A summary condenses the points a text makes on a set topic into one connected paragraph, in your own words. Stay within the word limit the 0510 paper sets - check the current syllabus for the exact guidance. Attempt each task before revealing the plan, then use the checklist to catch copied phrasing and padding.
The passages here are our own. In a lesson, a teacher can mark your paragraph against the source.
1Read our original passage, then write a summary of the benefits the footbridge brought. Use one connected paragraph and your own words. Keep to the word limit the paper sets.
Before the footbridge was built, people living on the east bank of the Wexley River had to walk almost two kilometres to the road bridge to reach the town's shops and station. Many drove instead, adding to the traffic. The new footbridge, opened last year, cut the journey to a five-minute walk.
Shopkeepers report more customers from the east bank, the bus company has added a stop by the bridge, and children who once needed a lift can now walk to school safely. Write your summary of the benefits.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: First list the benefits in note form: shorter journey, less driving and traffic, more customers for shops, a new bus stop, children walking safely. Then join them into one flowing paragraph using your own words and linking phrases such as 'as a result' or 'in addition'. Do not copy runs of words from the passage, and stop at the word limit.
Model opening: Since the footbridge opened, residents on the east bank reach the town centre far more quickly, which has eased traffic and brought several further advantages.
Checklist:
- My paragraph is one connected piece of writing, not a list
- I used my own words rather than copied phrases
- I included only benefits, since that is what the task asked for
- I kept within the word limit the syllabus sets
- I added no opinions or examples that are not in the text
2Read our original first-person account and summarise the difficulties the writer faced when learning to sail. Use one connected paragraph and your own words. I thought sailing would be relaxing.
In fact, my first month was a series of small disasters. I could not remember the names of the ropes, so I pulled the wrong ones and the sail flapped uselessly. The wind kept changing direction and I was too slow to turn the boat with it.
My hands blistered because I gripped everything too tightly out of fear. Worst of all, I felt seasick every time we left the calm of the harbour, which made it hard to concentrate on anything the instructor said. Summarise the difficulties.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Turn the story into points: confusing the ropes, reacting too slowly to wind changes, blistered hands from gripping too hard, and seasickness that broke concentration. Then write them as one connected paragraph in your own words. A first-person account is still summarised neutrally - you are reporting the writer's difficulties, not retelling the story.
Model opening: In the writer's first month of sailing, several problems made the sport far from relaxing.
Checklist:
A trial lesson can start from your child's attempt at Summary writing (ESL) practice for Cambridge International 0510, with feedback from an experienced teacher.
- I reported the writer's difficulties rather than retelling the tale
- I covered each distinct difficulty once
- I used my own words, not the account's phrases
- The paragraph flows and stays within the word limit
3Read our original passage and write one connected summary. It should cover both why the river flooded and what the flood did to the village. Use your own words and keep to the word limit.
The River Alden burst its banks in October for reasons that had been building for years. Farmers upstream had drained the marshes that once soaked up heavy rain, and the town had paved over fields where water used to sink into the ground. When three days of storms came, the water had nowhere to go.
In Alden village, the ground floors of a dozen homes were flooded, the primary school closed for a week, and the single road out was cut off, so deliveries of food and medicine were delayed. Summarise both the causes and the effects.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: The task has two focuses, so plan two short lists. Causes: drained marshes, paved-over fields, three days of storms. Effects: flooded homes, school closed for a week, road cut off, delayed deliveries.
Then connect them in one paragraph, perhaps signalling the shift with 'as a result'. Balance the paragraph so both focuses are covered.
Model opening: The Alden flood had both long-building causes and serious effects on the village.
Checklist:
- I covered causes and effects, not just one
- The paragraph is balanced between the two focuses
- I used linking words to move from cause to effect
- I stayed in my own words and within the word limit
4Read our original passage, which uses some vivid vocabulary. Summarise what it says about the litter problem at the cove, but rephrase the writer's striking words in your own plainer language. Every summer the tide of visitors leaves the cove drowning in plastic, as one warden put it.
Bottles glint among the pebbles, forgotten picnics fester in the dunes, and the gulls, grown bold, tear open any bag left unguarded. The council's bins overflow by midday and are not emptied until dawn. Volunteers who clear the sand each evening say they fill more sacks than the year before, and fear the cove's reputation as a quiet, clean place is slipping away.
Summarise the litter problem in your own words.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Note the points behind the vivid phrases: too much plastic waste, overflowing bins emptied only once a day, bold gulls scattering rubbish, and volunteers collecting more each year while the beach's good name fades. Rewrite images such as 'drowning in plastic' and 'fester' plainly. Summary marks reward your own words, so avoid lifting the writer's imagery.
Model opening: The passage describes a growing litter problem at a beach once known for being clean.
Checklist:
- I rephrased the vivid images in plain words
- I captured the real points, not just the pictures
- I did not quote the writer's striking phrases
- My summary is one paragraph within the word limit
See the method and an annotated model on the summary writing (ESL) page for Cambridge International 0510, or the technique in our summary writing (ESL) skills guide.