Record important details about the book or article you are reading on a notepad or in a journal. Write down characters' or subjects' names, themes, dates, places and ideas while you read. If you note details as you go, you will not have to remember them or go back over the piece later. Keep meticulous records or just keep fact lists; what you write depends on what goals you have for the summary.
The main character in a narrative or the central figure in exposition pieces is the focus of a biographic recap, or bio-poem. Start with the person's name and a list of three words describing her that you get from the text directly or your opinion of her personality. Write a few sentences or paragraphs, depending on your summary's purpose, on what drives the person forward. Some prompts include goals, aspirations, desires, needs, feelings, fears and accomplishments.
Creating a cause and effect graph allows you to summarize the information you have read while focusing on the important textual elements. Under the headings "Somebody," "Wanted," "But" and "So," list the characters, their motivation, opposition and the outcome of the text you read. The simple, vague headings makes it possible to use this activity to summarize information you have read regardless of whether it was in a textbook, blog posting, newspaper article or novel.
The detail pyramid is a good way to build on your comprehension of a text. Outlined in "Guided Comprehension in Action: Lessons for Grades 3-8" by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, a detail pyramid consists of eight prompts. Each asks you to describe one of the text's elements and only allows you to use the number of words corresponding to its place in the pyramid. Starting with one word and ending with eight, you create a pyramid of what you read when you use these prompts and their corresponding word restriction: main character's name in one, character's description in two, setting's description in three, conflict or problem's description in four, first important action or event's description in five, second events description in six, third event's description in seven and the resolution's in eight.