Question 2 Skills: How to summarise (Edexcel IGCSE English Language A)
Revision Note
Written by: Deb Orrock
Reviewed by: Kate Lee
Question 2 on Paper 1 of your IGCSE tests you on your ability to understand and use explicit and implicit information in a text, and to summarise that information in your own words.
The sections below will explain what summarising is and how to summarise information successfully:
What is summarising?
How to summarise in the exam
Summarising in continuous form
What is summarising?
Summarising is an important literacy skill, useful not just for your IGCSE in English Language. When you summarise, you are expressing the most important facts or ideas from a text in shortened form, using your own words. A summary should effectively explain all of the important information in a text in a clear and concise way, taking only the information that is directly relevant and ignoring less important details.
The key elements of a summary are:
Objectivity: a summary sticks to the facts and is unbiased
Concision: a summary should condense the important information, leaving out unnecessary detail
Structure: a summary should be well-organised, preferably in chronological order, so that it is as clear as possible
Accurate: the information provided in a summary needs to be correct and reliable
The summary you have to produce in your exam for Question 2 needs to get across the information the examiner requires in a clear and accurate way. This means that you need to distinguish between the important information and the irrelevant information in the text. However, while summarising as a skill normally allows direct repetition of the words in a text, for this task in the exam you are asked to write in your own words as far as possible. In this way, this task is actually a combination of summarising and paraphrasing, which means rearranging a text and putting it into your own words.
How to summarise in the exam
To complete this task effectively in the exam, it is essential that you understand exactly what you are being asked to summarise. For example:
Exam question | What you need to do |
|---|---|
In your own words, explain the writer’s thoughts and feelings. | Here, you are being asked to summarise:
|
Once you have identified what you have to summarise, you should read the specified lines of the text carefully and highlight the information that is directly relevant.
Text | Important information (relevant to the focus of the question) |
|---|---|
The knowledge that my mother was on the side of the girls I saw sneering and shaking their little heads was deflating. I no longer believe that it was an innocent remark. I think Win did want to knock me off my pedestal. Win’s praise was never, ever unqualified. She could always see my insecurities and find little ways to prick at them, make them flare. It was almost an instinct for her. It became obvious that my brother, David, was not as temperamentally suited to school as I was. Win even told me, very solemnly, that it was a great shame I was the one who shone, because doing well at school was so much more important for a boy. I remember the moment so well. I was utterly speechless. The observation seemed so cruelly unfair. To me and to all girls. | The writer’s thoughts and feelings:
|
Summarising in continuous form
Normally, when you summarise from a text, you can choose the most appropriate format in which to present your information, such as a list or in bullet points. However, in the exam, you are asked to use your own words and you are expected to write in full and complete sentences.
A good way to do this is to make sure you use the words “think” or “feel” in each of your points. For example:
It is also useful to make good use of connectives in order to link your points, to give a sense of overall coherence to your answer. For example:
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Ensure that you cover all of the important points, and avoid any unnecessary information, such as analysing the writer’s use of language or structure. This won’t gain you any marks.
A full model answer to Question 2 can be found in Question 2: Model Answer.
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