How to Summarize an Article

To summarize an article, focus on the argument, not every sentence. Most articles have a main claim, supporting points, examples, and context. Your job is to keep the claim and the strongest support while leaving out repetition and minor details.

If you are asking how to summarize an article for school, work, or research, treat the article type as part of the task. A news article usually needs who, what, when, why. An opinion article needs the claim and reasons. An academic-style article needs the research question, evidence, and conclusion. A blog post usually needs the problem, steps, and takeaway.

Article Summary Checklist

A strong article summary usually includes:

  1. The article topic.
  2. The author's main point.
  3. The most important supporting details.
  4. The conclusion or implication.
  5. No personal opinion unless your assignment asks for it.

A Useful Article Summary Template

This article explains [topic]. The author argues that [main point]. The key reasons are [point one], [point two], and [point three]. Overall, the article suggests [takeaway].

If you are summarizing online articles often, Article Summarizer AI is built for that exact workflow. Instead of copying the article into another app, summarize the current webpage from your browser, or summarize selected text when you only need one section.

Use the same checklist when your task is simply to summarize article text or when you are looking at a page and thinking, "summarize this article for me first."

Reading a long article? Open it in Chrome and use Article Summarizer AI to get the key points faster.