Worksheet 2 – Summary Writing

Decide whether each of the following statements about writing summary of an article is true
of false. Give your reasons in the space provided.

1. The title is not important because it is too short to tell what exactly the article is about.

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2. Attention should be paid to any subtitle and subheading because they give a quick
reference of the main points of the article.

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3. An outline is useless for summary writing because the summary is already short.

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4. To retain the full meaning, a big portion of the summary has to repeat the exact words
used in the original article.

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5. A summary needs not be overly detailed because its purpose is to reduce the content of
the original material.

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6. Transitional devices like “so”, “but”, “however”, “on the contrary” should be avoided
because they lengthen the summary unnecessarily.

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7. Begin the summary with expressions like “the author says…” so that readers will
immediately know who wrote the original article.

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8. Expressions like “another good point made by the author…”, “the article failed to…”
should be used to help readers decide whether they will read the original article.

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CC2040 English for Academic Studies (Health Care) – Study Guide