LESSON 3:

PRECIS, ABSTRACT AND SUMMARY

/ COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW
NOTES
FRANZ ARIELLE A. DE CASTRO
WHOLE TOPIC
GRADE 11- STEM 3

PRECIS
According to the precis definition, the
word “Précis” comes from the French
language and means “precise” or “to
cut brief”. A precis is a brief synopsis of
another work. The main purpose of a
precis is to sum up any ideas that were
stated in the piece, explain the main
message, and give readers an idea of
how the original piece was structured.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
SUMMARY AND PRECIS
PRECIS
ABSTRACT
1. A small replica or a model of any passage or article
An Abstract is a short (usually no
2. Precis must have an apt heading
3. It always maintains the order of the original piece and is always in longer than 200 words) self-
written format contained summary of a longer work,
4. Only the absolute essential points are mentioned in a Precis usually an essay or article. It comes
5. It uses the same tone and mood (as given in the writing piece) to at the start of an article, and it serves
express the idea. i.e. it retains the original idea and voice of the given
piece of writing, article or anything
to give readers enough information to
6. In a Precis, the reader reads a piece of information and has to decide whether the article is going to
extract the main idea that is being talked about. be worth reading for their purposes.
7. A precis as is a replica of the original message must mention the
conclusion as well.
8. Maintains the keywords, Data and Concept from the source
SUMMARY
1. Shortened description of any passage or article
2. The heading is not so important but reference to the original
sources should be mentioned as (‘A summary of …’)
SUMMARY
3. Not specifically have to maintain the order and can be written as When writers summarize a
well as spoken
source, they identify the main
4. Covers all the important points in the briefest form, mentioned in a
piece of writing points of that source and then
5. This is expressed in the readers or listeners’ own words. It omits discuss them in their own words.
details and does not include the interpretation as originally mentioned
in the article, writing, speech etc.
A summary is an account of this
6. In summary, the reader or listener decides what are the main information. Writers can
points that need to be expressed from the given piece. summarize all sorts of sources,
7. A summary does not need a conclusion unless the original piece
ends with an important message such as essays, books, films,
8. This expresses the main idea of each paragraph and evidence in and lectures.
support of that idea from the original source
 When a writer sees “summary” as part of his or What is the purpose of a summary?
her instructions on how to write something, this can A summary is meant to inform your reader—who
has not read the text or seen the presentation—of
fill the writer with dread. The writer’s mind might
what the text is about. It describes its purpose or
begin to seem backlogged with questions, such as
main idea, and summarizes the supporting
What is a summary?, Why do I need to do this?,
arguments that develop that idea. Readers will then
What if I leave out something important?, and
know if they will find it useful and want to read it.
What if I plagiarize and don’t even realize it?
Before you can summarize anything, you must
With the appropriate level of understanding and understand the content of what you are
preparation, a writer needing to develop a summarizing and do some pre-writing. Some of the
summary can be better able to face such a task most common flaws in summaries come from not
with greater confidence and skill. completing these pre-writing steps.

PRE-WRITING STAGE
How do you write an effective summary? Now you are ready to begin writing your summary.
Follow these steps:
Before you can summarize anything, you must understand the 1.Provide the author’s name and title of the text being
content of what you are summarizing and do some pre-writing. summarized. If you are are summarizing a speaker’s
Some of the most common flaws in summaries come from not presentation, give the presenter’s name, the title or topic
completing these pre-writing steps. For example, some of the presentation. If context is important to your
summary writers get bogged down in the small details and summary, give some details about the intended
neglect to present the main idea; or they present a series of audience, etc.
unconnected thoughts that come directly from the source, but
do not coherently indicate what that source was about or how 2.Paraphrase (write in YOUR OWN WORDS) the
ideas were developed; occasionally, a writer may summarize author’s THESIS or main idea:
the structure of a text instead of the ideas in that text. These
errors occur because the pre-writing work was done poorly. 3.Describe, in a neutral and objective manner, how the
author supports and develops the main idea. Do not
editorialize (evaluate, critique, analyze, etc); simply
describe. Keep the following in mind:
PRE-WRITING STAGE
summarize the key points used to develop the main
1. Actively read the article or pay attention to the idea
presentation. Make notes. Make sure you understand
what you are summarizing: what is its main purpose? leave out minor details and examples that are not
critical to the main idea
What is the “thesis”? What are the main points that
support the thesis? Explain it verbally to someone else do not quote from the article; or limit quotations to a
based on your notes. Use your own words to make single key word or important phrase. Padding your
sure you really understand what you have read or summary with quotations does not effectively
seen. condense and summarize, so will lower your mark.

use signal phrases, such as “Dombrowski explains”

2. Reread the article (or your notes on the
and “Dombrowski asserts” to show that the ideas are
presentation, or the slides if they have been provided) not yours, but that they come from the article you are
and break it up into sections or “stages of thought.” summarizing. Do not accidentally plagiarize. Do not
Briefly summarize each section and indicate how it inadvertently present the author’s ideas as your own.
relates to the main idea. Again, paraphrase using your
own words. Except for the occasional key word or Pay attention to verb tense: summaries of ideas are
generally given in the present tense, while results
phrase, avoid quoting directly.
and findings are often given in the past tense.
■Dombrowski explains … (present tense)
3. Keep your purpose and intended audience in mind ■Hollander’s study found that … (past tense)
when you design your summary; remember, your
intended reader has not read the article or seen the Summaries of presentations are generally given in
presentation. Why are you summarizing it? Why is the past tense, since the presentation happened only
once in the past, while a text can be read and reread
your audience reading your summary?
several times, making it more “present.”
WHAT MAKES SOMETHING A SUMMARY?

You’re summarizing well when you

Use your own words.
Significantly condense the original text.
Provide accurate representations of the main points of the text they summarize.
Avoid personal opinion.

Summaries are much shorter than the original material—a general rule is that they should be no more
than 10% to 15% the length of the original, and they are often even shorter than this.
It can be easy and feel natural, when summarizing an article, to include our own opinions. We may
agree or disagree strongly with what this author is saying, or we may want to compare their information
with the information presented in another source, or we may want to share our own opinion on the
topic. Often, our opinions slip into summaries even when we work diligently to keep them separate.
These opinions are not the job of a summary, though. A summary should only highlight the main points
of the article.

Focusing on just the ideas that best support a point we want to make or ignoring ideas that don’t
support that point can be tempting. This approach has two significant problems, though:

First, it no longer correctly represents the original text, so it misleads your reader about the ideas
presented in that text. A summary should give your reader an accurate idea of what they can expect if
we pick up the original article to read.

Second, it undermines your own credibility as an author to not represent this information accurately. If
readers cannot trust an author to accurately represent source information, they may not be as likely to
trust that author to thoroughly and accurately present a reasonable point.

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.

Descriptive: A descriptive summary is very much rooted in expressing facts. It focuses on the essence of
the item under review, sharing the main point and any important, supporting details. The writer’s opinion is
rarely found in a descriptive summary. It is a concise description of the work, which means the writer uses
as a few words as possible to convey the essential elements of the item being summarized.
Evaluative: Just like the word “evaluative” suggests, this type of summary requires the writer to evaluate
the item being summarized. This classification of summary is opinion-heavy. While a few basic facts
about the piece are required, such as the author and the title and the main point of the piece, the
remainder consists of the summary writer’s viewpoints of the work. The author will detail his or her
perception of the work in such areas as intended audience and purpose and how well these are
addressed in the work. The person evaluating the item will also look at how this item will be useful to him
or her and examine where it falls short. Because the types and frequency of examination found in the
evaluative summary may involve extensive explanation, it will very likely be longer than the typical
descriptive summary.

When are these used?

Descriptive: A writer uses a descriptive summary when he or she wants to gain and express an
understanding of what the author said in the original text.
Evaluative: A writer will choose this summary type when he or she wants to examine the original text for
usefulness, validity, strength of argument, or other important elements.
INFORMATIVE SUMMARIES
Informative summaries accurately convey the information contained in a text or in other type of
resource. An informative summary should be objective i.e. “without personal opinions in
presenting the ideas in the source text”.

Thus, informative summaries are recommended for scientific, non-fictional works or to present
objective reports of factual content.

The main types of informative summaries are: outlines, abstracts, and synopses.

Outlines present the plan or the “skeleton” of a written material. Outlines show the order and
the relation between the parts of the written material.
Abstracts present the major point of long piece of text or an article. Abstracts help readers to
decide whether or not they want to read the longer text.
A synopsis is a brief overview of an article, story, book, film, or other works. A synopsis is a
concise, chronological description of a historical event, news event, historical event or other
experiences as they develop in time.

WHAT IS A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW?

A valid comprehensive review is a systematic, scientifically designed review of a defined literature
base that employs the rigor of original research in an effort to limit outcome bias.

When you write a thesis, dissertation, or research paper, you will likely have to conduct a literature
review to situate your research within existing knowledge. The literature review gives you a chance
to:

Demonstrate your familiarity with the topic and its scholarly context
Develop a theoretical framework and methodology for your research
Position your work in relation to other researchers and theorists
Show how your research addresses a gap or contributes to a debate
Evaluate the current state of research and demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarly debates
around your topic.
TYPES OF REVIEW
It’s important to distinguish between different types of review because this determines how you’ll
conduct your research to provide a top-notch review. Some reputable peer-reviewed journals
include review articles, and they can even have a lot of citations and a high impact factor. Below are
the different types of review articles.

Journal Article Review- This type of review outlines the strengths and weaknesses of a
publication. You must demonstrate the article’s value through a thorough analysis and
interpretation.
Research Article Review- Slightly different from a journal review, a research article review
evaluates the research method and compares it to the article’s analysis and critique.
Scientific Article Review- This type of review involves the review of any article within the realm
of science. Scientific publications may include more information on the background necessary to
help you provide a more comprehensive review.
TYPES OF LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Narrative literature review, also referred to as traditional literature review, critiques
literature and summarizes the body of a literature. Narrative review also draws conclusions
about the topic and identifies gaps or inconsistencies in a body of knowledge. You need to
have a sufficiently focused research question to conduct a narrative literature review

2. Systematic literature review- requires more rigorous and well-defined approach

compared to most other types of literature review. Systematic literature review is
comprehensive and details the timeframe within which the literature was selected. Systematic
literature review can be divided into two categories: meta-analysis and meta-synthesis.
When you conduct meta-analysis you take findings from several studies on the same
subject and analyze these using standardized statistical procedures. In meta-analysis
patterns and relationships are detected and conclusions are drawn. Meta-analysis is
associated with deductive research approach.
Meta-synthesis, on the other hand, is based on non-statistical techniques. This technique
integrates, evaluates and interprets findings of multiple qualitative research studies.
Meta-synthesis literature review is conducted usually when following inductive research
approach.

3. Scoping literature review- as implied by its name is used to identify the scope or
coverage of a body of literature on a given topic. It has been noted that “scoping reviews are
useful for examining emerging evidence when it is still unclear what other, more specific
questions can be posed and valuably addressed by a more precise systematic review.”[1]
The main difference between systematic and scoping types of literature review is that,
systematic literature review is conducted to find answer to more specific research questions,
whereas scoping literature review is conducted to explore more general research question.

4. Argumentative literature review- as the name implies, examines literature selectively in

order to support or refute an argument, deeply imbedded assumption, or philosophical
problem already established in the literature. It should be noted that a potential for bias is a
major shortcoming associated with argumentative literature review.

5. Integrative literature review- reviews, critiques, and synthesizes secondary data about
research topic in an integrated way such that new frameworks and perspectives on the topic
are generated. If your research does not involve primary data collection and data analysis,
then using integrative literature review will be your only option.

6. Theoretical literature review- focuses on a pool of theory that has accumulated in regard
to an issue, concept, theory, phenomena. Theoretical literature reviews play an instrumental
role in establishing what theories already exist, the relationships between them, to what
degree existing theories have been investigated, and to develop new hypotheses to be
tested.

At the earlier parts of the literature review chapter, you need to specify the type of your
literature review your chose and justify your choice. Your choice of a specific type of literature
review should be based upon your research area, research problem and research methods.
Also, you can briefly discuss other most popular types of literature review mentioned above,
to illustrate your awareness of them.
HOW TO WRITE A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW
Now you’re ready to start writing! Start a review by including a title (declarative, descriptive,
or interrogative). Before moving on to the intro of your review, cite and identify the article, and
include:
The article’s title The author
The journal’s title (if applicable) Year of publication.

Body
The body is the main part of your review and should include comparisons and thorough
analysis. At this point, include any previous notes you took while preparing for the review.
There isn’t a word limit to this part of the review, but you must include as much or as little
detail as each article deserves, paying special attention to:
Qualitative vs. quantitative approaches The conclusion and its importance
The article’s specific objective or purpose Chronology

Conclusion
For the conclusion, revisit your findings, critiques, and the article’s critical points while
maintaining the focus established in the intro. Ensure the conclusion is short and to the point.

Post-Review
Now that your review is complete, check for errors, bad grammar, or awkwardly-phrased
sentences. If your review is poorly written, it’ll be considered irrelevant, even if your ideas are
qualitative.Remember to always be respectful of another author’s work. Refrain from writing a
bad review, even if there are points that you disagree with or that anger or frustrate you.
Instead, show examples of any errors or inconsistencies you find and politely suggest ideas
about other aspects of the author’s research for their future works.