Summarising

What is Summarising?

Within English, which covers grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, poetry, drama and the skills for clear communication, this topic explains Summarising. English topics help you read closely and write with purpose, so each one here explains a skill and shows how it works in a model text.

Check that you can explain Summarising in your own words and give one example from everyday life. If you can do that, you have understood the core idea.

Understanding Summarising helps you read texts more closely and write with more control, which earns marks in both reading and writing papers.

Summarising in detail

A summary gives the main points of a text in fewer words and in your own language. To summarise, identify the main ideas, leave out examples and detail, and combine points into clear sentences, keeping them in a logical order. A good summary is accurate, objective and concise.

Techniques include underlining key sentences, writing a one-sentence summary of each paragraph and then combining them. Avoid copying long phrases, adding your opinion or changing the meaning. Summarising is useful for study notes, reports and exam questions, and it demonstrates that you have understood the text.

How the interactive helps you understand Summarising

Click a step, or use the Previous and Next buttons, to move through the sequence one stage at a time. Auto-play moves on for you.

Before you change anything, predict the result. Then change one value at a time and check whether your prediction was right. This is a quick way to build a correct mental model of Summarising.

Real-life uses and examples

• Use Summarising to make your own writing more precise and vivid.
• Support a point about Summarising with a short, accurate quotation.
• Plan an essay paragraph by linking the technique to the reader’s response.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Quoting a long passage instead of picking a short, precise phrase.
• Naming a technique without explaining its effect on the reader.
• Learning the definition without testing it. Use the quiz and the interactive to check that you can apply the idea.