3.1 Writing Skill - Summary writing

A summary is a clear , compact ,logical gist of a passage.It preserves only the essential or important ideas of the original.

Summary writing involves summarizing a document to convey the maximum information into minimum words.

Dos 

1)Read the passage carefully.

2)find out the central idea.

3) Pick out the sentences in the extract relevant to the central idea.

4) Convert the information given in these sentences in your own, simple, unambiguous language.

5) Write a suitable title.(Title should be in a word or phrase.)

Don'ts

1)Avoid the sentences as it is from the passage .

2) Avoid giving illustration, proverbs or quotations.

3) Avoid sentence construction like 'In my opinion....','According to me....','I think....'etc.

IMPORTANT

1)  Summary should be in one paragraph only.

2) Summary must be in the past tense.

3) It should be written in a third person.

4) It should be written in indirect narration.

5) Give a suitable title or heading  for summary.

Example 1-

          

           Stress is a twentieth century illness. The pressures on all of us are very great because speed and competition have become part of everyday life.Social isolation, over crowding, the competitiveness of our society and several other factors are responsible for stress. In English we refer to the competition as the 'rat-race'. All of us react to the rat race in different ways. Some of us get tired easily, others get depressed, others are often irritable or worried and so on. The rat race affects everybody in society from toddlers to senior citizens. There is always something that worries us. Sometimes the stresses on us are too great we fall out of the race and have a nervous breakdown. Extreme cases of illness can lead to suicide. There is hope because only some people crack while most others do not.

Ans- 

                                                                        Stress

                 Stress a twentieth century illness, is caused due to social isolation, over crowding or competitive society. This competition is referred to as a 'rat race'. While some people can cope others get depressed, irritable or tired. It affects both young and old. Some may have nervous breakdowns while the extreme cases commit suicide.

Example 2-

                University life is a co-operative enterprise between teachers and students and I do hope that the students will not do a disservice to themselves by resorting to activities which are anti-social in character.
                Character is destiny. Character is that on which the destiny of a nation is built. One cannot have a great nation with men of small character. We must have young men and women who look upon others as the living images of themselves as our Sastras have so often declared. But whether in public life or student life we cannot reach great heights if we are lacking in character. We cannot climb the mountain when the very ground at our feet is crumbling. When the very basis of our structure is shaky, how can we reach heights which we have set before ourselves? We must all have humility. Here is a country which we are interested in building up. For whatever service we take up, we should not care for what we receive. We should know how much we can put into that service. That should be the principle which should animate our young men and women. Ours is a great country. We have had for centuries great history. The whole of the East reflects our culture. We have to represent what India taught right from the time of Mohenjodaro and Harappa.

              Whether in domestic affairs or in international affairs we must adhere to certain standards. My advice to the young men and women who are graduating today through this University is: Mother India expects of you that your lives should be clean, noble and dedicated to selfless work.

Ans-

                                                            Character is Destiny

 According to the writer university life calls for co-operation between teachers and students in building the characters of students which in turn helps to develop the destiny of the country. A country can not achieve greatness with men of weak characters. An essential criteria is humility which enables an individual to be selfless, dedicated and noble. These traits are necessary for developing a great country.

Marking scheme : 

Title                                               1mk

Presentation                                1mk

Covering main points with

 style and grammar                    1mk

                          -------------------------------------

                                                        3 mks