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Summary Writing Exercise

The document provides instructions for writing a summary of an article. It explains that summary writing requires identifying the main ideas in a text, paraphrasing them in your own words, and condensing lengthy information. The key skills discussed are finding the main points in topic sentences and details, paraphrasing ideas using synonyms while maintaining accuracy, and combining ideas using conjunctions to condense information into the required 120-word limit.

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Diana Frills
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2K views

Summary Writing Exercise

The document provides instructions for writing a summary of an article. It explains that summary writing requires identifying the main ideas in a text, paraphrasing them in your own words, and condensing lengthy information. The key skills discussed are finding the main points in topic sentences and details, paraphrasing ideas using synonyms while maintaining accuracy, and combining ideas using conjunctions to condense information into the required 120-word limit.

Uploaded by

Diana Frills
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SUMMARY WRITING EXERCISE

INSTRUCTIONS:

You MUST answer this question.


1. Read the following article on Summary Writing carefully.

2) List FIVE MAIN points discussed, then write a summary of the article in ONE
paragraph of NOT MORE THAN 120 words. If the word limit is exceeded, only the first
120 words of your answer will be read and assessed.

3) Remember to include in your summary paragraph the five points that you listed. As far
as possible, use your own words. Your summary must be in continuous prose.

**In your answer, you will be assessed on how well you

(a) identified the main ideas and opinions in the extract


(b) organized and expressed these ideas and opinions in your own words
(c) used appropriate grammar, sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.

Writing a good summary can sometimes be a challenging task . However , it is quite


manageable if a student keeps a few important points in mind. Mastering skills such as
identifying important information , paraphrasing and condensing can lead to a student
being able to write a concise and accurate summary, in a coherent and cohesive
manner.

Important information can generally be found in the topic sentence and supporting
details of a paragraph. The topic sentence expresses the main idea of that paragraph,
and the main idea, in turn, supports the thesis of the entire piece of writing. The
supporting details of the paragraph expand on the main idea found in the topic sentence
. The paragraph may contain irrelevant information, however . This includes statistics,
examples, illustrations and analogies that the writer uses to expound on the main idea .
It may even be repetitions of ideas in the paragraph. All such unimportant information
should be excluded from the summary.

Another skill for summary writing is paraphrasing. This means that a student must be
able to express an idea in his or her own words. One way of doing this is by using
synonyms to replace words used in the sentence, or by changing the part of speech or
tense of a word. A student can also change the structure of the sentence. For instance,
the subject of the sentence can be made the object , or the sentence can be changed
from the active to the passive . However , the student chooses to paraphrase , it is
important that the accuracy of the idea be maintained. The paraphrase must mean the
same thing as the original sentence.

A third skill is condensing. Several ideas can be combined using conjunctions, for
instance. Categorising words can also help in condensing information. Therefore, if the
original piece lists pens, pencils, paper and scissors, a student can classify these as
stationery. Since the purpose of the summary is to express ideas succinctly, condensing
is an extremely important skill.

It should be clear by now that it is within each student’s potential to write good
summaries. If they are not yet able to do so, then they can work on exercises that will
help them to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information, to express ideas in
their own words and to combine these ideas coherently . This may require students to
write as many summaries as possible. Undoubtedly, they will then be able to fulfil the
requirements for summary writing .
1. Summary writing is viewed as difficult by many students of English but it is fairly
easy once the student follows the guidelines of summary writing.

2. Students are to find 5 main points of the information before beginning to write
their summary. The topic sentence and supporting details of a paragraph is
where the main points are located.

3. Paraphrasing is a necessary skill for summary writing. This skill allows students
to express what is being said in their own words as far as possible.

4. Another skill needed to write a good summary is condensing. The information


being summarized is generally very long and a summary can only have 120
words hence making condensing extremely important.

5. Each student of English has the potential to write a good summary once these
skills have been used.

Summary writing is viewed as difficult by many students of English but it is fairly easy

once the necessary skills are used. Before beginning a summary, students are to find

the main points of the information. These can be found in the topic sentence and

supporting details of a paragraph. Paraphrasing is another necessary skill for summary

writing. Paraphrasing allows students to summarize the information in their own words

as far as possible. The third skill needed to write a good summary is condensing. The

information being summarized is generally very long making condensing important as

summaries can have only 120 words. Each student of English has the potential to write

a good summary once these skills have been used.

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