Filmmakers, storytellers, and creative writers alike use a technique called Scene and Summary. Scene is the close-up view…it shows details of a particular time, individual items of a particular room, a specific conversation, etc. in real-time. Summary, on the other hand, is the long view…it is used to abbreviate and/or "fast forward" the passing of many years or a sequence of events. When writing academic papers, you can use the summary technique to "fast forward" or give your reader a big picture view of a topic before going into further detail.

Summarizing involves briefly describing the main points or key terms from a source; the purpose of a summary is to take the most salient information from a greater body of work and distill it into a sentence or a paragraph. Like quotations and paraphrases, summaries require citations.

Example of a Summary

While analyzing the thirteen principles of "interbrain action modes," Humphrey (2004) explained that each principle could not stand on its own without using at least one or more other principles. His theory, called the "polyjunction functionism," was the first to explain why the brain naturally resists a single focus and embraces multi-tasking-or, as he unaffectionately called it, "one track mind deadness" (p. 24). His theory opened up a new branch of study called polyintellectualism, which was the first to recognize curiosity as one of the core descriptions of a healthy and properly-functioning brain (pp. 204-208). Today, polyintellectualists are the only group of brain specialists who refuse to organize a convention because they are simply too interested and/or involved in too many things.

This summary is short and tight, includes the author's main ideas and key phrases (in quotation marks where necessary), and includes appropriate citations. Notice how the citations are scattered throughout the summary in a way that is both accurate and fluid.