Summarizing

   Being able to write a summary is an important skill. It shows that you have understood what is
   most important in a text. A summary is different from a paraphrase.

   When you paraphrase, you look at a small part of the text and rewrite it in your own words.

   When you summarize, you look at the whole text and reduce it to a few sentences (still using
   your own words, not the author's).

   The first sentence of a summary should express the overall message of the text. The remaining
   sentences should present the most important ideas in the text. A good summary need not include
   details or supporting evidence for the main ideas.

   Excerpted from:

   Seal, Bernard. Academic Encounters. Reading, Studying Skills, and Writing. Cambridge: CUP,
   1997, pp. 13

   

   to summarize

   to make a short statement giving only the main information and not the details of a
   plan,event, report etc.

   Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Harlow: Longman Group Ltd, 1995, pp.1443