Gokhale Education Society’s

S.M.R.K. B.K. A.K Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Nasik-5.

CC English (LL)
F.Y.B.Sc. Sem I
Unit 1

Summary Writing
Ms. Geetanjali Gitay
Assistant Professor
Dept. of English
 Introduction
• In today’s hectic life we need to go through a large volumes of information and sift
through it to gather only important information.

• So we need to develop the ability to put in brief what has been said or written by
another person , without missing any significant point.

• When we do this, we summarize or make a precis of the material before us.

• Generally while summarising, the material has to be reduced about 1/3 of its original
length. e.g. A 300 word passage can be reduced to 100 words passage.

• A summary is a shortened passage that retains the essential

information of the original. It is a brief write up in your own words.

• You write down what the writer has said without making any value
judgements.
 Characteristics of a Good Summary

• It can be understood without reference to the original.

• It is a faithful reproduction of and contains only the ideas and information

from the original content.

• It is brief without unnecessary details.

• It is a unified while it its own right.

• It expresses the gist or the central idea of the

original passage/speech.
 How to Summarise?
While summarising a prose passage, an article, a speech, a letter, a report or
even a book, one must keep in mind the four C’s
1. Concentration
2. Comprehension
3. Condensation
4. Composition

1. Concentration
In order to prepare a good summary, we need to understand the text
thoroughly so that we may be able pick out the essential details and reject the
Inessential details.

2. Comprehension
The text must be read carefully , in order to comprehend
the main ideas and see how they are developed.
 How to Summarise? (Contd)
3. Condensation
To condense means to pick up the important points from the passage.
this involves two steps.
Step 1 : The First Reading
This can be done quickly ,to get the central idea of the text. If the text is
a prose passage, an appropriate title can be given at this stage. The topic
sentence or the key phrase serve as the title.
Step 2 : The Second Reading
Though examples and explanations help to understand the main ideas better,
we have to concentrate on the key ideas in the text. During this stage, try to
differentiate between the main ideas, and supporting details.

4. Composition
Keeping in mind the required length of the summary, start
compressing the matter and preparing the rough draft.
 How to reduce the matter?
• Apart from picking up the important ideas from the text, following techniques
can be used to reduce the matter.

• Reduce :
1. A long phrase into one word, e.g. ‘ at this point of time’ to ‘ now’.
2. A clause into a phrase , e.g. ‘ When the sun was rising at the eastern horizon to
‘ at dawn’.
3. A clause into a word. e.g. ‘ that which cannot be easily read’ to ‘illegible’.
4. Long catalogues into a generic term, e.g. ‘ he bought pen, pencils, paper, pins,
paper weights, erasers’ to ‘he bought stationary.’

• Avoid examples, images, figures of speech and long sentences.

• Omit anything that is not related to the central theme.

 Guidelines for Writing a Summary
• Pay attention to important points and separate them from the ones that are
less important.

• Organise the ideas and points in a logical sequence. Retain the logical
sequence of ideas expressed in the passage, speech.

• Present matter precisely, clearly and in your own language. A summary should
read like an independent piece of writing.

• A summary should not be a patchwork of sentences picked up from the

original passage.

• Retain the tense of the original passage.

• Do not explain important points or add your own views or comments.

• Before making the final draft, see that there are no missing link.
Example
• Passage

Nearly all superstitions are concerned with luck. Good luck is associated with horse shoes ,
the finding of a pin, the threepenny bit in the Christmas pudding, the old shoe flung at a
wedding party etc. Ill luck is associated with the howling of dogs, the spilling of
Salt, the crossing of knives, sitting down to a table , walking under a ladder, the falling of a
picture from the wall, the breaking of a mirror and scores of other things.
(Words: 80)

• Summary
Superstitions
Most superstitions are related to either good or bad luck. Horseshoes
Are an example of good luck and the howling of dogs that of bad luck.
(Words: 25)
 Text Content Source :
1. Enriching Your Competence in English, Thorat A.S. et al,Orient Longman, India. (Seventh Edition,2008).
2. English for Practical Purposes, Patil Z.N. et al , Macmillan India Ltd. ,India .(Fourth Reprint, 2004).
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