Summarising follows note-making. The purpose of note-making is usually | Class 11 English Notes

Summarising

Summarising is a writing skill that follows note-making and involves condensing the main points of a text into a shorter form while retaining the essential information. Unlike note-making, which is usually for personal reference and is highly abridged, summarising is meant for reporting the main ideas to others and is less severely shortened. The process of summarising involves selecting and paraphrasing all important information from the original source by carefully analysing the paragraphs or passage to formulate a coherent plan for writing. The steps involved in summarising are similar to those in note-making: first, underline important ideas; second, write them down, abridging verbs; and third, avoid examples, explanations, and repetition. However, in summarising, instead of nominalising points by changing verbs into nouns, the points are expanded into full sentences and linked using suitable connectors to maintain flow and clarity. Precision in expression is essential, and the summary should include all the main ideas of the original text. Practising the use of one word to replace many words helps in making summaries concise and effective. For example, the sentence 'Children who show intelligence far beyond their age often turn out to be mediocre in adult life' can be summarised as 'Precocious children often turn out to be mediocre in adult life.' Similarly, 'Her genius was marked by excellence in the various arts, languages and science' can be summarised as 'She was a versatile genius.' These examples illustrate how summarising involves condensing information without losing meaning.

📊 Diagram: No diagrams are provided in this section.

🧪 Activity: Practice underlining important words in a passage and writing notes before attempting a summary.

🔗 Connection: This section introduces summarising as a skill building on note-making, leading to practical application in the following example passages.