Summarising a Text

What is a summary?

A summary tells the most important points of a text in just a few words. 📝 It is like squeezing a big sponge — you keep the water (the big ideas) and let the rest drip away.

Keep the big, drop the small

When you summarise, you sort the ideas:

• Keep the big, important ideas. ⭐
• Drop the small extra details. 🗑️

You do not copy the whole text. You shrink it down to what matters most.

Three handy questions

To find the big ideas, ask yourself:

1. Who or what is it about?
2. What happened or what is the main point?
3. Why does it matter?

Answer those and you have your summary.

Try it

Read this paragraph:

Every morning, Mr Ray the postman fills his big red bag with letters and parcels. He cycles up steep hills and down long lanes. He waves to the children and gives biscuits to friendly dogs. By lunchtime, every letter is delivered. 🚲✉️

Now squeeze it down:

Mr Ray the postman delivers all the letters every morning.

You kept the big idea (he delivers the post) and dropped the small details (the hills, the biscuits, the waving).

More examples

Longer text	Short summary
Bees visit flowers, collect nectar and make honey in the hive	Bees make honey from nectar 🐝
Rain fell for days, the river rose and the town flooded	Heavy rain caused a flood 🌧️

Use your own words 🗣️

A summary should be in your own words. If you only copy, it shows you have not really understood. Saying it your way proves you got the idea.

Play and practise

Play the matching game to pair each passage with its best summary. Then flip the flashcards to remember the keep-and-drop rule.

Keep going

Try these next:

• Find the big idea first: Finding the Main Idea
• Retell a whole story: Retelling a Story

Now you can squeeze any text into a neat little summary! 🌟