Three Kinds of Idea. Here, Descartes considers three kinds of idea: innate ideas, adventitious ideas, and what are sometimes called factitious ideas.

A detail is defined as an individual fact or feature, or is a small or minor part of something, or a small group of people assigned to a specific task. When you look at a large painting and notice the tiny little hands of one of the people in the painting, this is an example of noticing the detail of the painting.

The first sentence often explains the subject being discussed in the passage. Main ideas are also found in the concluding sentences of a paragraph. The main idea can be expressed as a summation of the information in the paragraph as well as a link to the information in the next paragraph.

A summary is a record in a reader’s own words that gives the main points of a piece of writing such as a newspaper article, the chapter of a book, or even a whole book. It is also possible to summarize something that you have heard, such as a lecture, or something that you have seen and heard, such as a movie.

28 Types of Summary. There are two primary types of summary: Descriptive and evaluative. As with many types of writing, not all summaries will fit perfectly into one of these categories, but these descriptions can help you know where to start when writing a summary.

A summary is a short overview of the main points of a text. The purpose of a summary is to quickly give the reader or listener an idea of what this material is saying.

A good summary has three basic characteristics: conciseness, accuracy, and objectivity. Conciseness: unlike paraphrase, summary condenses information. The degree of density can vary: while you can summarize a two-hundred page book in fifty words, you can also summarize a twenty-five-page article in five hundred words.

A summary begins with an introductory sentence that states the text’s title, author and main point of the text as you see it. A summary is written in your own words. A summary contains only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.

A story has five basic but important elements. These five components are: the characters, the setting, the plot, the conflict, and the resolution. These essential elements keep the story running smoothly and allow the action to develop in a logical way that the reader can follow.

Depending on the length and complexity of the original text as well as your purpose in using summary, a summary can be relatively brief—a short paragraph or even a single sentence—or quite lengthy—several paragraphs or even an entire paper.

A summary paragraph should be no longer than six to eight sentences. Once you finish a draft of the summary paragraph, read it over and revise it so it is short and to the point. Remove any sentences or phrases that seem redundant or repetitive.

4 Tips for Writing a Good Summary

1. Find the main idea. A useful summary distills the source material down to its most important point to inform the reader.
2. Keep it brief. A summary is not a rewrite—it’s a short summation of the original piece.
3. Write without judgment.
4. Make sure it flows.

Summarizing is defined as taking a lot of information and creating a condensed version that covers the main points. An example of summarizing is writing a three or four-sentence description that touches upon the main points of a long book.

A summary is shortened retelling of a longer piece, like a book, movie or essay, in your own words. When writing a summary, try to answer the who, what, when, where, why and how of the piece, and provide a topic sentence to tell the reader the main concept, or theme, of the piece.

Summarizing is more than retelling; it involves analyzing information, distinguishing important from unimportant elements and translating large chunks of information into a few short cohesive sentences.