Writing a summary of a short story, we need to cover these elements and make explicit in our own words what happened relative to these five elements of a story.
The following process is a great strategy to do this:
1. Write a few sentences - in your own words - stating the main message or gist of the story.
2. Write a few sentences about the setting of the story in the context of the story.
3. Write a few sentences about the main characters in the context of the story.
4. Write a few sentences about the conflict of the story in the context of the story.
5. Write several sentences to summarize the sequence of events using transitions effectively:
First, ... Then, ... Next, .... Finally, ...
6. Write a few sentences about how the conflict was resolved.
7. Write a few sentences restating the the message or gist of the story that began the summary, but this time doing it in a slightly different way with the aim of bringing closure to the summary.