Extracting the Key Ideas from a Text

Extracting the key ideas from a text is a way of taking notes on your reading. It is often helpful to keep your notes in a table. Looking at texts in this way can support your writing process and help you work more efficiently.

A person reads a book, filters out the most important parts from the pages, and summarizes them in their own words on a sheet of paper.

What does extracting the key ideas from a text mean?

This is useful when you are approaching a text with a specific question in mind: the goal is to become aware of contradictions, ambiguities, or difficulties in the text by putting it into your own words. Extracting the key ideas from a text allows you to integrate the content better into your own writing.

Extracting the key ideas of a text means writing down the main statements in a text.

In addition, extracting the key ideas can help us keep track of knowledge we have developed, and keep it available for reference at a later stage or for future work.

You should summarize texts in a way that you won’t need to go back to the original text later.

What should I write down?

Relevant aspects: Does the text interest me? Is it important for my question? Does it match my prior knowledge?
Criteria: Title, author, year of publication, table of contents, introduction, conclusion, and bibliography.
Questions for the text: What, who, how, why, for what purpose, where, when? Activate your prior knowledge!
The basic structure of the text: Be aware of the structure of the work to avoid taking passages out of context.

Keep the notes on your literature in one place, ideally in a reference management program such as Zotero.

What kind of texts are suitable for this technique?

Fundamental texts for your own studies
Texts that may become important later, e.g. for exams or when writing your final thesis
Passages from texts that are particularly important for what you are working on just now

Literature (in German): Rost, Friedrich (2013): Wissenschaftliche Texte lesen und verstehen, In: Franck, Norbert; Stary, Joachim (ed.): Die Technik wissenschaftlichen Arbeitens. 17., überarbeitete Aufl. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. pp. 65–91.

Frequently asked questions

How can I extract the main ideas from a text?

When extracting the main ideas from a text, you write down the key statements of a text in your own words.

How is extracting the main ideas from a text helpful?

It helps you understand even difficult texts, and the content becomes better integrated into your own words. In addition, the processed knowledge is now available if you need it again at a later stage.

Any suggestions for improvement? Write to us!

This article was published in August 2025 and last updated in October 2024.

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Extracting the Key Ideas from a Text

Contents

What does extracting the key ideas from a text mean?

What should I write down?

What kind of texts are suitable for this technique?

Frequently asked questions

How can I extract the main ideas from a text?

How is extracting the main ideas from a text helpful?

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Summarizing Texts in Your Own Words

Creating a Map of a Text

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