Summarising a Text
Use comprehension strategies such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising, monitoring and questioning to build literal and inferred meaning to evaluate information and ideas.
Read this first
A summary keeps the main ideas and drops the rest. Deciding what to drop is the skill.
Words you need
- Summary
- A short version that keeps only the main ideas.
- Main idea
- What the paragraph is mostly about.
- Detail
- An example or extra fact. Usually dropped.
Worked example
e.g. Summarise a four-paragraph article about bees.
- Read the whole text once. Do not write yet.
- Now take one paragraph at a time.
- Ask of each: what is this paragraph mostly about?
- Write that in one short sentence of your own.
- Paragraph one becomes: Bees pollinate most food crops.
- Do the same for the rest. You now have four sentences.
- Join them into one short piece. Cut anything repeated.
- Check: could someone who has not read it follow yours?
One sentence per paragraph. Then join and trim.
Practice
One sentence per paragraph. Main ideas only.
1How many sentences should you write per paragraph?with a picture
AnswerOne.
2Should a summary use your words or the writer's?with a picture
AnswerYours, mostly.
3A paragraph lists five kinds of bee. Does that go in?with a hint
Need a hint?
Is it a main idea or a detail?
AnswerNo. That is detail. There are many kinds of bee is enough.
4Your summary is as long as the text. What went wrong?with a hint
Need a hint?
What did you keep?
AnswerYou kept the details. Keep main ideas only.
5Why read the whole text before writing?on your own
AnswerSo you know which ideas matter most.
6Name one thing a summary should never add.on your own
AnswerYour own opinion.
Think about it
1
Why is summarising harder than copying?
One good answerYou have to decide what matters. Copying needs no decisions.
2
Two students summarise the same text differently. Is one wrong?
One good answerNot always. But both should keep the same main ideas.
Common mistakes
A summary is the first few lines of the text.
No. Main ideas are spread through the whole text.
Longer summaries are safer.
They are not. A summary that keeps everything has done no work.