WRITING ACTIVITIES

Summary simply means being brief or being concise. It is expressing in as few words as possible what has been said in very many words. It calls for brevity, i. e. whilst you are trying to be brief, your sentence must contain the important information being conveyed in the original passage.

For you to write a good summary, you have to read the passage with understanding and also be able to identify the topic sentence(s) (which is the theme of the discussion). The topic sentence is usually (but not always all the time) found at the first sentence in the passage or the paragraph (this is called deductive method). When the topic sentence appears at the last sentence in a paragraph or the passage, it is called inductive paragraph.

Other guide or things that may direct the attention of the reader to understanding the key points are Points Pointers/Clues words like: again, in addition, also, and, however, conversely, etc. It should also be pointed out that key points are found in paragraph and as such, one need to jot them down when reads.

          DISTINGUISH BETWEEN TYPES OF SUMMARY WRITING

There is not specific type of summary writing; rather questions on summary passage could be in form of:

1.       Summarizing in one sentence the central idea of the passage.

2.       Summarizing in one or more sentences aspects of the passage as required.

3.       The topic sentences may be the type that contrast themselves. For instance, stating merit or demerit, advantages and disadvantages of the issue being discussed.