Select a short article to be used for the summary writing practice. News editorials, academic essays or any other pieces of writing which contain a clear thesis can be used. Read the article completely, looking up any unfamiliar words in the dictionary.
Read the article completely a second time to identify crucial components of the structure. Keep a highlighter or pen in hand to draw out main ideas for the summary. Underline the thesis and any key sentences which summarize the author's support for her main idea.
Develop an outline for the written summary. Using only a few words for each point, write out the gist of the thesis, main points and article conclusion. Developing a pithy outline can support synthesis of the information; use original, energetic language when developing the final summary.
Create a written summary based on the outline, using original language to convey the main ideas of the article. Always avoid plagiarizing, although correctly-attributed quotations can be used sparingly. Edit the summary for content, grammar and comprehensiveness.