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How to Summarize Effectively

Week One:

This week, you're being asked to examine and summarize the support system that will help you reach your educational and professional goals. Summarizing requires careful thought about your subject, and requires you to be both thorough and concise. Rather than trying to produce your final product right off the bat, try freewriting first. Freewriting is like brainstorming on the page: a completely uncensored flow of thoughts where no idea is a bad idea. Once you feel like you've got all your thoughts onto the page, go back and narrow down which ones feel the most important or relevant to the particular task at hand. And don't throw that freewriting away! Save it somewhere safe--even the ideas you didn't use might come in handy for a future project.