summary writing ( tips )

Tips on summary writing

TODAY, we will look at Section C which makes up a substantial part of the SPM 1119 English Paper Two. This section consists of two parts – Reading Comprehension and Summary Writing, which carry 10 and 15 marks respectively.

The reading comprehension questions aim to test your understanding of the passage as well as vocabulary. Among the skills tested are recognising general and specific ideas, finding important details and guessing meaning from context. 

Guidelines for comprehension

1. Read the whole passage through once to get a general idea of what the passage is about. Do not worry if you come across unfamiliar words. Sometimes, it is not necessary to understand every word you read.

2. Read the passage a second time, if necessary. The second reading helps you take in the details and improve your understanding.

3. Read the questions carefully. Use cue words in the questions to help you answer the questions. These can be the “wh” words (what, when, where, why, who, whose, how) and action verbs (identify, find, list).

4. Questions sometimes contain words found in the passage. Use these words to help you identify the part of the passage where the answer can be found.

5. You can lift clauses or sentences from the passage to answer questions. You do not have to use your own words unless you are told to do so. Moreover, there is a danger in paraphrasing – you might alter/distort the meaning expressed in the passage.

6. For questions on vocabulary, if you are asked for a word, then give only ONE word and nothing else. Make sure you spell the word correctly. If you are asked for a phrase, then give the relevant phrase.

7. Some questions require you to use your own words and you must do so.

8. Do pay attention to the tense used in the questions when formulating your answers.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Do not give more than the required information. Sometimes, students copy chunks from a text, giving two or more sentences. This only highlights their weakness – failure to understand the question and/or text.

2. Do not give two or more answers to a question. Some students write down all the possible answers to a question just to be on the safe side.

3. Do not waste time paraphrasing answers unless you are asked to do so.

Summary writing

• Many students are concerned about summary writing for several reasons: they are unable to identify information relevant to the answer and are unable to put the information together into a coherent paragraph. Weak students have an additional problem to grapple with – language. While these concerns are genuine, there is no reason to fret as these problems can be easily overcome with proper guidance and help from teachers.

• Let me remind you that summary writing is not a writing skill. It is largely a reading skill (you are required to select relevant information in the text) with a bit of writing thrown in (you have to string the points together into a unified text).

• The task is made easier for you as you do not need to summarise the whole text, only certain aspects (usually two). Therefore, it is crucial that you read the question carefully and consider what information is relevant.

• Remember, you need to identify at least 10 points (for content). So do not worry too much about paragraphing. Focus on getting marks for content, not language.

• Summary writing involves specific skills such as the following:

Selection – This means choosing information that is relevant to your answer. Information that is relevant to your answer depends on the aspect(s) of the text you are to summarise.

Condensation – This means reducing the length of the given information while preserving the important points. This can be done by omitting unimportant details, or using single words to replace phrases or clauses.

Reorganisation or rearrangement – This means taking the given information and arranging it in a different way.

Paraphrasing or restatement – This means saying something in a different way, without changing the meaning.  

Guidelines for summary writing:

• 1. Read the question carefully. Ask yourself: “What am I required to summarise”.
• 2. Mark the first and last lines of the passage you are asked to refer to.
• 3. Then selectinformation that is relevant to your answer. To do this, underline the relevant lines or ideas as you read the text. Always ask yourself: “Is this??” (For the summary below, you would ask: “Is this what Yunus did to help the poor? Is this an improvement in the lives of the women?”).
• 4. Look through the lines/ideas you have underlined.
• 5. Summarise these ideas, using condensation, reorganisation or paraphrasing skills.
• 6. If you cannot paraphrase ideas, see if there are words in the text that you can replace.
• 7. Begin the summary with the 10 words given and remember that the three dots after the tenth word mean you have to complete the sentence with some relevant information from the text.
• 8. Organise the ideas/points in the manner in which they are found in the text.
• 9. Adhere to the word limit. Writing more than the required number of words will not get you any marks. Anything far too short of the word limit means you lack content.
• 10. Pay attention to the tense (and sometimes pronoun) used in the given 10 words.
• 11. Write the summary in one paragraph.

Pitfalls to avoid 

• 1. Do not include information not in the text. 
• 2. Do not include your own ideas or opinions.  
• 3. Do not spend too much time paraphrasing as you might end up losing marks for content unless you can do so without altering/distorting meaning.
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• 5. Do not include material from other lines in the text.