The semantics of words is one of the most amazing parts of the Russian language. Sometimes the meaning of a seemingly familiar word turns out to be completely opposite, or its original meaning turns out to be completely antonymous with today's one. Yes, the vocabulary needs to be expanded, but it cannot be done without relying on its meaning. So, what does “summary” mean, and in what context can this word be used?
Ozhegov's Dictionary
Let's start the definition from the canonical dictionary - Ozhegov's dictionary. According to it, a summary is a document that contains a summary of any data. The same word can be interpreted as information summarizing these same data. This noun is formed from the verb "reduce" by adding a zero suffix.
The same word is used in combination with the verbs "compile" (compile a summary) and "accept" (accept a summary). If this report is operational, it reports the data received by a certain structure (most often the police or the military) about the situation at the current time. But much more often in everyday life there is a combination of "summaryweather"
Technical interpretation
According to another vocabulary, a summary is a statistical systematization, calculation and reconciliation of statistical data obtained as a result of observations. Any statistical grouping of data can be called a summary.
This term is much more technical and scientific, but at the same time it is more accurate than Ozhegov's definition, it displays the hidden meaning of the word. Any summary must and is based solely on verified data, moreover, this data must be processed and collected together. Only in this case they can claim the title of summary.
In phrases
Now consider the meaning of the word "summary" in specific phrases. For example, in the Counterintelligence Dictionary, the term "summary of external surveillance" is found. This combination means an operational document (that is, information provided by any departmental structures), where data on outdoor surveillance in a specific period of time are given in chronological order. This term more fully reveals some of the properties that a summary should have: objectivity (that is, no comments or selective recording, only the most impartial reflection of what is happening) and completeness (the information obtained from the recording should not need to add any data, everything should be clear from the available material). Typically, such a document is accompanied by the addition of a sheet that indicates all the most important information: the numbers of fixed cars, the text of conversations, and so on. Besides, inoperational shooting is also provided with information about who exactly was engaged in surveillance, in which case to use this person as a witness.
Weather report
And if you touch on the phrase "weather report", how to understand what it means? We all understand that this is a banal weather forecast, but how is it compiled?
Few people know that more than one station, or even two, is involved in the creation of the forecast. In order to predict the behavior of the weather, for example in Moscow, data from London, Ankara, Reykjavik and other cities scattered around the world are used - the influence of atmospheric fronts from other regions on the weather in a particular place has long been known. Information recorded by a number of stations is collected in one database, analyzed, organized in a special way, and on its basis this very report appears, which is then announced on the radio, from TV screens and printed in newspapers.
Music Summary
By the way, in music, the term "summary" has a slightly different meaning. Here he, rather, acts as an abbreviation of the word "reduction". In the process of this action, different audio tracks are combined into one, forming a familiar music track. The person doing this has to make sure that one track does not overlap another, so that there is no dissonance between the sound of some instruments and so on - there are a lot of purely technical issues here.
Perhaps this process does not require suchintellectual effort, like writing complicated reports about something, but by no means should it be considered less important.
How to write a summary
It has already been said above that a summary is a document that contains generalized information. How do modern people generally make such reports? That's right, using Excel!
We have a table containing some data. For example, selling some goods for several months. Having organized this table, we place the cursor in the first cell of the first column and select from "Insert - Pivot Table". A drop-down menu will suggest where exactly to put this new table - on the same sheet or on a new one. When the location is selected, the program will suggest fields and areas that can be analyzed, and by placing them in the places you need, you can achieve data grouping by one or another parameter.
For example, if we drag "Product" into the "Row Names" field, and "Sales" into "Values", the PivotTable will reflect the amount earned from the sale of a particular product. That is, "Line Names" displays what exactly we will analyze, and "Values" - by what parameter this will happen.
Summarizing
So, a summary is a grouping together of any information, regardless of the nature of its origin. You can organize a summary both in the form of a table, which is the most traditional, and in the form of charts and graphs, which is more visual - the choice of how this report is presented depends entirely onwho needs this grouping of data. Today, there are a huge number of special programs that perform all the analysis themselves and provide a ready-made report on it, so the human factor in compiling reports can be minimized. We need these generalizations not only in business life, but also in household matters, so do not underestimate the importance of summaries and, most importantly, the importance of the meaning of this word, without knowing which it will not work correctly to use it in context.
