Summarizing anything is the act or process of "cutting a long story short", which typically means "extracting" and "focusing only on" the most significant; ideas, sentences, terms, definitions... etc.
Let me exemplify what I mean.
If you are reading a 30-page chapter in anything, and you'd like to memorize "it" for the final test, or to use it in your research writing if you are a researcher. This "it" in the previous line does not refer to the whole of the chapter. It rather refers to what you find "most important" and "most relevant" (i.e. what says it all the shortest and briefest way possible); for this "most important and most relevant" is what you are going to use to build up your 2-page (or even less) summary of the lengthy chapter.
To do this, you have two ways:
1. Underlining: which obviously means going through the text using your own pen/pencil/highlighter to "highlight" the most important key points that would remind you of the direct content of the text once you go back to them.
2. Underline + make notes: in this case you underline the main points and "make" notes on them. Mind that I'm using the word "make" notes not "take" notes. This means that you will be creating your own reproduced summarization of the original text. This step combines both summarizing and paraphrasing (i.e. using your own choices of vocabulary equivalents to re-state what is given in the text in a simpler way)
Please check the blog posts for extra posts about the techniques of reading and writing.
Your questions are most welcome in the comments below.
Best of luck :)
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