1. Overview
Summary writing is the skill you can most improve by practising. You are given a text and asked to sum up one idea from it in your own words, within a word limit. It looks hard because there is a lot of text, but it rewards a clear, repeatable method: find the relevant points, put them in your own words, and join them smoothly. Practise the method below on a few texts and your marks will become steady and reliable.
Key Definitions
- Summary: A short, fluent piece of writing that captures only the relevant points from a text, in your own words, within a set word limit.
- Relevant point: An idea in the text that answers the exact focus of the question. If the question asks for benefits, a drawback is not a relevant point, however interesting it is.
- Own words (paraphrase): Re-expressing an idea using different vocabulary and sentence structure from the original, while keeping the meaning identical.
- Connective: A linking word or phrase (also, in addition, however, as a result) that joins points into flowing sentences instead of a list.
- Redundancy: Words that add no meaning - examples, repetition, statistics, and your own opinion. In a summary, these waste your word count and your marks.
Core Content
The five-step method
- Underline the focus. Read the question and mark exactly what to summarise - for example the benefits of bike-sharing, not bike-sharing in general.
- Read once, then scan. Read the whole text quickly for the general meaning, then go through it again and mark every sentence that matches the focus.
- Number the points. Turn each marked sentence into a short note. Aim to find more points than you think you need - it is safer to have too many and cut.
- Put each point in your own words. Change the vocabulary and the sentence shape (techniques below). Drop examples, figures and repetition.
- Join and check. Link your points with connectives into two or three fluent sentences, then count your words and cut anything that is not a point.
Worked example, built in stages
Source text (read this as if it were on your paper):
Many cities are introducing bike-sharing schemes, where residents unlock a shared bicycle using a phone app and return it to any docking station. Supporters point to several advantages. Because the bikes replace short car journeys, the schemes cut the traffic that clogs city centres at rush hour. They also reduce air pollution, since a bicycle produces no exhaust fumes at all. For residents, the health benefit is real: even a ten-minute ride each way adds useful daily exercise. Finally, the schemes are cheap to use, so people on low incomes can travel across the city for a few coins rather than paying high bus or taxi fares.
Question focus: Summarise the benefits of bike-sharing schemes.
Stage 1 - points found (still in the text's words):
- replace short car journeys, so cut traffic in city centres
- reduce air pollution / no exhaust fumes
- health benefit - adds daily exercise
- cheap to use, so affordable for people on low incomes
Stage 2 - put each point in your own words:
| Text says | Your words |
|---|---|
| "replace short car journeys... cut the traffic" | ease congestion by taking cars off the road |
| "reduce air pollution, since a bicycle produces no exhaust fumes" | lower pollution because cycling is emission-free |
| "even a ten-minute ride... adds useful daily exercise" | improve fitness through regular activity |
| "cheap to use, so people on low incomes can travel" | give low-cost transport that poorer residents can afford |
Notice what happened: the example ("ten-minute ride"), the figure, and the repetition were all dropped. Only the general idea survives, in new words.
Stage 3 - join into a fluent summary (about 45 words here; your own paper sets the real limit):
Bike-sharing schemes ease congestion by taking short local trips off the road, and they lower pollution because cycling produces no emissions. They also improve residents' fitness through regular activity. In addition, they let poorer residents get around the whole city at low cost.
Every sentence is a point, the words are the writer's own, and connectives (and, also, in addition) make it read as prose, not a list.
Turning text into your own words - four reliable techniques
- Swap the vocabulary: cut the traffic becomes ease congestion.
- Change the word class (its "part of speech"): turn a verb into a noun or an adjective - for example afford becomes affordable, or decide becomes decision.
- Change the sentence shape: join two short ideas with because or so, or split a long one.
- Generalise the example: a ten-minute ride each way becomes regular activity. The specific example is redundant in a summary.
How your summary is marked
Your summary earns marks for two separate things, and strong candidates protect both:
- Content (Reading): did you find the relevant points? Each distinct point that answers the focus can score.
- Language (Writing): did you express them in your own words, organised and concise? Copying the text word-for-word scores nothing for language.
Together the summary is worth roughly a tenth to a fifth of the Reading and Writing paper - a meaningful block of marks from a single task. Cambridge sets the exact mark split and word limit for each session, so always follow the marks and word count printed on your own paper, and check the current syllabus or ask your teacher if you are unsure.
Exam Focus
- Find more points than the marks. Mark more relevant points than you think you need - you cannot know exactly which ones will earn marks.
- Respect the word limit. A summary is short - always follow the exact word limit printed on your own question paper. Going well over wastes time; going far under usually means you missed points.
- Spend your time in the right place. Roughly: one-third finding points, one-third putting them in your own words, one-third joining and checking.
- One paragraph, no introduction. Start with your first point - no "This text is about..." opening.
Common Mistakes
- ❌ Wrong: Copying whole sentences from the text.
- ✓ Right: Change the vocabulary and the sentence structure.
- ❌ Wrong: Adding your own opinion or outside knowledge.
- ✓ Right: Summarise only what the text says about the focus.
- ❌ Wrong: Including examples, figures or statistics.
- ✓ Right: Keep the general point; drop the specific example.
- ❌ Wrong: Writing a list with no connectives.
- ✓ Right: Join points into fluent sentences.
- ❌ Wrong: Going far over the word limit to be safe.
- ✓ Right: Extra length is not extra marks; cut anything that is not a point.
Exam Tips
- Underline the focus word in the question before you read the text.
- Mark points in the text first; only start writing once you have them all.
- Cover the text while you write so you cannot copy by accident.
- Count your words and cut redundancy.
- Re-read once to check every sentence is a point in your own words.
Practice task
Read the passage below and summarise the reasons some students find online learning difficult, in about 60 words (this passage is short; a real exam text is longer and sets its own limit - see Exam Focus) and in your own words.
Online learning became common almost overnight, and not every student adapted easily. Many say the biggest problem is distraction: at home, phones, games and family interruptions are only a click or a doorway away. Others struggle with motivation, because without a teacher physically present it is easy to postpone work. A weak or shared internet connection is a further obstacle, freezing lessons at crucial moments. Finally, some students simply miss the company of classmates, and that isolation makes it harder to stay interested.
Check yourself: a full-mark answer would include distraction at home, low motivation without a teacher present, unreliable internet, and isolation from classmates - all in your own words, joined with connectives.
Related skills
- Language accuracy and register - the language marks your summary also earns.