It is natural that for a better reading comprehension of any text, thesis, poem, novel and other textual genres we have to raise the main points.
Often, this charge comes from the school, academic and work environment.
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Therefore, the circulation of syntheses is very recurrent in these environments.
Considering this aspect and the relevance of this textual genre, today, we will delve into the study of how to make a summary.
Synthesis is the extraction of the main points of a text. In this extraction, the form of the main text must be preserved, but the language must be clear and objective.
The summary also corresponds to a short summary, as it has few words. Thus, all very specific information should not be included in a summary.
It is important to keep in mind that the synthesis has three branches: critical synthesis, argumentative synthesis and expository synthesis.
To list criticisms of the original text and highlight a possible lack of coherence in the author's ideas, you should build a critical synthesis.
If the intention is to strengthen the perspectives of the original text, substantiating them with recognized studies, you have to write a argumentative synthesis.
On the other hand, if your objective is just to explain some points of the original text, bearing in mind that the original text can often be confusing and/or contain very complex terms, you should build one expository synthesis.
We must always bear in mind that the synthesis must be shorter than the summary and must highlight only what is necessary, so that the reader can understand the main aspects of the original text.
The summary points out the main ideas of a text, however, unlike the synthesis, it should contain around 30% of the original text, according to language professionals.
So we can conclude that it is bigger and contains more content than the synthesis.
1- To extract the main points, read and reread the main text carefully.
2- After careful reading, highlight in a draft the aspects that you deem extremely relevant. You can list these main points.
3- Pay attention to the structure! Then, identify the method used by the author, the objectives, justification, arguments and final considerations.
4- After raising the ideas to be treated in the synthesis, connect the ideas. For this use the connectors.
“And, but also, nevertheless, nevertheless, be... be, because, therefore, as soon as, since, in case, in proportion as, so that, so that, although, as, according to, if, etc." are excellent cohesive resources that help in the construction and organization of paragraphs.
5- This text is impersonal, so write it in the third person, as the author's ideas cannot be modified.
6- Insert examples. The examples can argumentatively strengthen your positions and serve as a support for the reader to better understand the ideas of the original text.
7- Don't forget to reference. highlight the bibliographic origins is of fundamental importance.
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