University of Sialkot, Pakistan

Department of English Language and Literature

KHAWAR MEHMOOD

Instruction Manual of Summary Writing

What is a Summary?
Summary is a brief statement or an account of main points on something. Summary writing is to
identify main relevant points and to write them in one’s own words in an organized manner.
Generalized and Specified Summary:
If summary writing covers all the aspects of a given text, then it is a generalized. On the other
hand, if it discusses the specific aspects/points of a text, then it is a specified.
Mechanism of Summary Writing:
1. Read the passage
2. Identify/underline the main relevant points
3. Write them in your own words
4. In an organized manner
Structure of a Summary:
1. Introduction (One liner)
2. Organization of the main relevant points
3. Use of synonyms
4. Use of connectives
5. Never write conclusion if not asked
6. Stick to the word limit
Practice Passage:
Question: Read the article about a person who survived a shipwreck. Write a summary about what
he did to survive? Your summary should be 80 to 90 words only.
• Read the question properly. Decide, what exactly do you have to write a summary on?
In the question, they could specify one or more detail. So you need to write the summary
on just those details. Leave out the rest.
• Read the passage about a person who survived a shipwreck.
• Look at the underlined phrases/sentences highlighting main idea of the passage.
• Now, synthesize one-line introduction that should tell the reader what you’re writing a
summary on. Keep it short. In the example above, you could start the summary by
writing: Poon Lim, a ship-wreck victim, managed to survive an astounding 133 days on an
island all alone.
• Next, start organising the points. You could organize the important points
chronologically or advantage-disadvantage format or problem-solution format- whatever
works for the task at hand. In the example above, writing points in their chronological order
seems to be the right choice.
• Use connectives to systematically organise your points and add a sense of continuity.
Some examples of connectives are:
➢ Firstly/Secondly/Thirdly
➢ In Addition/Also/Furthermore/Moreover
➢ Consequently/As a result
➢ Thus/Hence/So etc.
• Use synonyms as your own words in the summary. For example, in the above passage,
there is a phrase, ‘invented ways to find food and water’ can be changed to ‘came up with
a system to obtain food and water’.
• Never write a conclusion if not asked. If the question asks you to write the summary on
the entire passage, then maybe a conclusion would be fitting. But in questions like the one
above, it is irrelevant to the question.
• Stick to the word limit. For the extended paper you have to write at least 100 words but
not more than 120 words. For the core paper you need to write at least 70 words but not
more than 80 words. So,
➢ Don’t write too much
➢ Delete unnecessary points
➢ Cut short your words
• Important Note:
➢ Summary should be in one paragraph.
➢ Summary should contain original idea. Never write your own opinion, comments
or interpretation.
Exercise 1:
By keeping in view the instructions and help mentioned above, write down summary of 80 to 90
words on the same passage.
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Exercise 2:
a. Read the short story given below and underline the important relevant information in it.
'Breakfast' by John Steinbeck

This thing fills me with pleasure. I don’t know why, I can see it in the smallest detail. I find myself
recalling it again and again, each time bringing more detail out of a sunken memory, remembering
brings the curious warm pleasure.
It was very early in the morning. And it was cold, not painfully so, but cold enough so that I
rubbed my hands and shoved them deep into my pockets, and I hunched my shoulders up and
scuffled my feet in the ground. Down in the valley where I was, the earth was that lavender
gray of dawn. I walked along a country road and ahead of me and I saw a tent that was only a
little lighter gray than the ground. Beside the tent there was a flash of orange fire seeping out of
the cracks of an old rusty iron stove. I saw a young woman beside the stove, really a girl. She
was dressed in a faded cotton skirt and blouse.
I was close now and I could smell frying bacon and baking bread, the warmest, pleasantest odors
I know. I came near the stove and stretched my hands out to it and shivered all over when the
warmth struck me. Then the tent flap jerked up and a young man came out and an older man
followed him. They were dressed in new blue dungarees and in new dungaree coats with the
brass buttons shining. They were sharp-faced men, and they looked much alike.
They turned and saw me. “Morning,” said the older man. His face was neither friendly nor
unfriendly. “Morning, sir,” I said.“Morning,” said the young man. They came to the stove and
warmed their hands at it. The elder turned to me, “Had your breakfast?” I replied, “No.”“Well,
sit down with us, then.” That was the signal. We went to the packing case and squatted on the
ground about it. The young man asked, “Picking cotton?”“No.” “We had twelve days’ work so
far,” the young man said. The girl spoke from the stove. “They even got new clothes.”The two
men looked down at their new dungarees and they both smiled a little.
 The girl set out the platter of bacon, the brown biscuits, a bowl of bacon gravy and a pot of
coffee, and then she sat down by the box too. We filled our plates, poured bacon gravy over our
biscuits and sugared our coffee. The older man filled his mouth full and he chewed and chewed
and swallowed. Then he said, “God Almighty, it is good;” and he filled his mouth again. The
young man said, “We have been eating well for twelve days.”
We all ate quickly, frantically, and refilled our plated and are quickly again until we were full
and warm. The hot bitter coffee scalded our throats.
Then the two men stood up together. “Got to get going,” the older man said. The younger man
turned to me. “You want to pick cotton; we could maybe get you on.” “No. I got to go along.
Thanks for the breakfast.”The older man waved his hand in a negative. “O.K. Glad to have
you.” They walked away together. The air was blazing with light at the eastern skyline. And I
walked away down the country road. That’s all. I know, of course, some of the reasons why it
was pleasant. But there was some element of great beauty there that makes the rush of warmth
when I think of it.
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b. Now, read three samples of summary for the above short story. Mark the samples as Best,
Average and Poor by keeping in view the instructions of summary writing you had gone
through earlier.
Sample 1:

John Steinbeck is a well-known American short story writer and novelist. The story "Breakfast" is
about a poor family which works hard to fulfill their needs. They work hard for a better living. The
family leads a simple life. They are living a contented life. The writer met a poor family in the
morning while walking. He was having a walk in the valley. He walked along a country road. He
saw a tent ahead of him. An old stove was laying there. The writer saw a young woman sitting
beside the stove. She was dressed in a faded cotton clothes. She was preparing breakfast. She was
frying bacon. The writer went near the stove to warm his shivering and cold body. The tent flake
jerked up and there came a young man followed by an old man. They were sharp-faced men and
they looked much alike. They looked and exchanged greetings with him. All of them sit around
the stove in order to warm their hands. The woman placed the tin cups on to packing box. She
placed before them the fried and baked food. The writer was also invited to have breakfast. They
breakfasted together. The old man expressed his gratitude to God for providing them breakfast and
twelve day's work. Everybody in this poor family is an embodiment of contentment. They are
satisfied with whatever they get for their labor. They thank God through thick and thin. The writer
is highly impressed with their hospitality. But if we compare the people of the modern age, we
come to know that they are not satisfied in their lives. They lead a life of vanity and affectation.
They are never satisfied with their wealth. They always complain about getting very little in life.
They always protest against the government and the system. They lead a life of glitter and show.
They are denied the bliss of contentment and simplicity of life. Actually, the writer wants to give
us a message that we must adopt the aspect of contentment if we want to be happy.
Sample 2:

Narrated in the first person, ‘Breakfast’ is about a young man who is walking along a country road
one early morning. It is still cold. He comes upon a camp where a woman is cooking breakfast for
herself and her two male companions, one of whom is young and the other older. These two men
are presumably a father and son. The family offers him food. The meal consists of bacon, bread,
biscuits, gravy, and coffee, which burns their throats as they drink it to wash down the food. As
they exchange a few words of conversation with the writer, it becomes clear that they work in the
cotton fields, and have been working for twelve days. They ask the young man who is sharing their
breakfast whether he also works in cotton, but he replies no. The father and son have made enough
money from toiling in the cotton fields to buy new clothes. They have also been eating well for
the twelve days. They offer to find the narrator work in the fields too, picking cotton, but he
declines, thanking them for their hospitality as he continues on his way.
Sample 3:

“Breakfast" is a simple short story written by John Steinbeck in which simplicity and purity of
living is described. The story is about a poor family who was living in a tent in a cold valley. The
family was willing to work happily for a little better living. The family had no complaints against
anyone else on the account of their poverty. They were very much contented with whatever they
had. Their contentment had filled the heart of narrator with the feeling of warmth and pleasure.

Exercise 3:
Read the following article and write down the summary of it consisting of 80 to 90 words.
Rubric for the Assessment:
Introduction Identification of all Organization of all Use of Use of Total
important points points connectives synonyms
2 2 2 2 2 10

Round the world adventure

When David and Patricia Jones sailed off in a boat from the United Kingdom,
they were intending to take their boat on a short trip for a couple of weeks.
They wanted to sail to northern Spain. Amazingly, fourteen years later, they
have just returned, after an adventure which took them 94 000 kilometres.
During their journey, they visited 56 countries, swam with dolphins, and even
survived running out of water for 20 days, by filtering seawater.
They bought a second-hand boat, which needed US$10 000 spent on repairs, in addition to the
US$25 000 purchase price. When the work on the boat was finished, they were ready to begin their
first journey. The couple were both skilled sailors, and they thought that a short trip would allow
them to see what living in a small space was like before attempting a longer ocean crossing in the
future. They also wanted an idea of how much food and drink they would need to take to last the
journey.
Sailing to Spain, however, was so successful that they decided to continue to the USA, stopping
in New York for a two-day shopping trip. They didn’t really feel like normal holidaymakers,
because they spent their time buying safety equipment and medicine for the next stage of their
journey.
Surprisingly, Patricia’s happiest memory of the city was when she saw a dentist, as she had
complained of painful toothache on the boat for days! After the USA, they sailed via the Panama
Canal and the Pacific Ocean towards Australia, before returning home.
Although using wind power most of the time meant there were fewer stops for refuelling, they still
needed money to keep the boat running safely. On one occasion, the side of the boat was damaged
when they hit an object floating in the sea. Because of these costs, in the middle of their trip, they
decided they would have to use all their savings. Even with that money, they still preferred trading
some of their possessions for the supplies they needed. On one island that they visited near Fiji,
they handed over some tools that they were carrying in return for fresh fruit and vegetables. Patricia
explains, “One of the villagers saw a rope we had with us. We had wanted to use it to climb the
mountain there, but the weather wasn’t good enough. In fact, the villagers needed the rope to repair
a roof in the village that had been damaged by a recent storm. So we exchanged it for enough food
for a month!”

During their trip, they had some incredible experiences – swimming with seals, and watching
smoke from a distant volcano. They met a giant whale – even bigger than their 11-metre boat.
Some people might have been frightened, but David described the encounter as magical. However,
meeting other travelers was the highlight of their journey. They also found it useful to talk to locals
and get ideas for new destinations.

The adventure taught them to rely on themselves, and they were generally quite lucky. While at
sea, David fell and twisted his ankle, but otherwise they survived without injury. Their biggest
scare was when they thought they were being chased by another boat. Fortunately this turned out
to be a fishing-boat. One of the crew had cut his leg, and needed first aid. Patricia volunteered to
help, and David watched anxiously as she put on her safety equipment and crossed over to the
other boat. “I was so relieved when she came back safely,” he said.

The couple is already planning another adventure, this time travelling through European canals.

Summary:
First Draft:

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Final Draft:
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