Question

First time writing a summary. I need some help.

Answer 1

I have to write about this short story. I'm not good at writing at all! But i really want to do this right and finally understand how to summarize.


The Trombone
Jerry stepped off the bus at the music school, and he mentally reviewed the correct trombone slide positions as he walked to Room 10 at the end of the hall. He sat down at his chair in front of the music stand and smiled eagerly at Nadine, his teacher, who gave him a strange look.
“Where’s your trombone?” she asked.
“Oh, no!” He’d left it on the bus! “What’ll I do?” he asked, after explaining the situation to Nadine.
“You’ll have to get it back, or your parents are out nine hundred dollars.”
“Oh, no.” He clapped his hands to his face in despair.
She sent him home without a lesson. The bus ride back was pure agony. It reminded him of the previous bus, where the catastrophe had occurred. Fortunately, this driver, to whom Jerry confided his plight, advised him to call the bus company’s lost and found. But it was six o’clock; the bus company’s phone recording said that the lost and found closed at five.
The next day, Jerry’s father drove him to the bus company office, and—the trombone wasn’t there. No one had turned it in.
“I’m an idiot,” Jerry moaned, as his father drove him to the music school to meet his doom. “I never do anything right.”
“You’re not an idiot, you’re a normal kid, and you do a million things right. Now you’ll never do this kind of thing again. If the trombone doesn’t show up, we’ll work out a way for you to pay for it over time.”
Walking the corridor to Room 10 beside his father, Jerry felt like a pirate walking the plank. With a feeling of dread he opened the door. Inside stood Nadine, working the slide on a trombone but not putting the mouthpiece to her lips. Wait—the trombone had a familiar dent on the bell and a familiar little scratch on the mouthpiece. It was his!
“Someone turned it in at the desk,” Nadine smiled. “A passenger from your bus. Thank goodness for honest people, huh?”
Jerry sank into his seat with an immense sigh of relief, and vowed to himself that he would never do anything wrong again in his life.

Answer 2

What you have does not read like a summary. It sounds more like excerpts taken directly from the reading material. If that is the case, you have not summarized; you have plagiarized.

But that's okay (well not the plagiarizing part), I'm here to tell you that summarizing is very, very simple.

First, let me tell you that you summarize all the time whether you know it or not. So two things you said are wrong.

1. This is not your first summary.
2. You already know how to summarize.

I know. I know. You don't believe me. So I'll prove it.

Have you ever gone to a movie and afterward had someone ask you what it was about? Or a TV show? Or a book? Or what the teacher talked about in class? Or ... I think you get my point.

We summarize all the time. Summarization is a huge part of how we communicate. So we already know how to do it because we've been doing it all our life.

I know. I know. "But that's not what I mean. I mean writing a summary for school."

Yes. A formal summary. It's really not that different, it's just written down instead of spoken.

Start by just writing what you would say if you were telling someone what the story (or whatever) was about. Let it all out -- on paper.

Then using that as your guide,

1. Add a short introduction to what you are summarizing.
2. Sometimes you are asked to include a quote or two, and sometimes you don't have to, but I like to throw one or two in there for flavor. Don't over do it with the quotes, though.
3. Conclude the summary with your thoughts. Could be how you liked the story, what you thought the message was, how it made you feel, or anything that the assignment might ask you to conclude with. Example:

Read "[Title of article]." Summarize the article and provide your thoughts on whether the author's viewpoint was valid and why or why not.

Hope that helps. Rewrite with all this in mind and re-post if you want grammar checking.

Answer 3

I haven't wrote anything yet this is the story i have to summarize.

The Trombone
Jerry stepped off the bus at the music school, and he mentally reviewed the correct trombone slide positions as he walked to Room 10 at the end of the hall. He sat down at his chair in front of the music stand and smiled eagerly at Nadine, his teacher, who gave him a strange look.
“Where’s your trombone?” she asked.
“Oh, no!” He’d left it on the bus! “What’ll I do?” he asked, after explaining the situation to Nadine.
“You’ll have to get it back, or your parents are out nine hundred dollars.”
“Oh, no.” He clapped his hands to his face in despair.
She sent him home without a lesson. The bus ride back was pure agony. It reminded him of the previous bus, where the catastrophe had occurred. Fortunately, this driver, to whom Jerry confided his plight, advised him to call the bus company’s lost and found. But it was six o’clock; the bus company’s phone recording said that the lost and found closed at five.
The next day, Jerry’s father drove him to the bus company office, and—the trombone wasn’t there. No one had turned it in.
“I’m an idiot,” Jerry moaned, as his father drove him to the music school to meet his doom. “I never do anything right.”
“You’re not an idiot, you’re a normal kid, and you do a million things right. Now you’ll never do this kind of thing again. If the trombone doesn’t show up, we’ll work out a way for you to pay for it over time.”
Walking the corridor to Room 10 beside his father, Jerry felt like a pirate walking the plank. With a feeling of dread he opened the door. Inside stood Nadine, working the slide on a trombone but not putting the mouthpiece to her lips. Wait—the trombone had a familiar dent on the bell and a familiar little scratch on the mouthpiece. It was his!
“Someone turned it in at the desk,” Nadine smiled. “A passenger from your bus. Thank goodness for honest people, huh?”
Jerry sank into his seat with an immense sigh of relief, and vowed to himself that he would never do anything wrong again in his life.

Answer 4

@jagatuba gave some very good advice and help for writing a summary. Follow his/her tips, then, if you still want help with it, post your summary and we'll try to help. We aren't here to summarize for you.