Question 2 Skills: How to summarise
Identify the question focus by underlining key words such as “thoughts”, “feelings”, “reasons”, or “effects”. This focus determines which ideas from the passage matter.
Scan the specified lines to highlight only the sentences that relate directly to the focus. This avoids including irrelevant content.
Convert points into your own words by rephrasing verbs, replacing adjectives and restructuring clauses. This ensures the summary meets assessment requirements.
Combine related ideas into unified statements. For example, two sentences describing worry and unease could become one point about emotional discomfort.
Use connective words such as “firstly”, “also”, “furthermore” and “finally” to create smooth progression and coherence.
Aim for four clear ideas, expressed in complete sentences. These should capture the meaning of the text succinctly without analysis or interpretation beyond what is implied.
Summarising vs paraphrasing: summarising reduces length by selecting only core ideas, whereas paraphrasing restates the full content. Question 2 blends both because it requires brevity and original wording.
Summary vs analysis: a summary reports what the text says; analysis explains why techniques are used. Question 2 requires summary only, so commenting on language features is unnecessary.
Explicit vs implicit information: explicit facts are stated directly, while implicit ideas require inference. Effective summaries may include both but must avoid unsupported interpretations.
Listing vs synthesising: listing gives disconnected points, whereas synthesising links ideas into coherent explanations. Question 2 expects full sentences rather than bullet points, ensuring synthesis.
Relevance vs breadth: relevance prioritises only what answers the question’s focus, even if other details are interesting. Breadth includes everything but weakens precision.
Begin by identifying exactly what must be summarised, because misunderstanding the focus is the most common cause of losing marks. Ensure that all chosen ideas directly answer that focus.
Stick strictly to the line range given in the question. Using material outside this range results in points that cannot earn marks.
Write in your own words as much as possible to show genuine understanding. Close copying prevents the examiner from seeing how well you comprehend and condense ideas.
Avoid commentary such as analysing techniques or giving personal opinions. These do not contribute to a summary and take up valuable time.
Aim for clarity by using straightforward sentence structures. Overly complex phrasing can obscure meaning and reduce conciseness.
Check that you have provided at least four distinct points, each expressed fully. If two points repeat the same idea, they count as one.
Copying too much from the text often happens when students fear changing wording. However, copying shows retrieval rather than understanding and typically receives no credit.
Including irrelevant detail weakens the summary because it suggests the student cannot judge importance. Always compare each idea to the question focus before including it.
Confusing feelings with actions is common when summarising characters. Ensure emotional states are expressed clearly where required rather than describing events only.
Over-inference occurs when a student reads meanings into the text that are not reasonably supported. Summaries must remain grounded in textual evidence.
Writing overly brief statements such as single phrases results in incomplete expression of ideas. Summaries must be written in full sentences to demonstrate comprehension.
Summarising links to broader literacy skills, including note‑making, synthesis and comparison. It underpins academic writing across subjects.
In real-world settings, summarising is essential for emails, reports and instructions where clarity and brevity are valued.
The skill supports critical reading, because selecting key ideas requires deciding what matters most in a text.
Summarising prepares students for higher‑level tasks, such as comparing texts (Question 5), where concise understanding is required before analysing perspectives.
The principles of summarising—relevance, concision and accuracy—apply similarly to synthesising longer articles, lectures or research materials.