Writing Objective Summaries of Stories: Fifth Grade English Student Guide

An objective summary condenses the essential plot trajectory of a story into a concise, unbiased overview, preserving key events while discarding trivial details and personal opinions.

The Pillars of an Objective Summary

Writing a summary of a fictional narrative requires two distinct skills: selectivity (choosing only what is truly essential to the plot) and objectivity (presenting facts without injecting your personal opinions, feelings, or critiques).

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|               WHAT BELONGS IN AN OBJECTIVE SUMMARY?          |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| INCLUDE                      | EXCLUDE                       |
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+
| Main characters & motivation | Personal opinions ("I loved") |
| Central conflict / problem   | Minor characters & subplots   |
| Major plot turning points    | Trivial background details    |
| Climax and final resolution  | Emotional reactions or reviews|
+------------------------------+-------------------------------+

Remaining Strictly Objective

An objective summary is not a book review. Phrases such as "In this amazing, exciting book," "I felt so sad when," or "The author does a terrible job explaining" do not belong in an objective summary. Your task is to report the core story events accurately and neutrally.

The SWBST Strategy for Fiction

A reliable framework for crafting a balanced narrative summary is the SWBST formula: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then.

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|                     THE SWBST FRAMEWORK                      |
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+
| ELEMENT    | QUESTION ANSWERED  | SAMPLE SENTENCE PART       |
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+
| SOMEBODY   | Who is the main    | Brian, a young boy stranded|
|            | protagonist?       | in the Canadian wilderness,|
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+
| WANTED     | What is their core | wanted to survive until a  |
|            | goal or desire?    | rescue plane arrived,      |
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+
| BUT        | What major conflict| but he lacked food, fire,  |
|            | blocks their goal? | and shelter.               |
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+
| SO         | What critical steps| So, he learned to use his  |
|            | do they take?      | hatchet to kindle fire and |
|            |                    | forage for survival.       |
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+
| THEN       | How is the conflict| Then, he retrieved a radio |
|            | finally resolved?  | transmitter from the plane |
|            |                    | and was rescued.           |
+------------+--------------------+----------------------------+

The Length Rule

An effective summary of a chapter book or short story should typically span between four and six cohesive sentences. If your summary stretches across multiple pages, you are recounting minor details rather than summarizing the macro-level plot.

Exercises and Solutions

Exercise 1: Evaluating Objectivity. Read the following two summaries of Cinderella and determine which one is an objective summary and which is subjective. In a complete paragraph, explain why: Summary A: "Cinderella is a wonderful, heartbreaking fairy tale about a poor sweet girl who is treated unfairly by her wicked stepmother. I really hated the stepsisters because they were so cruel. Luckily, a magical fairy godmother shows up, which was the coolest part of the book." Summary B: "Forced into servitude by her cruel stepmother, Cinderella wishes to attend the royal ball. Although her family attempts to prevent her from going, her fairy godmother provides her with a gown and carriage. At the ball, she captivates the prince, and after fleeing at midnight, her dropped glass slipper allows him to locate her, leading to their marriage."

Solution 1: Summary A is subjective and flawed because it is filled with personal commentary, emotional evaluations ("wonderful, heartbreaking," "poor sweet girl," "coolest part"), and first-person opinions ("I really hated"). In contrast, Summary B is a model objective summary. It clearly identifies the protagonist, her goal, the central obstacle, the pivotal turning point, and the final resolution using neutral, factual narrative language without inserting personal judgments.

Exercise 2: Applying the SWBST Method. Select a well-known fairy tale or fable (such as "Little Red Riding Hood" or "Jack and the Beanstalk") and compose a four-sentence objective summary using the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then strategy.

Solution 2: For "Jack and the Beanstalk": Jack, an impoverished village boy, wanted to help his mother by trading their cow for wealth, but he was tricked into accepting a handful of magic beans. So, when the beans grew into a colossal beanstalk overnight, Jack climbed into the sky and outsmarted a fearsome giant to reclaim gold treasures. Then, after cutting down the beanstalk to escape the pursuing giant, Jack and his mother secured their financial freedom and lived peacefully.