HOW TO ANSWER SUMMARY QUESTIONS

English summary is about making passages or essays shorter.

• In order to write a summary;

➢ Read and understand the passage very well.

➢ Read and understand the questions.

➢ Skim through the passage to find possible answers to the questions.

➢ Summarize the possible answers to the possible answers you found (i.e. Make them shorter).

HOW TO WRITE A SUMMARY

✓ Locate the central idea of the possible answer you found to the question.

✓ If that answer has a clause or a phrase in it, you could make them shorter by replacing them with a
single word.

✓ Remove unnecessary phrases which only add extra information about the subject or object of the
sentence (modifiers).

✓ When writing out the answer do not give alternatives. It would only make the sentence longer.
NB: When writing a summary, do not lift answers directly from the passage as your answers. You won’t
gain any marks.

Also, please check your grammar. Your punctuations, spellings, capitalization, among others. So, the
summary of all you read is,

❖ Read and understand the passage or sentence you want to summarize.

❖ Eliminate modifiers.

❖ Substitute phrases and clauses with just a word.