Make a bullet list of the main takeaways from each chapter (or topic) along with the best supporting arguments.Īt this point, all you have to do is convert your bullet list to paragraph form. When deciding which fictional plot points to include, ask yourself, “Is this information vital for understanding the ‘big picture’ of the story?” If the answer is No, cut it.įor nonfiction books, it’s much easier to decide what to include. Jot these down in bullet list form on a separate sheet of paper. Now, with everything laid out in front of you, scan through each summary and pick out the most important ideas and plot points. Step 6.) Condense Main Points Into a Bullet List Your final book summary should follow this structure. Falling Action (Resolving loose ends after tension is resolved)įor nonfiction books, organize your mini-summaries by topic (use the Table of Contents to help).Rising Action (Tension around problem builds).Beginning (Intro to characters, setting, problem).For fiction books, group them by where they fall into the story structure: So, you have everything you need in your mini-summaries. When you finish the book, you’ll have all the info you need to write a book summary in these handy sheets (and won’t need to hunt stuff down in the book). That’s dumb! Instead, just take 2 minutes at the end of each chapter and use your highlights to fill out this form (while everything is fresh in your memory).Ĭhapter Summary Worksheet Template (NONFICTION) You’re going to have to go back through your highlights, chapter-by-chapter, and essentially re-read everything. When you finish, are you going to remember the important quotes from Chapter 7? Say you’re writing a summary for a book with 30 chapters. Step 4.) Write Mini-Summaries for Each Chapter Yellow = important quotes, Blue = new character, Pink = support for theme). If you’re an overachiever, you can bust out your colored highlighters and stickies to mark up different types of notes (i.e. ![]() Use stickies to mark pages and take notes ![]() Highlight the book and take notes in the margins You might feel like it slows you down, but it’ll save you heaps of time in the long run. This helps you retain the information better (and avoid finishing a chapter and immediately forgetting what it was about). Instead, read each page as if you had to teach the material to someone afterward. Don’t just blaze through pages as fast as you can. In this case, you have to be more objective and include things whether you agree with them or not. If it’s an assignment (or you’ll be sharing with others), you’ll want to follow the structure outlined below and include ALL the book’s main ideas. Feel free to leave out ideas you’re already familiar with (or don’t resonate with) and structure your summary however you’d like. If it’s just for you, there are no rules. Is this a formal assignment? Or is it just for your own reference? I’ve included instructions for both in the steps below. The process for writing a fiction and nonfiction book summaries is slightly different. How to Write a Book Summary, Step-by-Step By writing summaries, you’ll not only help yourself, but you can also earn brownie points by sharing them with your friends, family, and followers. What they don’t love is spending their precious time to actually read said books. People LOVE the wisdom and insights that come from books. ![]() I store all these summaries together in my “gold nugget database” (AKA Evernote), where I can go for quick refreshers. Whenever I read a memorable book, I write a summary. Why spend hours reading a book (especially non-fiction) if you’re just going to forget everything in a week? It helps you quickly review ideas in the future. If there were lessons or ideas in the book that you want to remember, this reflection time helps “encode” it in your memory. Summarizing a book in your own words makes you reflect on the information that just entered your brain. If you’re not being forced to write a book summary by your boss or teacher, why the heck would you want to write one? So, before going any further, make sure that what you want to write is, indeed, a book summary. It recaps all the main ideas and does not include outside commentary. A book review is a description of the book including your opinions, interpretations, ideas, and critiques.Ī book summary, sometimes called a synopsis, is the “cliff notes” version of a book.
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