Lora Jonson is an active guest post writer and she works as a content manager. She believes that her articles help people to be more productive and achieve success in their life. Besides, she is interested in painting, traveling and self-improvement. Her life credo is “Be, do and have what you’re here for.”

Writing a research summary is not based on your personal opinion about what you found in your research. You actually have to stick to the facts here for the most part. The reader should have a clear idea of the subject matter after reading the summary. Having to write a 500 words research summary is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not the number of words that is scary. Having to take a lot of content and summarize it into only a few hundred words is the challenge. There are some ways you can simplify the process. This guide is going to take you through some of the important facts you have to remember while completing a research summary.

Understand the main objective

You are going to have to read the work you are trying to summarize a few times. In fact, don’t start the summary unless you are 100% sure you understand the overall concept. This is going to be your foundation for a compelling research summary. A 500 word article can be done in less than an hour. A research summary on the other hand, will require a lot more time. Don’t underestimate the amount of data you have to cover in a short amount of text.

Use your words wisely

Seeing as you only have a fixed amount of words to write a research summary, you have to be careful on how you spend those words. Try and eliminate any wording that can be assumed or is obvious to the reader. Instead, use the amount of words to write about the facts in the full content text. The reader understands that you have read through the research and are the writer on the summary. Information like this does not need to be emphasized.

Formal writing style

In today’s writing, we are no longer sounding like robots. Writing has taken on a relaxed tone for the most part. With research summary writing, you might want to go a bit old school. The tone in a research summary is a bit more formal than your average blog post. It is expected that you sound professional. It’s also about knowing your audience and what the expectations will be. You want to cater to the audience.

Paraphrase

You are not going to be able to use direct quotations in your research summary. This is where you are going to have to paraphrase. A lot of writers find it difficult to paraphrase and it is definitely a skill on its own. A 500 words summary is not a lot of text. Having to condense an entire research into a summary is not the easiest task. Paraphrasing simply means that you are putting it into your own words without changing the context.

Proofread and edit

This should be a rule in writing, but it is always worth mentioning. We all make small mistakes in writing. Your first draft will probably not be the best version. Professional writers often have to do an editing process a few times. They would even go as far as outsourcing this process. Sometimes it is beneficial to ask someone else to proofread your work. We can become attached to our own work and not see the smallest mistakes. Once the proofreading and editing is completed and you are satisfied, submit your summary.

Have you attempted a research summary before?

There really is nothing to fear when doing a research summary. Find the plan that works for you and stick with it. We all work differently. You can still use your own writing voice when completing a research summary. Just be sure that it sounds professional. When you write your first research summary, give yourself enough time to deal with the distractions and unforeseen emergencies. Even though it is a short summary, it takes a great deal of brainpower to write a research summary.