What is the purpose of summarizing a text?

The purpose of summarizing a text is to encapsulate the main ideas and key details, making it easier for readers to grasp the essential points without needing to read the entire work. Summarizing distills the content to its core messages, allowing for quicker comprehension and retention of the information presented. A well-crafted summary highlights the overarching themes and significant arguments while omitting extraneous details and personal opinions.

Other approaches, such as providing personal opinions, adding commentary, or copying text verbatim, do not align with the objective of summarization. Instead, they focus on subjective interpretations or maintaining the full original format, which detracts from the clarity and conciseness that summarizing aims to achieve.