Extracting a summary
You will find that by developing short notes (such as jottings and abbreviations), along with underlining or highlighting you are already beginning to extract key ideas from the text. To assist you further in this you might also find it helpful to bring the points you have highlighted and/or made short notes about together. This involves the use of link sentences and words, perhaps even the addition of short quotes taken from the text directly, and examples or additional words of explanation. In this way your notes build up into a summary which you can use more easily.
Try this:
Go back to the article you used to make your initial notes and try to put your jottings and underlining/highlighting into some order to summarise what the article was about and what the main things were that it said. Try to write a maximum of 10 sentences that clearly and concisely sum up the main points that were made in the article. You will probably find this a bit tough, as it’s a difficult skill to develop, and one which you will need to practice. You will find yourself getting better at it over time, and of course, you will have your tutor and other students to help you when you are studying.
To find out more about active reading and note taking look at Additional Resources