List your points, remove repeats and examples, then write them as flowing prose. This page has a worked example from our teachers.
What a summary rewards
A summary asks you to take a passage and shrink its relevant content into a short piece of continuous writing in your own words. You are not rewarded for fancy style or for detail. You are rewarded for density: the most relevant points in the fewest clear words, with no repetition.
It is one of the most teachable skills on the reading paper, because it depends on method more than talent.
The task appears in First Language English and in ESL. It usually has a focus. For example, the question may say “summarise the difficulties the explorers faced”, not “summarise the passage”.
The word guidance and marks differ by board and syllabus year, so we teach from each board’s official syllabus. See our qualification pages.
The limit is the skill
Many students fear the word limit as a ceiling. It is better to see it as a measuring tool. If your summary is too long, you have almost certainly kept material that does not belong: an example, a vivid description or a point repeated in new words.
The limit tells you honestly that your selection is not tight enough. Redrafting then has a clear direction: find the words that carry no relevant point, and remove them.
A six-step method
- Read the focus first. Then read the passage looking only for content that fits it.
- Note each point in your own words. Make a short list. Do not copy the passage.
- Delete duplicates. Writers often make one point twice in different language. Make it once.
- Group related points. They can often be joined into one efficient sentence.
- Write continuous prose. Let one point flow into the next, and cut examples and description as you go.
- Count and prune. If you are over the limit, remove the least relevant point or the wordiest phrase. Do not delete an idea you need.
A worked example
The passage and summary are our own, written for teaching.
The community garden struggled in its first season. Volunteers found the soil was thin and full of stones, so nothing rooted deeply.
Water was scarce because the nearest tap was far off, and carrying cans across the field in the heat exhausted everyone. Worst of all, stray goats broke through the flimsy fence again and again and ate the seedlings overnight.
A tight summary of the difficulties:
The garden’s soil was poor and stony, so plants could not root. Water was hard to fetch, and the effort tired the volunteers. Goats repeatedly broke the weak fence and destroyed the young plants.
Look at what was removed: “in its first season”, “across the field in the heat” and “overnight”. These details colour the passage but add no new difficulty. The three points stay.
The decoration goes. That is the whole art.
This is easier to improve with a teacher beside you. A paid one-hour trial starts from your child's own recent work.
Common mistakes
- Lifting. The student copies phrases from the passage. This fails the “own words” rule and wastes words.
- Keeping examples. A summary needs the point, not the illustration.
- Missing the focus. The student summarises the whole passage when only one aspect was asked for.
- Repeating a point. The same idea appears twice in different words.
- Running out of space. The writer used too many words early and has no room for later points.
Each of these is a selection fault. When you redraft, keep asking: does this word earn its place?
How to practise
Practise compression apart from writing. Take any article and reduce it to a short list of points in your own words.
Ignore style. Do this quickly and often.
On another day, turn one of your lists into continuous prose of a set length. Separating the two steps stops them from tangling.
Another useful exercise is to write a summary that is too long on purpose, then cut it to length by removing only decoration, never a point. You will see that most wasted words are examples and the passage’s own phrasing.
Where students usually get stuck
Most students either copy the passage or keep every example, so they run out of space. In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers give you a focus and a passage, then mark every word in your draft that does not carry a relevant point.
We hand it back with the one change that would fit another point into the same space. This is part of reading-paper focus teaching in First Language English.
Tuition starts from RM70/hr. To see how much you can tighten, book a paid one-hour trial and bring one past summary.
What to read or try next
Study the annotated model response for summary writing, then try the practice tasks. First practise choosing points with how to select points for a summary.