Guidelines for an academic summary

An academic summary is a short, concise and faithful version of something much larger or bigger. Remember that you are not writing an "explication de texte", nor a "commentaire de texte " and you should know the difference between a "compte-rendu" and a summary ("résumé").

Here are a few guidelines usually observed for academic summaries:

• highlight the main ideas
  
• do not report the details unless there are crucially important
  
• in case you need to cite, use quotation marks, but avoid this as much as you can
  
• reword the ideas
• the summary should follow the structure of the original document
  
• no personal comments (this reports is interesting, this suggestion is debatable or provocative, etc.)
  
• no explanation or commentaries (maybe she wants to explain that...; that is to say...; to mean that...)
  
• no introduction, no conclusion unless there is one in the original document
  
• no ideas from outside sources even if they are true or could confirm or contradict the views that are held in the original document
• your summary should not exceed the number of words indicated in the instructions