Summarising & Synthesis (Years 7–11) — English

Learn to condense a text into its key points in your own words, and to combine information drawn from more than one place.

A summary is a text squeezed to its essence: all the important juice, none of the pulp. Summarising and synthesis test whether you can spot what truly matters and express it clearly and briefly.

Why this matters Cambridge reading papers include a directed summary task worth a large share of marks. Success depends on selecting relevant points, dropping detail, and using your own words. It is also a life skill: reporting the gist of a long message accurately.

Selecting the key points

Start by asking: what is this text really about? Read with the question in mind and pick only points that answer it. A passage about a park might mention benches, birdsong, a café and litter. If the question asks about problems in the park, you select only the litter and ignore the pleasant details, however interesting they are.

Using your own words

A strong summary rephrases rather than copies. If the text says "the ancient oak provided welcome shade for weary walkers", you might write the old tree shaded tired visitors. Changing the wording proves you understood the idea rather than simply lifting it.

Swap words for synonyms where you can.
Combine two short points into one neat sentence.
Cut examples, repetition and description.

Synthesis: joining information

Synthesis goes one step further: you gather points from different parts of a text, or from two texts, and weave them together. Suppose one paragraph says a library is quiet and another says it has free study rooms. Synthesising, you write: the library suits students because it is peaceful and offers free space to work. You have joined separate facts into a single, useful statement.

Keeping it concise

Watch your word count. A summary that runs on is not a summary. Aim for tight sentences, no opinions of your own, and no quoting long stretches. If you can remove a word without losing meaning, remove it. The best summaries are short, accurate and entirely in your own voice.

Choosing what survives the squeeze

Summary marks are lost by including interesting-but-irrelevant detail. Everything is judged against the question, not against how good the detail is.

In the passage about the park	Question: “What are the problems in the park?”
Litter left across the grass	Keep — it answers the question
Benches in the shade	Cut — pleasant, but not a problem
Birdsong in the morning	Cut — pleasant, but not a problem
A café by the gate	Cut — pleasant, but not a problem

Putting it in your own words

The text says	You write
“the ancient oak provided welcome shade for weary walkers”	the old tree shaded tired visitors

Rephrasing is not decoration — it is the evidence that you understood rather than copied.

Common exam mistake: Lifting whole phrases straight from the text instead of rephrasing them. Copying "the ancient oak provided welcome shade" word for word earns far less credit than writing "the old tree shaded visitors" in your own words, even though the meaning is identical.

Exam technique: Before you write, list only the points that answer the question asked — ignore anything true but irrelevant. A summary about "problems" in a park should never mention the pretty flowerbeds, however nice they sound.