Lesson 6: Sample Summary Practice and Evaluation

🟦 Introduction

You’ve now learned all the essential skills for summary writing: identifying key points, paraphrasing effectively, avoiding unnecessary content, organizing ideas, and writing coherent summaries.

In this lesson, you’ll:

• Practise with a full-length WASSCE-style passage

• Write your own six-sentence summary

• Compare it to a model answer

• Learn how to self-evaluate and improve your summary writing

🟩 Key Concepts Recap Before You Begin

✅ Main Idea: What is the passage saying overall?
✅ Supporting Detail: Which ideas explain, expand, or illustrate the main idea?
✅ Paraphrasing: Rewrite ideas in your own words.
✅ Redundancy/Irrelevance: Remove repetition and off-topic points.
✅ Organization: Arrange points logically and group related ideas.
✅ Clarity: One clear idea per sentence.

🧭 Sample Summary Task (WASSCE Style)

Summary Instruction:

Read the passage carefully and summarize the causes and effects of rural-urban migration in six sentences.

📘 Sample Passage:

“Rural-urban migration continues to be a major trend in many developing countries. People move from rural areas to cities in search of better job opportunities, access to education, and improved health care. Some are drawn by the excitement and perceived lifestyle of urban living. However, this movement has several consequences. Urban centers become overcrowded, leading to a shortage of housing and basic services such as water and electricity. Traffic congestion worsens, and public transport systems become strained. On the other hand, rural areas suffer from labour shortages, reduced agricultural productivity, and economic decline as young people leave in large numbers. The growing imbalance between urban and rural populations also creates political and development challenges.”

📝 Your Task:

Write six well-structured sentences summarizing the causes and effects of rural-urban migration based on the passage above.

✏️ Try it first before viewing the model answer below!

✅ Model Summary Answer:

1. Rural-urban migration is driven by the search for better jobs.

2. Access to education and health care also attracts rural dwellers to cities.

3. The appeal of urban lifestyle encourages movement from rural areas.

4. Cities become overcrowded, resulting in housing and utility shortages.

5. Transportation systems are stressed by increased population.

6. Rural communities suffer labour shortages and economic decline due to migration.

🟨 Notice:

• One sentence = one idea

• No repetition

• Clear paraphrasing

• Logical order: Causes → Effects

🟨 Self-Evaluation Checklist

🧪 Practice More (Homework Option)

Prompt:
Read a news article about climate change, technology in education, or youth unemployment.

• Identify the main causes or effects.

• Write a five-sentence summary using the principles from this module.

• Use the checklist to evaluate your work.

🔁 Recap

This lesson helped you:

• Apply your summary skills to a full-length task

• Practice organizing your ideas into six effective sentences

• Learn how to self-assess and improve your summaries

• Prepare for the actual WASSCE format

🪞 Reflection Prompt

Which part of summary writing do you find most difficult:

• Identifying points?

• Paraphrasing?

• Organizing ideas?
  What will you do this week to practise that skill before your exam?