Chapter 5: Research Summary

• The outputs of this learning area will complete Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations, and Draft Research Manuscript of your research.
• The objective of the learning activity is to write a summary of research findings.

21st Century Skills

• Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving
• Information Literacy
• Communication
• Collaboration

Summarizing Findings

• The last chapter of the research paper includes a summary of the findings.
• Writing a summary is a skill required in many academic activities such as research, meetings, and administrative jobs.
• A summary is defined as a shortening of long texts mentioning the important points and topics within the material being summarized.
• A research summary highlights the key points of the entire study, from the introduction to the results.
• A summary must emphasize the findings of the study.
• Critical thinking skills are needed to write a concise and effective summary of research findings.
• Writing a summary means the contents of a full study must be condensed in a few points.
• Highlights of a 5000-word journal article must be rewritten as a 500-word summary.
• A researcher must effectively paraphrase essential parts of the research with fewer words and convey the important research parts in the simplest manner possible.
• Researchers must ensure a coherent flow of ideas in the summary.
• A summary must not contain the personal opinions or interpretations of the researcher.
• Researchers need to train their comprehension, critical thinking, and writing skills to write a good summary.

Criteria to evaluate a good summary

• Most of the criteria from Özdemir (2018) can be used to evaluate a good summary based on its shape, content, and style of writing
• Proper order: follow the order the source material was written in, start with highlights in intro, end with summary of results/discussion
• Length: One to three paragraphs only.
• Grammar and spelling: There are minimal errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
• Content integrity: Contents are consistent with the source material. The main idea or research problem and general result should be included.
• Adherence to the topic: Introductory sentences of each paragraph should express the topic of the text. There is a clear transition from the previous topic to the next. All keywords of the research should be mentioned in the summary.
• Objectivity: Writing details and unrelated information from the topic must be avoided in the summary.
• Originality: The summary should be written using the researcher's own words and avoid direct lifting from the main text. Paraphrasing plays a key role in this criterion.

Activity instructions

• Choose three related reference materials, such as journal articles and theses, from previous submissions.
• Write a 300-word summary for each of these three reference materials.
• Highlight important points from the introduction, methodology, results, and discussion, emphasize how the research questions were addressed.
• Use a maximum of two paragraphs for each summary. Ensure clear transitions from one idea to another.
• Write the summary using your own words and keeping direct quotations to a minimum.
• Include the keywords of each study in their respective summary and observe proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation.