You want your summary to be short and concise while still conveying the ideas in the article. Compare your summary to the length of the original article. If it’s longer than 1/3 of the article’s length, revise the summary to cut it down. Similarly, add more detail if your summary is too short. Your summary doesn’t need to be exact in length. As long as it’s about 1/3 of the article’s length, it should be sufficient. Author tags remind the reader that the ideas you’re presenting belong to the original author. This helps you avoid accidentally plagiarizing the author’s ideas. Each time you state an idea or supporting detail from the article, use an author tag to show that the idea belongs to the original author. You’d write, "Lopez believes," "Lopez finds that," and "Lopez argues." It’s also okay to use pronouns. You might write, “She goes on to say,” “She further asserts,” or “She refutes this idea.” The purpose of a summary is to present the article ideas in your own words. If you use direct quotes, you aren’t summarizing. Rewrite all of the ideas in your own words.

Summary:
Make sure your summary is about 1/3 of the length of the article. Use author tags to attribute the ideas to the original author. Avoid using direct quotations because they aren’t in your words.