What is a Summary?
A summary is a shorter
version of a long text. The question on summary writing usually tests the
learner on understanding. In other words, a summary is used to show that the
learner has understood a written material after reading it.
To test summary, the
examiner provides written material that the learner needs to read and
understand before summarizing it. Summary writing questions usually carries 4
marks.
How to write a summary:
1. Read the material to be summarized several times to ensure that you thoroughly understand
it.
2. Outline the major points expressed in the reading material. This can be done in point/note form.
3. Referring to the outlined points, write the
first draft of the summary while
eliminating any examples or illustrations given in the original text.
4. Avoid quoting the original text word to word while writing a summary. This
can be achieved by paraphrasing the original text in the summary.
5. The first draft of
the summary should be about a quarter of the original text in length
6. Avoid putting your
own ideas, opinions or interpretations while writing the summary. This calls
for careful use of words and phrases during paraphrasing
7. After drafting,
write the final copy of the summary after eliminating all the errors made in
the draft.
Note: Summary should be written in prose and not in point form. If the learner writes a summary in point form, a half to one mark is deducted from the total marks.
Read the passage below
and answer the questions that follow:
Africa is really a veritably continuing race and can use the available natural coffers for the betterment of life. The biggest challenge, still, is to identify ways and means of creating a terrain that's likely to encourage development in Africa. Maybe the topmost strategy would be to develop political structures and government institutions that can formulate and apply‘ genuine poverty relief strategies’. Executive arrangements that no longer serve our requirements should be caught or discarded altogether. Government should foster exploitation and operation of natural coffers by furnishing an enabling terrain. Having a stable government may not be effective if we don’t fight corruption. We should ensure that leaders and government agents come answerable to the taxpayer. The public should be educated on the ills of corruption. Those who have stolen public finances must be made to return them and face the full force of the law. Again, people who are known to have stockpiled plutocrats in foreign banks should be forced to repudiate that plutocrat to ameliorate cash inflow in our husbandry.
Piecemeal from this, Africa must find a way of working its internal conflicts without involving the transnational community. After all, we're all sisters with a common cause. The need to unite and live as a unitary state should be stressed as this overrides clan and ethnic rights or sentiments that energy enmity. The African Union should be strengthened to enable it to arbitrate intra and inter-state controversies. The performing piece will give a suitable terrain for profitable growth and set us on the road to recovery and substance. Another result would be to develop pastoral-grounded husbandry since the bulk of our population lives in pastoral areas. The diligence that process ranch yield and those that manufacture ranch inputs, ministry and tools should be located in the pastoral areas. Also, mining enterprises should establish processing shops near the mines. Similar diligence will naturally retain force from the position and accordingly, reduce the prevalence of pastoral-civic migration. Setting up diligence in the pastoral areas will bear the development of architectures that will open up pastoral areas for business. This will further, encourage expansion and increase food production to fight the imperishable food deficit in Africa. For case, the development of the dairy and beef processing assiduity in the pastoral areas will encourage sustainable beast keeping and presumably bring to an end loss of cattle to failure. Pastoral-grounded frugality will raise the income of the pastoral people and ground the difference between the rich and the poor.
We should also introduce applicable technology in the exploitation of natural coffers and in wealth creation. Since imported technologies are precious to maintain, Africa should tap original moxie to develop technologies applicable to our requirements. Homegrown technology should enable us to palliate Africa’s food security by exercising swash and lake water for irrigation and by employing wind and solar energy.
Incipiently, our profitable units similar to ECOWAS, SADC, and EAC should be converted into common requests by removing gratuitous tariffs on goods at the colourful entry point to realize the benefits of a common request. The people of Africa should continually seek a better life. We've the coffers; we've the force, and the capacity to make effects move.
Question: write a summary on the various ways of fostering development in African countries in not more than 50 words.
Rough draft
Creating an enabling environment.
Solving internal conflicts without involving the international community.
Fighting corruption.
Introducing appropriate technology in the exploitation of natural resources and
in wealth
creating.
Transforming economic units into common markets.
Fostering people who have stashed money in foreign banks to repatriate the
money.
Fair Draft
The government can
foster development in African countries by creating an enabling environment,
solving internal conflicts, fighting corruption, technologically exploiting
natural resources, transforming economic units into common markets and fostering
people who have stashed money in foreign banks to repatriate it. (Total Words 41)
Note the meaning of the following keywords in summary writing:
In about (a given
number) – means that the summary should contain words that are more or less
than the given number (add or remove 5 words from the given number)
Not more than (a given
number) – means that one should not exceed the given number of words at all.