Study Hub for CXC English A & B

Your summary writing skills are tested on Section A of the English A examination. You are given 40 minutes to write a summary of no more than 120 words.  Below are several tips you can apply as you prepare your summary piece for the English A                  examination. Read ALL instructions that are connected to Section A and adhere to them. Read the passage at least twice. The first reading is for you to get an overall understanding of the extract's focus and the other readings should allow you to identify the main idea and its supporting points. As you read, pay attention to how the extract is organised. For example: Is the passage aimed at presenting cause, effects and solutions associated with a specific topic? Since the passage focuses on a general topic, what does each paragraph highlight about it? Underline key sentences and make jottings as you work on identifying the main idea and su pporting details. You ca...

  CXC highlights that summary writing involves two processes: information gathering and information giving . Information gathering includes reading, identifying, interpreting and  selecting what is necessary. Information giving includes combining, organizing and writing the  ideas that have been selected. Over the years, CXC has made several observations about the summaries that students have  produced. These are areas of concern that you should do all you can to avoid. They have been  outlined below. AREAS OF CONCERN *   The information is misinterpreted by some students. Where students misinterpret the content of the original extract, they write a summary that includes details that were not in the given extract.  *    Although paraphrasing is required when writing a summary, some students lift chunks of texts according to CXC. This means they use sentences or phrases verbatim (word for word) from the passage.This is a ...