Guidelines for summary writing:

1. Read the question carefully. Ask yourself: “What am I required to summarise?”

2. Mark the first and last lines of the passage you are asked to refer to.

3. Then select information that is relevant to your answer. To do this, underline the relevant lines or ideas as you read the text. Always ask yourself: “Is this...” (For the summary below, you would ask: “Is this a reason tigers have become extinct? or Is this a measure that should be implemented?”

4. Look through the lines/ideas you have underlined. Sometimes an idea is repeated in another line by way of paraphrasing. Ask yourself, is this a repetition?

5. Summarise these ideas. You can combine ideas by combining phrases or sentences, or you may want to paraphrase ideas/sentences. However, make sure your sentences are complete sentences and not fractured bits and pieces.

6. If you cannot paraphrase ideas, see if there are words in the text that you can replace without affecting meaning. For example, you can use a pronoun to replace a noun.

7. If you are a weak student, do copy the complete sentence. This way, you will not lose marks for content or language.

8. Begin the summary with the 10 words given and remember that the three dots after the tenth word mean you have to complete the sentence with some relevant information from the text.

9. Organise the ideas/points in the manner in which they are found in the text. Do not waste time trying to rearrange ideas.

10. Adhere to the word limit. Writing more than the required number of words will not get you any marks. Anything far too short of the word limit means you lack content.

11. Pay attention to the tense (and sometimes pronoun) used in the given 10 words.

12. Write the summary in one paragraph. Some students are in the habit of drawing columns to facilitate counting of words. This is perfectly fine but do write your final draft in one paragraph.

Pitfalls to avoid

1. Do not include information not found in the text.

2. Do not include your own ideas or opinions.

3. Do not spend too much time paraphrasing as you might end up losing marks for content unless you can do so without altering/distorting meaning.

4. Do not repeat ideas. Sometimes, an idea is repeated in the text and you may not notice it as it may have been paraphrased.

5. Do not include material from other lines in the text.

Hopefully it helps a little in boosting your confidence in writing summary!

(P.S. Adapted from The Star newspaper!!)