4.

3 Writing a summary

Study tips
1 Some points in the
4.3 Writing a summary
passage on which The following guidelines apply particularly to writing the type of summary based on
your summary will aspects of a single, lengthy passage.
be based may be
harder to find than Step 1: Read the question carefully
others – this may This is very important, as it is unlikely that you will be required to summarise the
be because they
are implied by the
whole of the original passage(s).
writer, rather than The wording of the question will direct you towards the points you should include.
being explicitly For example, the whole passage may be about everyday life in Japan, but you may
stated. Your final be asked to summarise only what it tells you about going to school in that country.
summary will be
more successful You must, therefore, keep the wording of the question clearly in mind when reading
if you are able the passage(s).
to identify and
include these Step 2: Read right through the passage(s) once
implied points.
This will allow you to gain a good, overall understanding of what the material is
2 You can
about. Remember that it is important that your summary shows that you have a
safely ignore:
illustrations, clear overview of your subject matter.
quotations, long
descriptions Step 3: identify the information that is relevant
and strings of Refresh your memory of what the question asks you to do and then read through the
adjectives. passage(s) again very carefully.
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4 READING AND SUMMARISING

Key terms At this stage you should underline or highlight on the question paper all the information
that is relevant to the question. You must be ruthless. Ignore anything that is not
Paraphrase: To
express something relevant, no matter how interesting you may find it.
someone has said
or written in a Step 4: Make notes in your own words
different way. Now is the time to put pen to paper.
Synonyms: Words
with the same or You should make rough notes of the points you have identified, using your own
similar meaning – words as far as possible. Remember, the use of your own words is important as this
instead of the exact is a way of showing that you have understood the passage(s). Try to:
words from the text.
» paraphrase (rephrase) parts of the text to which you refer
» use synonyms instead of the exact words from the text.
This will make it very clear that you understand what you have read.
Study tip
Check that you have made each point only once: it’s an easy mistake to include three examples of
the same point. The writer of the original passage is allowed to repeat ideas; you don’t have the
space to do so.

Step 5: Count the main points

Once you have noted all the main points, count how many you have identified.
If you have identified 20 points and you are aiming to write a summary of about
200 words, then, as a rough guide, try to write about ten words for each point.

Study tip
One of the main mistakes in summary writing is to use up too many words writing the early
points, so the summary becomes top-heavy and unbalanced. Remember that all points should be
given equal weighting.

Key term Step 6: Write the summary

Continuous prose: Once you have written rough notes in your own words, you should write them up as
This is writing a piece of continuous prose, trying to keep your expression as concise as possible.
that follows the If your notes are sufficiently detailed, this may only be a fine-tuning job.
ordinary form of a
written language Study tip
(as opposed to
verse, for example) An important word of warning – do not include:
in which sentences • personal opinions
lead naturally from • any introduction such as, ‘In this passage the writer says…’
one to another • extra information or explanations
without headings or
bullet points. • your own comments or opinions on the points made in the original text(s)
• lengthy quotations from the original passage(s).
The readers of your summary do not want to know your personal opinions about the topic;
instead, they want to know how well you have understood the original writer’s viewpoint.

Step 7: Final check

Once you have written your summary, read it through to check that it makes sense.
You may not have to count the number of words you wrote. If, for example, you
know that you usually write about eight words per line, then a quick count up of
the number of lines you have filled will give some indication of how many words you
have written in total.
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 4.4 Style matters

Study tip
Summary tasks, unlike formal précis exercises, do not usually require you to write a specific
number of words. Although a precise word limit is unlikely to be specified on a question paper, it is
important that you try to express your understanding concisely within about one side of A4 paper.
It is a good idea to focus your mind on this requirement when writing your answer.
It is unlikely that a very long answer will gain the highest marks available for a question because
you will not have shown your ability to select the key points and to stick to them.
If you write considerably less than the suggested length, it is most probable that you will penalise
yourself (and reduce your score) because it is almost certain you will have left out some of the
important points.

It is likely that the question will give a minimum and maximum number of words
that you should aim to write. If you plan your summary carefully through the
notes you make, you will almost certainly write an answer that is within the
required word limit.
Do not let yourself become obsessed with writing an exact number of words as by
doing so, it is very likely that your written expression will be affected.

4.4 Style matters

In many summary questions, in addition to marks being awarded for a selection of
the correct points, such as those listed below, further marks may be available for
written expression. It is, therefore, important that you take care with the quality
of your writing as well as the content, as these marks could have a significant
influence on your overall grade. Guidance as to what is good summary style is
contained in the bullet points below.
Note that the copying of chunks of material directly from the passage will not
score highly – this is because copying the text does not prove that you have
understood it. It is important that what you write shows that you have understood
the text and can interpret what you have read.
The following points should be followed very carefully; they contain some
important advice.
» Concision of expression is something which typifies the very best summaries. This
can be achieved by making sure that you focus clearly on only the points stated
in the wording of the question.
» One way of doing this is to make sure that you don’t include any irrelevant
comments; a generalised introductory paragraph is not necessary and simply uses
up unnecessary words.
» Lifting (or quoting) whole phrases or sentences from the original does not give a
clear indication that you have understood the text.
» A summary should be written using an objective, impersonal register; there is no
need to comment or to write in the first person – even if that is the way in which
the original has been written.

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4 READING AND SUMMARISING

4.5 Example of a summary question

Here is an example of a typical summary question, along with the text, to use for
practice.
In the following passage the writer describes his experience of a hot-air balloon
flight over southern Turkey.

The pilot of my balloon is a Swede called

Lars and his co-pilot is his English wife
Kali. They have flown all over the world
but are almost as excited about today’s
flight as we are. The air will be both
clear and cool. Visibility should be near-
perfect.
We’re up in the sky about the same time as
the sun, and for a while it is uncomfortably
cold. The ride, though, is magnificent. The
strange and unique landscape all begins to
make sense as we rise above it. The eastern
horizon is broken by the 4,000-metre peak of
Erciyes Dagi, its summit partly ripped away
by the eruption that helped shape everything
we can see. Long, flat tables of rock mark the
height of the plateau created by the vast lake
of lava, most of it now cracked, fissured and
fashioned into the bluffs, cones and tall pillars
that cover the ground like sentinels of some
petrified army.
With the hard, bright sun at a low angle and
a fresh-fallen blanket of snow on the ground,
it’s not only the rocks that stand out. We can
see the fine detail of fields and orchards and
vineyards. Though the volcanic rock makes for fertile soil, the climate has changed over the last
few years and, according to Kali, the combination of warmer winters and late frosts has ruined
harvests. Vines and apricot trees have been worst affected and certainly the apricot orchards look
especially vulnerable under the snow. Many farmers are turning to tourism instead, or leaving the
area altogether.
Lars seems less interested in what’s happening on the ground than what’s happening in the air. He
reads the air currents with obsessive delight, alert to all the subtle shifts and patterns, such as the
emptying of the cold air from the valleys as the land warms up. He takes us up to 8,000 feet. From
here the detail is less distinct. The rock forests of Cappadocia have given way to a wider view, from
the Taurus Mountains in the south and to the rising Anatolian plateau to the east.
Source: http://palinstravels.co.uk/book-4253

8
 4.5 Example of a summary question

Remember
Write a summary of what the passage tells you about what the writer saw from his balloon
Read the question flight and his thoughts and feelings about the experience.
carefully and
identify the focus of You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your own words as far as
your summary. possible. Your summary should not be more than 180 words.
Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the
quality of your writing.

Remember
You should focus on only including points that are directly relevant to the subject of the summary
and pay close attention to the wording of the task. The question asks for a summary of what the
writer saw from his flight and not what he saw during it. For this reason, it is not necessary to
include Lars and his wife in your answer. Similarly, much of the third paragraph is not relevant as
it is background information about the effects of climate change and not what the writer saw and
thought during the flight (apart from his reference to the apricot orchards).

Teacher tip
Read the question carefully and identify the focus of your summary. There are two key pieces of
information required: what the writer saw and what he thought and felt during his flight.
In preparation for writing your summary you should make notes of the relevant points under
each heading. The key points have been highlighted (what was seen in yellow and thoughts
and feelings in pink).

Model response
What the writer saw:
1 The mountain/peak of Erciyes Dagi
2 (Long,) flat tables of rock
3 Bluffs, cones and tall pillars (Note – you should not include the simile
used to describe this feature.)
4 Bright sun
5 (Blanket of) snow
6 Fields and orchards
7 Less distinct details/wider view when higher up
8 Taurus Mountains/Anatolian Plateau

The writer’s thoughts and feelings about the experience:

1 He was excited.
2 He was initially feeling cold.
3 He found the ride magnificent.
4 He began to understand the landscape.
5 He thought that the apricot orchards were under threat from the change in climate.

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4 READING AND SUMMARISING

You will notice that in the list of points in the model response (which is similar to
those that would appear in an examination mark scheme), some of the words have been
underlined. This indicates that the words are essential for the point to be credited. Other
words are placed within, indicating that these details are not necessarily required.
You will notice that the points that have been highlighted do not fall neatly into
two groups. It is, therefore, important that you reorganise them so that you have
two sets of points relating to the two prongs of the question. You can then attempt
to turn them into two paragraphs (one for what the writer saw and the other for his
thoughts and feelings) which develop them into clear sentences. Manipulating and
rearranging the details in your notes in this way is a way of using your own words and
showing that you have clearly understood the passage that you are summarising.

Model answer
At first, the writer saw the mountain, Erciyes Dagi, towering above the flat tables of
rock and the high cliffs, and pillars of rock that rose from them. He saw the bright sun
which allowed him a clear view of fields and orchards covered by a blanket of fresh snow.
From 8,000 feet, the writer’s view of the ground became less distinct but he could see for a
far greater distance, all the way from the Taurus Mountains to the Anatolian Plateau.
The writer was very excited about his flight, especially as visibility conditions were
perfect. They took off at sunrise, when he felt very cold at first but this did not prevent
him from appreciating the magnificent ride. Being able to see the whole spread of the
landscape from the air made it easier for him to understand its formation, and the
overview of the apricot trees helped him to appreciate how much farming in the area was
threatened by climate change, especially by the cold frosts of winter.

4.6 Practice writing a summary

Having looked at the example and the model summary, you should now be able to
write your own version.
The following exercise is to those that might appear in Cambridge IGCSE First
Language English examination papers; use all or a selection of them as appropriate
to practise your skills.

Exercise
Write a summary of what you have learnt about the volcanoes on Hawaii and the
effects of volcanoes on the Hawaiian islands.
You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your own words as far as
possible. Your summary should be between 120–150 words.
Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for
the quality of your writing.

Remember
The summary is asking for information about volcanoes and their effect on the Hawaiian islands.
The passage, however, is written by the writer using the first person ‘I’. In your answer it is
important that you focus primarily on the information the writer gives. You should, therefore,
adopt an impersonal tone and not write as if you are the writer himself. You could start your
answer, ‘Volcanoes on Hawaii are…’

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 4.6 Practice writing a summary

A land of fire
But if you go to Hawaii expecting
something extraordinary, and are prepared
to look beyond Honolulu and Waikiki
Beach, it can be found. On any of the
islands you come upon landscapes of quite
stunning beauty, but what really blew me
away – almost literally – was the primeval
power of the volcanoes of Hawaii itself.
Each of the Hawaiian islands has been
thrust 6,100 metres up from the ocean floor by the successive eruptions of submarine
volcanoes. As each island in turn drifts away from the ‘hotspot’ on the sea bed, its
volcano dies and it sinks back into the sea. Hawaii Island itself is the newest of them all,
with two active volcanoes of over 4,000 metres, and it is still growing.
As the director of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park assured me, ‘It’s alive. It changes.
Every day there’s something new.’
We were at the crater of Kilauea volcano, about 2,100 metres above sea level but
another 2,100 metres below the summit of the giant volcano Mauna Loa. Mark Twain,
the nineteenth-century American writer, described the crater of Kilauea as a dazzling lake
of fire; I was hiding my disappointment at finding it a desert. ‘But you’re so lucky,’ said
the park director, ‘you’re here at exactly the right time to see something Mark Twain
would have given anything to see – the volcano is erupting right into the ocean. You can
hike out there and watch it as it happens.’
The volcano’s power to destroy and create at random is awesome. New land is added
day by day. A new beach of jet-black sand was created overnight in January 1988, after
an eruption out at sea. There it was the next morning; two miles long, utterly pristine.
Whole towns have been engulfed; no one is sure where they are buried, as there is
nowhere for the surveyors to get their bearings. There are no towns left on the southern
coast. The Hawaiians abandoned their villages 150 years ago after a succession of
terrible tidal waves.
I parked my car where the Chain of Craters road runs into a solid wall of lava. A ranger
handed me a ‘reassuring’ leaflet saying new lava is unstable and may collapse at any
time, and it is best to avoid the clouds of hydrochloric acid. I set off towards the distant
columns of steam that marked the hot spot. There is no path; you just pick your way
through broken slabs and steam hissing from gashes in the rock. The surface of the rock
is so rough that a simple fall can shred your skin.

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