What you'll learn
Summary is the most reliably examined skill in Communication Studies and the one most students underestimate, because reducing a passage without distorting it is harder than it looks. This topic covers what a summary is and what it must exclude, the process for producing one to a word limit, the difference between paraphrasing, quoting and plagiarism, formats for note-making and when each suits, and synthesis — combining material from several sources into one connected account. Summary appears in Paper 1, and synthesis is what your portfolio exposition is built from.
Key terms and definitions
Summary — a shortened account giving only the main ideas of a text, in your own words.
Précis — a summary reduced to a set proportion of the original, traditionally about a third.
Paraphrase — a restatement of a passage in your own words at roughly the same length, used to clarify rather than shorten.
Quotation — the exact words of a source, enclosed in quotation marks and attributed.
Plagiarism — presenting another person's words or ideas as your own, whether copied or paraphrased without acknowledgement.
Note-making — recording information selectively in a form useful for later recall or use.
Linear notes — notes in sequence, using headings, indentation and numbering.
Mind map — notes arranged radially around a central idea, showing relationships.
Cornell notes — a page divided into cue, note and summary sections.
Tabular notes — information in a grid, used to compare sources or cases.
Synthesis — combining information from several sources into one connected account organised by idea.
Redundancy — repetition and padding that can be removed without loss of meaning.
Generalisation — replacing several specific instances with one term that covers them.
Coherence — the quality of a text whose parts connect and follow logically.
Core concepts
What a summary is, and what it excludes
A summary keeps the main ideas and discards everything else. What goes:
- Examples and illustrations. Retain the point they illustrate, not the illustration.
- Repetition. Writers restate for emphasis; a summary states once.
- Direct quotation and dialogue. Report the substance instead.
- Figurative language. Convert the image into the plain meaning it conveys.
- Statistics and minor detail, unless the figure is itself a main point.
- The writer's asides and qualifications, unless they change the argument.
- Your own opinion. A summary reports; it does not comment or evaluate.
That last exclusion is the one most often breached. Adding "this is a convincing argument" to a summary is not a small addition; it changes the task.
The process
Read the whole passage first without writing. You cannot judge what is central until you know where the argument ends.
Identify the main idea of each paragraph, usually its topic sentence. Underline or note it.
Check for paragraphs that carry no new idea — some exist only to illustrate or restate the previous one, and their content collapses into it.
Write the ideas as a list in your own words, not in the writer's phrasing.
Join the list into continuous prose, using connectives that preserve the original logic. If the writer argued X, however Y, a summary reading X and Y has misrepresented them.
Count and cut to the limit. Remove adjectives and adverbs first, then any example that survived, then combine sentences.
Check for distortion. A summary that is accurate about details but misrepresents the writer's overall position has failed.
Word limits
Where a limit is given it is a requirement, not a suggestion. Exceeding it is penalised, and so is falling far short, which usually indicates that main ideas have been omitted.
Write freely first, then cut. Cutting is easier than expanding, and expanding a thin summary tends to reintroduce the detail you were meant to exclude. Count words honestly, including short ones.
Own words, and the boundary with plagiarism
A summary must be in your own words. Copying phrases from the passage, even short ones, is penalised, and stringing together the writer's sentences with a few connectives is not a summary at all.
Paraphrase restates in your own words at similar length; summary restates in your own words at much shorter length; quotation reproduces the exact words with quotation marks and attribution. All three are legitimate in their place, and all three except quotation still require the source to be acknowledged when used in a portfolio.
Technical terms with no ordinary equivalent — creolisation, acrolect, remittances — may be retained. There is no way to paraphrase them without distortion, and doing so is not plagiarism.
Note-making formats
The format should suit the material and the use you will make of it.
Linear notes — headings, indentation, numbering — suit material that is already sequential, such as a chapter or a process. They are quick and familiar, but they show hierarchy poorly and relationships not at all.
Mind maps place the central idea in the middle with branches outward. They show relationships well and suit brainstorming and revision, but they hold detail badly and are hard to follow if you did not make them.
Cornell notes divide the page into a narrow cue column, a wide note area and a summary strip at the foot. Notes are taken in the main area, cues and questions added in the margin afterwards, and the summary written last. The format is designed for later self-testing, which makes it strong for revision.
Tabular notes arrange material in a grid — sources down the side, criteria across the top. They are the best format for comparing several sources or cases, and they make synthesis substantially easier because the comparison is already visible.
Whatever format you use, record the source with the notes. Notes whose origin you cannot identify are unusable in a portfolio.
Synthesis
Synthesis combines material from several sources into one connected account. It is not a series of summaries placed end to end.
The organising principle is the difference. A sequence of summaries is organised by source: what the first says, then the second, then the third. A synthesis is organised by idea: each paragraph takes one idea and draws on whichever sources address it.
The process: read all sources; identify the ideas that recur; group material under each idea regardless of which source it came from; write one paragraph per idea, attributing briefly as you go; and note where sources agree, disagree or address different aspects.
Disagreement between sources is not a problem to be smoothed over. Reporting that two sources conflict, and saying what the conflict rests on, is stronger than presenting a false consensus.
Coherence
A summary or synthesis must read as one continuous piece, not as fragments. Connectives carry the logic — however, consequently, by contrast, in addition — and choosing the wrong one misrepresents the relationship between ideas. Pronouns must have clear referents, and tense should stay consistent.
The test is whether someone who has not read the sources can follow the account without confusion. If they cannot, the fault is coherence, not content.
Worked examples
Example 1: Deciding what to cut
Question: "Explain what should be omitted from a summary and why." (8 marks)
Outline. Examples and illustrations go, because the summary retains the point they were introduced to demonstrate. Repetition goes, since a writer restating for emphasis needs stating once. Quotation and dialogue go, replaced by the substance in your own words. Figurative language is converted to plain meaning, since the image is a device rather than a separate idea. Minor statistics and detail go unless a figure is itself a main point. Above all, your own opinion and evaluation are excluded, because a summary reports what the writer said and adding judgement changes the task into something else. Conclude that the test throughout is whether removing the material loses an idea or only loses illustration.
Example 2: Summary versus synthesis
Question: "Distinguish between summarising and synthesising, with an example." (8 marks)
Outline. Summarising reduces one text to its main ideas in your own words. Synthesising combines several texts into one connected account organised by idea rather than by source. Example: three articles on Caribbean migration. A set of summaries would report what article one says, then article two, then article three. A synthesis would take an idea such as economic push factors and draw on all three within a single paragraph, then take a second idea such as the effect on households and do the same, attributing briefly throughout and noting where the sources disagree. The distinction is the organising principle — by source in the first case, by idea in the second — and only the second demonstrates that the material has been genuinely integrated.
Example 3: Handling own words
Question: "A student's summary reproduces several phrases from the original passage. Explain why this is a problem and how it should be corrected." (6 marks)
Outline. It fails the requirement that a summary be in the student's own words, and it demonstrates location of the main ideas rather than understanding of them; where the source is external and unacknowledged it also constitutes plagiarism. The correction is to read the passage, set it aside, and write the ideas from memory, checking afterwards for accuracy rather than composing with the original in view. Add the legitimate exception: technical terms with no ordinary equivalent may be retained, since paraphrasing them would distort the meaning.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Including your own opinion. A summary reports. Evaluation belongs elsewhere.
Copying phrases from the original. Write from memory with the passage set aside, then check for accuracy.
Retaining examples. Keep the point, drop the illustration.
Losing the logical relationship between ideas. If the original argued however, the summary must not say and.
Exceeding or falling far short of the word limit. Both are penalised; the second usually means ideas are missing.
Producing summaries in sequence and calling it synthesis. Organise by idea, not by source.
Smoothing over disagreement between sources. Report the conflict and what it rests on.
Taking notes without recording the source. Notes you cannot attribute are unusable in a portfolio.
How this links to your School-Based Assessment
The exposition is a synthesis. It draws on several sources to present a coherent account of your theme, and organising it by source rather than by idea is the commonest structural weakness in submitted portfolios.
Tabular notes are worth the effort here. Setting sources down one side and the ideas they address across the top makes the synthesis nearly write itself, because the grouping is already done and the gaps in coverage are visible.
Two further points. Attribute as you write rather than adding references afterwards, since reconstructing which idea came from where is slow and error-prone. And retain your notes: where a marker questions a claim, being able to trace it to a recorded source resolves the matter immediately.
Exam technique for summarising, note-making and synthesis
Read the whole passage before writing anything. Judgements about what is central cannot be made from the first paragraph.
Work from the topic sentences. They carry the main ideas and locating them is most of the task.
Write from memory, then check. Composing with the passage in view produces copied phrasing almost automatically.
Watch the connectives. They carry the writer's logic, and substituting one for another misrepresents the argument even when every idea is retained.
Count words and respect the limit. Cut adjectives first, then surviving examples, then combine sentences.
For synthesis questions, state your organising idea at the start of each paragraph so the structure is visible.
Quick revision summary
A summary gives only the main ideas of a text in your own words, excluding examples, repetition, quotation, figurative language, minor detail and — above all — your own opinion. Produce one by reading the whole passage, identifying each paragraph's main idea, listing those ideas in your own words, joining them into prose with connectives that preserve the original logic, and cutting to the word limit. Copying phrases fails the own-words requirement and, with an unacknowledged external source, constitutes plagiarism; technical terms with no ordinary equivalent may be retained. Paraphrase restates at similar length, summary at much shorter length, and quotation reproduces exact words with attribution. Note-making formats should suit the purpose: linear for sequential material, mind maps for relationships and revision, Cornell for later self-testing, tabular for comparing sources. Synthesis differs from a set of summaries in its organising principle — by idea rather than by source — and disagreement between sources should be reported rather than smoothed away.