1. We first read through the original carefully, but not too slowly, to get a clear idea of its general meaning. If one reading is not sufficient（不足、不够）, read it over again, and yet again. While reading we can ask ourselves, “What is the central idea of this piece of writing? What is the writer saying about it? What does he mean?” and write down a few words as notes.

2. We are required to supply a title for our summary. Think of some word, phrase or short sentence that will sum up briefly（简要概述）the subject of the piece of writing. Some¬times this is supplied by a topic sentence, which may be found at the beginning or at the end of the piece. But we may not always find such a convenient topic sentence. In this case we must get a clear idea of the subject of the piece of writ¬ing and produce a suitable heading.

3. Further reading is now necessary to ensure that we understand the details of the piece of writing as well as its main idea. Take it now sentence by sentence, and word by word. Look up in a dictionary any word whose meaning is not clear. Detailed study of this kind is necessary, because a phrase, a sentence, or even a single word, may be of great importance, and the misunderstanding（理解错误）of it may cause us to miss the whole point of the piece of writing.

4. When we have a clear and correct idea of the subject or main theme of the piece, we can decide which parts are essential and which parts can be omitted.

5. We jot down（记下）the subject, the title, and the details which we will include in the summary and are now ready to write the summary.