If you are in a technical field, whether in academia, government, or industry, it is important to read technical articles and papers so that you can try to stay current with ever-changing technological progress. One habit that will benefit you over time is writing your own summaries of the papers you read. So, this is a short tutorial on how to summarize a technical paper primarily for your own understanding and research.
There are several benefits to writing paper summaries:
- Writing these summaries will help make sure you really understand the topics being discussed in the paper — the process of learning about a topic so that you are able to discuss that topic in your own words is an excellent way to make sure you really understand that topic.
- Maintaining a collection of all the summaries you write will help you later if you need to refresh your memory about a paper or topic, since you won’t need to re-read the originals. This collection will also be important for example if you need to give a presentation on a topic, or if you need to compile a survey of relevant or important papers or ideas.
- A very valuable skill — especially for technical people — is the ability to communicate technical material to a wider audience, such as, for example, your boss at work, the colleagues on your team, or even those attending a conference.
Note that this short tutorial is not how to write a review of a paper, which is done from a more critical perspective — a summary is more focused on presenting your own understanding of the paper.
Paper Summary Sections
Here are the minimal sections for writing a basic paper summary:
A. Introduction
What is the specific title of the paper, book, or chapter being summarized? Who are authors? Citation/URL? What is a one or two sentence summary of the paper?
This section can usually be done in a couple of sentences or a short paragraph.
B. Description
This is a more detailed summary of the paper. What is the main goal or thesis of the paper? What were the steps the authors used to accomplish this goal or thesis? What is the main description of the paper — what technologies were investigated or discussed? What is the problem the paper is addressing, how did the authors address this problem, and what results did they achieve? What are the main results, findings, or accomplishments detailed in the paper?
It is important to be specific — mention specific examples or points from the paper in your own words.
This can usually be done in one or two paragraphs.
C. Assessment/Analysis
What are your thoughts about the paper? Is what the authors presented new/novel or related to some other work/paper? What were to you the most important takeaways from the paper? What were the most important points you learned from the paper? What do you think are the technical implications of what the authors concluded? What do you think is the impact of what was presented?
Again, be specific, but this is where you provide your own commentary, insight, thoughts, or suggestions.
This can usually be done in one or two paragraphs.
D. Conclusions
A brief conclusion to summarize the paper and present your recommendations or final thoughts about the paper.
This can usually be done in one or two sentences.
A Few General Points
Your summary should be an electronic file[1]{#fnref:1.footnote} and typically no more than one page in length. It is often best to keep the tone of your summary as neutral or objective as possible. If you need to have a specific audience in mind to help you with the tone, maybe pretend you are writing this as an executive summary for your boss.
Remember to be as specific as possible in your writing. Rather than write overly simplified statements such as, “This paper summarized Topic X, then did an experiment on Topic X, and then concluded Y and Z,” say specifically what was done. Also, rather than just quote large sections of the target paper, use your own words to show your understanding of the material.
Especially in the Assessment/Analysis section, if something was unclear in what the authors said or did, be specific — what was unclear? If you particularly liked a section of the paper, why did you like it? If you didn’t like a particular argument or thought a conclusion was unwarranted, what specific argument or thought? If you thought the authors missed an obvious detail, what did they miss? What specifically might you want to follow-up on, research more, or investigate for your own work?
Paper Summary Summary
A paper summary is not just whether you liked or didn’t like a paper, but is a way for you to condense the important elements of the paper into a form representing your best understanding of the paper, grounded in specific details. Over time, you will accumulate a collection of summaries spanning what you’ve learned in your field; this habit of writing paper summaries can result in many new ideas for your own career or research.