Summary Writing

All about Summary Writing!

Details about the Subject Matter!

Subject Name: English as a Second Language. 
Key stage: 3

Summary writing is one of the examination questions that ESL students were asked to do in their examination paper. It is a ten-mark question where students could get remarkable marks after a well guided practice. This lesson will help teachers, parents and students to get complete idea about summary writing for ESL examination. In addition, it comprises of a detailed lesson notes about summary writing for students and teachers with two samples of summary writing lesson plans with class activities that could be used for students to enhance their summary writing skills. Moreover, a brief video about summary writing and a PowerPoint presentation are included. Furthermore, a URL for an article about summary writing is also included to give further details about summary writing.

What is Summary Writing? 

Summary is an overview of content that provides a reader with the central theme but does not expand on specific details. It is a technique of shrinking a larger work to a more specific condensed form of writing. In summary writing we make a shorter version of the passage or extract the important part that were asked in the question. It contains all important points in the passage but leaves out less important details.

 

A summary is a record in a reader's own words that gives the main points of a piece of writing such as a newspaper article, the chapter of a book, or a journal. It is also possible to summarize something that you have heard, such as a lecture, or something that you have seen and heard, such as a movie. It is not just a bunch of sentences put together in a paragraph. It should be well written with a beginning, middle and end. A good summary should be comprehensive, concise, coherent and independent.

1. A summary must be comprehensive: You should isolate all the important points in the original passage and note them down in a list. Review all the ideas on your list, and include in your summary all the ones that are indispensable to the author's development of her/his thesis or main idea.
2. A summary must be concise: Eliminate repetitions in your list, even if the author restates the same points. Your summary should be considerably shorter than the source. You are hoping to create an overview; therefore, you need not include every repetition of a point or every supporting detail.
3. A summary must be coherent: It should make sense as a piece of writing in its own right; it should not merely be taken directly from your list of notes or sound like a disjointed collection of points. 
4. A summary must be independent: You are not being asked to imitate the author of the text you are writing about. On the contrary, you are expected to maintain your own voice throughout the summary. Don't simply quote the author; instead use your own words to express your understanding of what you have read. After all, your summary is based on your interpretation of the writer's points or ideas. However, you should be careful not to create any misrepresentation or distortion by introducing comments or criticisms of your own. 

Writing a summary requires two thinking skills.

1. The first skill is about finding the main ideas of the text. 
2. The second is organizing information so that the main idea is explained with reasons and details while ignoring the unimportant parts.

👉Read more on Summary Writing Skills!

A summary has several important features:

1.    it’s short.
2.    talks about the main idea.
3.    provides important information (e.g. examples) that make the main idea easy to understand.
4.    excludes unnecessary information.

5. uses your own words, though some key words from the original story are allowed. 

Why learn Summary writing?

Summary writing helps students develop skills that can be used in school and at work:
1.     Evaluate: separate the important from unimportant
2.    Organize: create text with a logical order (it’s like a puzzle)
3.    Vocabulary: expand word knowledge
4.    Clarity: write clear text focused on one idea

How to start Summary Writing?

• Divide and conquer the text.  
• Read the text. Now that you've prepared, go ahead and read the selection. 
• Reread. Rereading should be active reading.  
• One sentence at a time. You should now have a firm grasp on the text you will be summarizing. 
• Write a thesis statement. 
• Ready to write. 
• Check for accuracy.
• Revise.  

👉Read more on Summary writing!

IGCSE Handbook on Summary Writing!👇