Summarizing a research paper seems to be a less tiresome job than actually creating a research paper. Students assume that it may not consume their enough time and efforts if they are assigned to create a summary for an already existing research paper. However, the assumption is half wrong. It is unmistakably true that the process of research paper writing is a lot rigorous type of work to do. But you cannot afford to take summarizing a paper non-seriously. It surely needs some home work and skills before you get your hands on a research paper written by some one else and summarizing its theme and central points in one paper. It is your responsibility towards the paper and its author to produce an accurate summary. Leaving out important points or projecting wrong results related to the paper will clearly kill the purpose of the research paper that was written by another author.

No single formula exists that one should follow in order to summarize a research paper. The reason is that every research paper is unique and different in its own sense. Each research paper contains different chapters, sections, formats and tools to prove the point. Therefore, one should have a better understanding about how to evaluate and examine a particular research paper and summarize it according to its content specifically.

It is a common habit found among the young and immature students that they assume the ‘abstract’ of the paper to be serving as the summary for them. They avoid getting into the horrifying task of reading the entire paper line by line and chapter by chapter. However, it is true to some extent that the abstract of a research paper does provide some necessary information that helps student guide through the process. But it surely cannot replace reading entire paper to produce exact summary.

While reading the paper, keep a paper and pen with you. Start noting down the important points of each section of the paper that you think should be present in the summary. Highlight important facts and statements too. Spend some time understanding the introduction of the paper. It will give your work the exact direction needed because the introduction of a research paper mainly focuses on the purpose and objectives of the paper and that’s what you need to present in your summary. But do not use only introduction to write the summary. You cannot give your summary the required finishing touch if you won’t read every section of the paper.

In the chapters where the writer has used different methods or explained procedural working or processes of a certain phenomenon, you need to understand it to degree from where you would be able to analyze about how the writer was able to conclude results coming out of such methodology. Analyze the data and gather important facts and stats about it to put in your summary.

When you are finished reading the conclusion or the last chapter of the research paper, create a sentence that serves as the concluding sentence of your summary and elaborates the conclusions drawn by the writer at the end of the paper.

Following above discussed points strictly can enable you to produce an accurate summary for any research paper offered to you.

Author Bio: Ghost Term Papers provides custom term paper and research paper writing services.

Category: Education
Keywords: term papers, essays, research papers, thesis, dissertation, book report