Investigate thoroughly. Whether you're writing salient points from a novel, a textbook, an argument or a lecture, immerse yourself in the material. Read the text more than once, highlight definitive phrases and words, take notes and ask questions. Meet with other students who are familiar with the concepts you're studying and compare notes.
Figure out the main idea. If you're studying a large chunk of information, divide it into easily digested sections. Determine the main idea of each section first. Write down all of the main ideas together, and list suggestions for the main idea of the information as a whole. After each suggestion, ask yourself, "Is this true for each section?" If it is, you've picked the correct main idea.
Write sentences to support your main idea. You might need to look back over the individual sections from step two and pull from the information found there in order to compose supportive sentences. For example, if the main idea of a text is, "Living below the poverty line can be emotionally rewarding," supportive sentences might read, "Living below the poverty line helps people exercise teamwork through the bonded purpose of survival," or "Living below the poverty line enhances generosity, because people understand how even the smallest donated resource can mean a great deal to others."
Treat each of your supportive sentences as a main idea of its own. Write additional sentences to support each of these points. Use personal examples, statistics, interviews, and facts from the Internet, books, and reference materials to back your statements.
Proofread for accuracy. Read your points to yourself, both aloud and silently. Check for factual errors, punctuation and spelling mistakes, run-on sentences, tone, tense, perspective and whether the words you chose flow naturally. Revise as needed.
Get a second opinion. Ask someone you trust, like a peer, professor, parent or mentor to read your points. Don't explain your points while they read. Your points as written should be able to speak for themselves with no explanation necessary. Apply any criticism in a constructive manner.