How to Summarize an Essay or Long Work

1. Before summarizing, you should identify all the main parts of the essay. 

2. Label each part with a phrase.

3. Write what you think the author's purpose was in writing the essay.  That is, who was he writing to or for, and why was s/he writing them?

4. Finally, in 2-3 sentences capture the main idea of the entire essay, taking into account all the parts and the overall purpose.

5. Edit these sentences so that they sound elegant.

6. In "summary":  a good summary takes into account the complexity of the essay (all the parts) but does so with elegance (clarity and style).