Reading academic texts requires focus and understanding.

You have to
interact with the text by questioning its assumptions, responding to its
arguments, and connecting it to real-life experience and applications. Critical
or reflective reading helps you identify the key arguments presented by the
author and analyze concepts presented in the text.1

Here are some strategies that you may use in summarizing Academic texts:

1. OUTLINING – Outlines allow you to group materials by similar concepts or

content and put them into a logical order. There are two general types of
outlines – the sentence outline and the topic outline.2
2. SUMMARIZING – presents a broad overview, so is usually much shorter
than the original text. It must be attributed to the original source.3
3. PARAPHRASING – it is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage
using other words.4 All the ideas in the original text are still mentioned, but the
wording and structure are completely different.

SKIMMING AND SCANNING –these are reading techniques that use rapid
eye movement and keywords to move quickly through text for slightly different
purposes. Skimming is reading rapidly in order to get a general overview of
the material. Scanning is reading rapidly in order to find specific facts.6
5. IDENTIFYING THE THESIS STATEMENT – Thesis Statement presents or
describes the point of an essay. In an academic text, the thesis statement is
usually presented in the abstract or executive summary or found at the least
part of the introduction. It is written in a declarative sentence.7 Thesis
statement is also known as the Main Idea of the text.