A summary is brief statement of the main ideas in a passage or piece of writing. Summary writing is therefore the process of extracting the main ideas of a given passage or piece of writing and presenting them in your own words.
If you’re going to sit an English exam, such as WASSCE or NECO/SSCE, you need to learn the step by step the procedure for answering summary questions in such English exams. Summary writing requires following the appropriate procedure and adhering to the rules. For example, these examination bodies usually require the candidate to summarize given ideas in a passage in a specified number of sentences. You need to understand how to extract the main ideas in the passage and how to present those ideas in your own words.
To answer summary questions in English exams like WASSCE, NECO/SSCE, etc., you need to take the following steps:
- Read the questions first in order to understand what exactly you’re required to summarize.
- Read the passage at least twice, or until you fully understand what the passage is all about.
- Read the question(s) again, and then go back to the passage and look for the answers.
- Extract the main ideas from the passage in line with the question(s).
- Reconstruct the extracted ideas into your own sentences: express the ideas in your own words as much as possible.
- Present your answers in the specified number of sentences.
- Crosscheck your work and make sure it’s free from grammatical errors.
- Submit your script.
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If you’re interested in a more detailed audiovisual discussion on how to answer summary questions in your English exams, you can watch the following video lectures:
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