks

If you’re tasked with writing a summary of a lengthy article or research paper, breaking it down into smaller sections will make the whole thing more manageable. It’ll also help you ensure you won’t miss a key point or supporting argument.

To break down the original article into several parts, you can either follow its subheadings (if there are any) or sum up each paragraph or section in the margins. As a result, you should be able to list all the main themes and points of the original article.

Of course, doing all this requires time. That’s why you shouldn’t put off your article summary assignment till the last moment. To avoid getting swamped by assignments, use the homework planner by StudyPro to effortlessly keep track of all your deadlines.

Step 3. Pinpoint Key Points and Arguments

Remember what your summary should include? Create a new document in your preferred word processing tool and jot down:

The article’s thesis or main idea
Key supporting arguments for the thesis/idea
Results or findings of the article

Use a bulleted list to make your notes concise and easy to skim through. The list’s length will also help you see if you’re focusing on too many points or details at once.

Alternatively, you can highlight sentences that reflect the main idea and arguments right in the original text. Just remember that you’re supposed to describe those in your own words once you get to writing.

Keep in mind that this is still a summary. For it to be truly concise, it should focus only on the central theme and big-picture points. Leave details alone; if readers want to learn more about the article, they’ll check out the source material directly.

Step 4. Write the Article Summary Draft

With the notes and original text in front of you, you can get to writing the first draft of the summary. Leave your perfectionism behind: first drafts are never impeccable. The important part is to get your thoughts out of your head and onto the screen.

Here are some tips on how to write a summary of an article to streamline the process for you:

Start with the article’s main idea. If you had to summarize it in one sentence, what would it be? Write it down. Then, add the article’s title and author to the first sentence.
Stick to the expected length. One or two paragraphs are enough for summaries used in other papers. Standalone article summaries are usually a third of the article’s length.
Use a formula for the main points. Describe one point per sentence or paragraph, depending on the summary’s length.

Step 5. Revise and Improve the Draft

Let your article summary sit for a bit and return to proofread and edit it. Here are the five things to watch out for while you’re revising your draft:

Unnecessary details. Identify the sentences or paragraphs that bloat your summary and remove those with a steady hand.
Your opinions. This isn’t a place for your critique or analysis of the original article. Stick to the objective retelling of the article – in your own words, of course.
Verbatim quotes or near-verbatim sentences. Rewrite every point in your own words; otherwise, your summary might get flagged as plagiarism.
Missing elements. Make sure you covered every single main point from the original text.
Verbose language. Say what you mean to say in as few words as possible.

Want to streamline this process? Check out our guide on how to use AI to write an essay, with or without article summaries.

6 More Tips for Writing Summaries Like a Pro

Still can’t quite figure out how to summarize an article effectively? Here are our six tips for summarizing any article like a pro:

Use a formula for the opening sentence. Here it is: “In [article’s title], [author’s name] argues/reports/states/illustrates that [the article’s main idea].”
Annotate the source material. If you’re facing a complex or lengthy article, highlight key points and describe each chapter or paragraph with a single phrase.
Don’t forget about transition phrases in long summaries. Make sure your summary’s narrative flows smoothly with phrases like “In addition to…” and “Furthermore…”. Add reminder phrases like “The author goes on to state…” or “The author concludes…”.
Add citation references. When used within another paper, your summary should end with a citation for the source.
Have a good closer. The final sentence or paragraph should encapsulate the article’s overview, connecting the mentioned supporting arguments with the main idea or thesis.
Always edit for conciseness. It’s okay if your first draft is a bit too lengthy. Just strive to make it concise while you revise it.

5 Common Mistakes to Avoid

Article summaries can be surprisingly easy to get wrong. Here are the five most common pitfalls that can undermine your summary:

Using verbatim quotes. Your overview should be written in your own words for two reasons. One, the summary’s point is to show you understand your source material. Two, tools like Turnitin will flag direct quotes as plagiarism.
Omitting the title or author. It’s an innocent mistake, but it might leave your readers confused about which source you’re referring to.
Describing the totality of the article. Summaries shouldn’t include every tiny detail of the original article. Focus on the main idea and arguments.
Oversimplifying the content. While you’re supposed to describe the article in your own words, you also need to show you fully understand it. Don’t water down your overview or use simplistic language.
Stating your opinions. You can analyze or critique the source outside of a summary (if it’s part of an analytical essay, for example) but not within it. A summary is simply a condensed overview.

Need an Article Summary Example?

Example 1: According to Tom Orlik’s article, “Dangerous Game,” the impact of tariff hikes imposed by President Trump on April 2 is bound to be historical, but its full extent is yet to be seen. Using the Federal Reserve’s data on the impact of tariff increases on the U.S. economy’s growth and inflation during President Trump’s first term, inflation is projected to increase by an additional 2%. The country’s GDP is forecasted to decrease by almost 3%. The final impact, as the author reiterates multiple times, is hard to assess due to how unprecedented the policy decisions are.

Source: Orlik T. (2025). Dangerous game. Bloomberg Businessweek, May 2025, pp. 16-17

Example 2: As Rachel Giese explains in “What Makes a Man?” hyperaggressive masculinity is on the rise, not just due to the political shift toward a more traditionally masculine narrative and the promotion of such views in algorithm-driven online spaces. The author emphasizes that this shift is also driven by the desire for connection, friendship, and guidance, which the manosphere can satisfy. Dismissing this means dismissing one of the key reasons why hyperaggressive masculinity is gaining traction, according to the author. Therefore, it’s crucial to provide alternative ways to find connection and guidance to boys and young men as we pursue the goal of gender equality.

Source: Giese R. (2025). What makes a man? Bloomberg Businessweek, May 2025, pp. 64-67

In Closing

The five steps to summarize an article might seem simple, but they may require quite a lot of time and effort on your part, depending on the source material. That said, learning to summarize articles is worth it: it’s a vital skill both in the academic world and beyond it.

If there is a singular most important ingredient for writing a good article summary, it’s your understanding of the source material. So, make sure you have a full grasp of the article’s main points before you even think about the summary itself.

Frequently asked questions

To prepare for writing a summary, read the original text attentively. Re-read difficult passages and identify the article’s main idea and points. Then, write the first draft and revise it for clarity, conciseness, and completeness.

As you write a summary, remain objective and don’t analyze or criticize the original article. Describe everything in your own words, without verbatim quotes, and cover only the essentials – details aren’t necessary.

To write an article summary:

Read the original text. Skim through it first to get a sense of its topic and structure. Then, read the whole thing and reflect on the content.
Break it down. Write notes for every paragraph or chapter.
Write down the main idea and arguments. Use a bulleted list and verify all list items are essential enough to include.
Draft and revise. Write your first draft, let it sit, and edit it for conciseness and clarity.

Good article summaries are:

Objective. Stick to writing an overview instead of analyzing or critiquing the article.
Concise. Avoid verbose language and remove any unnecessary details from your summary.
Comprehensive. Verify that you cover all the relevant information from the article and mention its title and name.
Plagiarism-free. Write the overview in your own words, without watering down the article’s points, of course.

Sources:

Guidelines for writing a SUMMARY. (n.d.). https://academics.smcvt.edu/cbauer-ramazani/AEP/EN104/summary.htm
Research Guides: Article Summaries, Reviews & Critiques: Writing an article SUMMARY. (n.d.). https://libguides.randolph.edu/summaries
University of Washington. (2006). How to summarize a research article. https://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/HowtoSummarizeaResearch_Article1.pdf
Writing a summary | UAGC Writing Center. (n.d.). https://writingcenter.uagc.edu/writing-summary

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