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THE ROLE OF MACROSTRUCTURES IN COMPLEX INFORMATION REDUCTION 

 

Juliana Chinwe Njoku 

Department of English Language and Literature 

Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri 

Email: juliananjoku3@gmail.com 

 

Abstract 

Complex information reduction refers to the recapitulation of the salient facts from a long text or 

discourse. It is akin to writing a summary. This paper therefore, examines the role of macrostructures 

in producing summaries. Macrostructures are said to be the global textual structures that form the 

global meaning of a text. They deal with the overall topic, the theme and the schematic organization 

of discourses or texts, they represent the gist of an entire text. Macrostructures are obtained by the 

application of transformational rules on the micro propositions of a text. These transformational rules 

are called macro-rules and they include: deletion, use of super-ordinate terms, selection and invention. 

These rules represent the cognitive operations that occur in complex information reduction. 

Developing the skills for writing summaries is very important. The skills are needed in school for 

general academic work and for research purposes. The skills are also needed in most professional 

fields in life after school. This paper submits that effective summary skills can be developed if the 

principles underlying macrostructures are followed. The paper is hinged on macrostructures of 

discourse, a model for summarization proposed by kintsch and van Dijk in 1978, and later expanded 

by Brown and Day in 1983. 

Keywords: Complex Information, Summary, Text, Macrostructures, Micro propositions 

 

Introduction 

Thorough comprehension is a pre-requisite for summary writing. People read for different purposes. 

The task or the assignment (purpose) for reading any given text can influence the reading activity. A 

student whose reading task is to summarize a particular text, has to understand the text thoroughly 

before he/she can respond intelligently to his/her given task. 

 

A text can be simple or complex. Complexity or non-complexity of a text can be measured by its 

length, component parts, level and use of language, readability, comprehensibility and organizational 

structure. These can affect the comprehension and interpretation of a text. 

 

As a text is read, a cognitive load is placed on the reader who decodes and interprets the text and 

incorporates the textual propositions into his/her knowledge base. The reader who successfully 

comprehends a text, builds a representation of it in his/her memory, which activates other related 

information already stored. To facilitate these retention and recall processes, macrostructures are 

required. This is because, a reader may not be able to store and retrieve all the single propositions in 

the text, but he/she can understand the text as a “whole” and give a summary of it by constructing 

macrostructures out of the sequences of propositions that make up the text. This in essence reduces 

the highly complex information to a manageable size. 

 

Macrostructures are used to express the global meaning of a text. They are obtained by semantic 

mappings (transformations) applied to the local sentential meanings of the text/discourse. These 

mappings are called macro-rules and they include: deletion, use of super-ordinate terms, selection and 

invention. These macro-rules represent the cognitive processes that operate in (complex) information 

reduction. 

 

Clarification of Concepts 

 

Complex Information 

The word “complex” denotes having many parts that is, being made up of various interconnected 

parts. It should not be confused with the word “complicated” which connotes being difficult. This 

means that something can be complex without being difficult (web.dictionary.co). Information on the 



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other hand is knowledge communicated either in verbal or written form, on a particular topic, idea or 

circumstance. Hence, complex information can be said to be a group of inter-related ideas that form a 

single whole. 

 

Slamecka refers to information as “facts and opinions provided and received during the course of 

daily life” (web.np). According to him, one can obtain information from various sources: mass media, 

electronic data banks, books, letters, documents and even during discourse. Information organized 

according to some logical relationship is referred to as a body of knowledge, to be acquired by 

systematic exposure or study. The operations of summary are based on already existing document 

usually referred to as a text. Anderson and Hidi support this by stating that “summary is based on 

material that has already been written” (26). A text can be simple or complex based on certain 

parameters such as: text type, language use, readability, organizational structure and so on. Thus, one 

can understand the term “complex information”. 

 

The Concept of a Text 

Crystal defines a text as “a stretch of language spoken or written, collected for the purpose of analysis 

and description” (481). He further avers that “texts are language units which have definable 

communicative functions, characterized by such principles as cohesion, coherence and 

informativeness; which can be used to identify what constitutes their textuality or texture” (Crystal, 

482). Halliday and Hassan also see a text as “a unit of language in use” which can be “any passage, 

spoken or written, of whatever length, that does form a unified whole” (12). Longe (126) reiterates the 

fact that the passage so to speak, must contain cohesive devices to qualify as a text. 

 

Beaugrand and Dressler defined a text as a “communicative occurrence which meets seven standards 

of textuality” (3). These seven standards of textuality include: intentionality, acceptability, 

informativity, situationality, inter-textuality, cohesion and coherence. According to them, any natural 

text, whatever ‘type’ it belongs to, shares these same characteristics. Text is sometimes used 

interchangeably with discourse. However, some linguists make a distinction between text and 

discourse. Van Dijk for example, sees text as “a theoretical conception related to a language user’s 

competence, and discourse as a general term for examples of language use, i.e. language that has been 

produced as the result of an act of communication” (25). Similarly, Wang and Guo see discourse as “a 

coherent combination of sentences or sentence fragments that is a result of communication interacted 

between participants, whether speaker or listener, or writer and reader; while text only refers to 

written discourse” (460). From the above definitions, it is obvious that a text can be written or spoken. 

The focus of this paper is on the written text and how it can be summarized. 

 

As said earlier, a text can be simple or complex. Learning A – Z, citing The Common Core State 

Standards, define “text complexity as a metric that determines how challenging a material is for a 

child at their specific grade level” (1). According to them, three factors are used to determine the 

complexity of a text. They are: qualitative measures, quantitative measures and considerations relating 

to the reader and the task, all of which have to be related on the basis of grade-level appropriateness. 

 

Learning A – Z, citing CCSS further states that qualitative measures examine text attributes that can 

only be evaluated by the person who is reading the book or passage. The reader is required to consider 

such factors as:  

1. Levels of meaning 

2. Clarity and convention of language use 

3. Knowledge demands 

4. Structural organization of the text and  

5. Visual complexity 

 

Levels of Meaning: This is concerned with, if the purpose is explicitly stated or vague, and if the text 

has a single level meaning or multiple meanings. Clarity and convention of language use considers: 

If the language is clear or vague and purposefully misleading; if the language is contemporary and 



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familiar or unfamiliar and achaic; if the language of the text is conversational or academic; and if the 

text is cohesive or lack cohesion. 

 

Knowledge Demands consider if the text has a single theme or multiple themes; whether the text 

deals with common everyday experiences, or present experiences that are likely vastly different from 

those of the intended readers; and whether the text is presented from a single or multiple perspectives. 

Structural organization considers how the text is organized: chronologically or in another logical 

pattern; if the text is arranged with complex and loosely connected content and whether the sections in 

the text are clearly labeled. 

 

Visual complexity considers whether the graphical devices in the text are relatively simple and helps 

the student to understand the material being read, or whether they are complex and for “show”. 

 

Learning A – Z further avers that, quantitative measures are what teachers rely upon to determine 

the difficulty of a text. They consider the following: length of the text, sentence length and number of 

difficult or unfamiliar words. Finally, considerations relating to the reader and the task constitute 

the third vital component. In this case, each reader brings different skills, background, and motivation 

to the act of reading, for instance, a student who is interested in the topic being read is likely to bring 

more background knowledge to the reading task and want to learn more. The importance of the 

assignment itself can also influence reading activity. For example, a student who reads for leisure or 

skims an article for a piece of information, places less demand on the reading task, than a student who 

is reading to summarize. 

 

Summary as a Concept 

Summary has been given many definitions by various scholars. Eyisi defines summary as “a concise, 

clear, logical and readable presentation of a longer passage, giving only the major points” (65). 

According to her, when a story or an account of anything is shortened or abridged so that only the 

relevant issues are preserved, the story or account is said to have been summarized. 

 

Norisma, Sapiyan and Rukaini define summary as “a condensed version of an existing text” (180). 

According to them, summary skills involve processes such as reading and understanding the content 

of a text, identifying the most important information in the text and producing a shorter version of it. 

Ikonta and Ugbede also aver that summary is an aspect of writing that represent “a short-to-the point 

distillation of the main ideas in a text” (2). The key points are noted without examples and the 

vocabulary may change, but the main ideas remain.Cismako also sees summary as “getting rid of 

smaller details and leaving only the primary points” (1). Similarly, Azikiwe defines summary as 

“clearly and concisely writing out identified main points and ideas to give the gist of a passage” (162). 

Geatz and Pladke see summary as “presenting a shortened version of the original work in one’s own 

words” (259). According to them, when you summarize, you condense a text to its key ideas. 

Reducing a long work to its bare essentials requires that you fully understand the message of the text. 

It also helps you understand the massage of the text. It also helps you understand how ideas are 

organized in a text. 

 

From the above definitions, we can deduce that, a person involved in summary writing must read a 

passage, understand it thoroughly and replace it with a shorter version that contains the same 

information as the original but in a compressed form. Only the main points identified would be 

included in the summary. Summary is not a re-write of the original piece, rather the writer uses his/her 

own words to express briefly the main ideas and relevant points in the piece he/she has read. The 

purpose of writing a summary is to give the basic ideas of the original reading. 

 

To qualify for a good summary, the summary has to be concise, clear, coherent and true to the original 

text. The idea of conciseness is to cut verbiage without sacrificing meaning. So, the writer has to 

briefly present, the information required in a few words as possible. Clarity is hallmark of effective 

summary. It involves choosing words deliberately, constructing sentences carefully, to convey exactly 

the meaning you want. Ambiguous and vague words are enemies of clarity.  



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Coherence requires that the different parts that make up the summary stick together. Being true to the 

original text means that personal opinion, information from external sources, no matter how related 

they may be to the content, must not be included in the summary. The summary must retain only the 

information contained in the original reading. 

 

The Concept of Macrostructure 

Macrosturcture is a semantic construct, concerned with discourse production and comprehension. It is 

used to represent the overall or global meaning of discourse. According to Louwerse and Graesser, the 

term macrostructure for global principles of text organization was first proposed by Bierwisch in 

1965, for narrative structures in literary texts, as evidenced in her work “Poetic und Linguistik”. Later 

some scholars proposed similar narrative grammars as in Labov and Waletzky’s “Narrative Analysis: 

Oral Version of Personal Experiences” in 1967; and Trodov’s “Poetique de la Prose” in 1971. In fact, 

“the development of the concept of macrostructure should be seen against the background of the 

development of narrative structures” (Louwerse and Graesser, 5). 

 

Very much later, the term became established in “text linguistics”. It was introduced by Van Dijk in 

1972 in his work “Some aspects of text grammars: A study of theoretical linguistics and poetics”. Van 

Dijk further explored the notion of macrostructures in 1977 in his book Text and Content explorations 

in the semantics and pragmatics of discourse. Later in 1978, the semantic construct was developed 

into psychological notions of discourse comprehension by Kintsch and Van Dijk in their work 

“Towards a model of text comprehension and production”.  

 

According to them, macrostructures are global textual structures that form the global meaning of a 

text. They are created by the application of macro-rules to a sequence of propositions derived from a 

text; which results to a set of macro propositions that form the gist of the text. Louwerse and Graesser 

posit that “Macrostructures are abstract semantic descriptions of the semantic content of a text, similar 

to a text’s global meaning and theme, thus providing global coherence” (4). They further aver that 

macrostructures being higher level properties of sequences of propositions cannot be identified at the 

surface level of the text. However, some indicators of macro propositions can be identified such as 

titles of texts, sub-titles, and topic sentences which occur either at the beginning or end of a paragraph 

and so on. 

 

Similarly, Van Dijk states that, macrostructures refer to the essence of the text; that is, the topic or 

thesis being exposed in the text. Macrostructures specify what a discourse, as a whole, “is about”; not 

by enumerating the meaning of all the sentences that make up the text, but by applying certain rules 

that reduce complex information. For instance, from a long and complex sequence of propositions of a 

story such as: 

Mary took a taxi… She arrived at the airport … She walked to the check-in counter of Air France… 

There was a long queue … She saw an old friend and … She ate a sandwich … She was later checked-

in … 

 

We may infer the “global” meaning or macroproposition as Mary flew to Paris. 

TEXTOPEDIA also aver that macrostructures explain how and why language users produce a ‘gist’ 

of what they have heard or read; not only for complex information. Macrostructures are necessary to 

organize, reduce and manage such complex information. 

The diagrammatic illustrations below differentiate macrostructures from microstructures. 

1.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                        

Macrostructures of Texts 

Macropropositions  

They support the general ideas 

of the text. They are also 

known as the main ideas 

Micropropositions  

They support the 

macropropositions. They 

are also known as 

secondary ideas 



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Deletion  

Generalization   

2. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theoretical Framework 

This paper is hinged on semantic macrostructures of discourse, a model for generation of recall and 

summarization proposed by Kintsch and van Dijk in 1978. According to them, the operation of the 

macrostructure is to reduce the information in a text base to its gist. Macrostructures are obtained by 

the application of macro-rules on the sequences of the micro propositions of the text, to get at the 

‘macro’ or global meaning. Kintsch and van Dijk proposed three Macro-rules namely: Deletion, 

generalization and construction. 

 

The rule of deletion demands that propositions that are not relevant to the meaning of the text, should 

be deleted. Non-relevance here means that the particular act is not a condition for the other acts that 

follow in the sequence. Consider this example: The clever students who won the competition are from 

the South East.In this example, there are three propositions: 

i. The students are clever 

ii. They won the competition 

iii. They are from the South East 

 

By the deletion rule, the summary writer can delete proposition (iii) leaving (i) and (ii). The macro 

proposition will then read – The clever students won the competition. 

In this instance, being from the South East is not a condition for winning the competition. The rule of 

generalization permits the summary writer to map a sequence of actions unto their common “super-

act”. In other words, a series of different propositions can be summarized into a more general 

proposition. Consider the example that was given earlier about the story of Mary going to Paris. Mary 

flew to Paris is the “super-act”, while other actions (micro proposition) that led to this are sub-

component parts of the super-act. 

 

The next rule is construction. The rule permits the summary writer to construct one proposition from 

a number of propositions. Consider the following example:  

Janet decided to visit her uncle in the city. She went to the bus station and purchased a ticket. She 

went to a shop nearby to buy a gift for the uncle. By the time she came back, the bus had left. She 

looked at her watch and concluded that it was wrong and she was late. 

From the text above, we can construct the following macroproposition: Janet missed the bus. The 

difference between generalization and construction is that generalizations are made from the input 

propositions; but in the text above the verb “missed” was not mentioned. 

Later in 1983, Brown and Day expanded the macro-rules given by Kintsch and van Dijk. They came 

up with six rules. The expanded macro-rules are given below with the original ones in bracket: 

 

 

1. Delete unimportant or trivial information  

2. Delete redundant information 

3. Substitute a list of item with a super-ordinate term 

4. Substitute a list of actions with a “super-act” 

5. Select a topic sentence if any is given 

6. Invent a topic sentence if none is provided - Construction  

 

1 and 2 are the same with Kintsch and van Dijk’s rule of deletion which has been explained and 

exemplified above. For clearer explanation of the expanded version of the deletion rule, unimportant 

information refers to minor details, examples and illustrations; while redundant information includes 

 

 

Macropropositions 

Usually a paragraph contains a specific 

macroproposition, followed by several 

supportive ideas. 

 

Micropropositions 

In each paragraph of a text, there 

will be several micropropositions, 

some of them will be more 

relevant than others. 

 



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information that are repeated, restated or reworded, which is regardless of its importance, considered 

redundant. Since summaries are meant to be brief and concise, repetitive and trivial information 

should be deleted. 

 

Rules 3 and 4 are the same with Kintsch and van Dijk’s generalization rule. However, for a clearer 

explanation of Brown and Days rule 3, a summary writer is expected to use a super-ordinate term or 

an umbrella word to substitute a list of items. For example, if a text contains a list such as: cats, dogs, 

goldfish, gerbils and parrots, one can use the term “pets” to replace the list (Brown and Day: 4). Rule 

4 has been well explained earlier. 

 

Brown and Day’s rule 5 says, select a topic sentence where it is given. Usually, a unit of the text 

called a paragraph discusses one main idea. This main idea is expressed in a “topic” sentence. The 

summary writer is expected to locate this topic sentence, select, rephrase and include it in his/her 

summary. Finally, rule 6 is the same as Kintsch and van Dijk’s construction rule. Here, the summary 

writer is expected to construct or invent a topic sentence where none is given. He/she can do this 

bycombining the meaning of the input text with his/her background knowledge to arrive at the 

message that is being conveyed; then he/she can construct the topic sentence for that unit. 

 

The Role of Macrostructures in Producing Summaries 

Macrostructures are used to represent the overall or global meaning of a text. They deal with the 

meaning of a text as a whole. In other words, macrostructures are used to summarize a long text and 

reduce it to its gist. To produce a summary, the student has to read a given passage first, for thorough 

understanding. He/she may not be able to recall or remember all the micro propositions (individual 

sentences) that make up the passage, but he/she will have a general idea of what the passage is all 

about and can summarize it. This is made possible by the cognitive processes that generate 

macrostructures used in summarizing texts. These cognitive processes are referred to as macro-rules. 

They are transformational rules applied on the input propositions of a text, to arrive at its global 

meaning. In other words, macrostructures for summarizing texts are generated by the application of 

macro-rules.These macro-rules include: deletion, selection, invention and the use of super-ordinate 

terms. They represent the cognitive operations that occur in the production of summaries. 

 

According to Abushihab, students have to follow different steps in order to write an effective 

summary based on the macrostructure framework. For instance, redundant and trivial materials have 

to be deleted, main ideas have to be identified and selected, a list of items that belong together has to 

be replaced by a general term and a macro proposition has to be constructed to replace sequences of 

micro propositions in a text that is to be summarized. 

 

This short passage taken from Asudo, Marsh and Oni, will exemplify how macrostructures function in 

the production of summaries: 

Miss Odu was beautiful and poised, an obvious contrast to Mrs. Falolu and other 

teachers, with their outdated clothes. She looked something between twenty-five and 

thirty, but did not try to make herself look older as most of other young teachers in 

the school did. She wore a bright green, floral cotton dress and had her permed hair 

styled beautifully. And on her feet were glamorous, black high heeled shoes. 

She is beautiful, abi? Whispered Bunmi, the naughtiest girl in the class, to her friend, 

Enitan. Enitan, eyes fixed on the new teacher nodded. There was something about 

this lady that attracted her. 

Miss Odu began to speak. ‘I’m pleased to meet you all. I want you to know that I’m 

always available if you need me for anything other than your studies.’ This brought 

some giggling from the back row, but she ignored it and continued. ‘I want you all to 

regard me not only as your class teacher, but as friend too. I’m here teach you all 

your subjects. I want to help you with any problems you may have or any questions 

you may want to ask. Perhaps you may want to discuss your choice of secondary 

schools for example.’ 



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It was obvious to all the children as she talked, that this was a very frank and 

understanding person. All the other teachers never seemed to have enough time for 

the pupils outside classes. In spite of her young age and good looks, she seemed 

almost motherly, with a confident and sympathetic voice. (45-47) 

 

This passage has four paragraphs, to summarize it, the student has to identify the main ideas lodged in 

each paragraph. 

 

Paragraph 1 focused on the physical appearance of Miss Odu. A combination of macro-rules of 

selection and deletion were applied to summarize the paragraph: Miss Odu was young and 

beautiful.Paragraph 2 introduced two pupils in Miss Odu’s class. The selection rule was applied to 

summarize the paragraph: Enitan was attracted to the new teacher.Paragraph 3 focused on Miss 

Odu’s speech: Miss Odu promised to teach and counsel the studentsParagraph 4 reflected on the 

general impression the children had on their new teacher. A combination of macro-rules was also 

applied to summarize the paragraph: The children felt that Miss Odu was understanding and 

motherly. 

 

However, the gist of the passage is captured in this single sentence: Miss Odu was more caring than 

the other teachers. In the section that follows, practical examples of how macro-rules are applied to 

generate macrostructures that summarize a text are given. 

 

Application of Macro-Rules in Generating Macrostructures used in Producing Summaries 

The Macro-Rule of Deletion 

There are two types of deletion: (i) delete unimportant or trivial information (ii) delete redundant 

information. Consider the following examples: Re-writethe following sentences below and delete all 

unimportant and redundant materials. 

1. All said and done, and in the final analysis, the decree must be obeyed by these poor helpless 

villagers. 

Macrostructure: Finally, the decree must be obeyed by the villagers 

Analysis: “all said and done” share the same meaning with “in the final analysis”. It renders the 

information redundant. So, one is deleted and the other one reduced to a single word – “finally”. 

The modifiers “poor” and “helpless” are unimportant, hence they are deleted.  

 

2. Our website has made available many of the things you can use for making a decision on the 

best dentist. 

Macrostructure: Our website presents the criteria for determining the best dentist. 

Note the following points: 

“presents” replaces “has made available” 

“criteria” replaces “many of the things you can use” 

“determining” replaces “for making a decision”. 

 

3. Many have made a wise observation that when a stone is in motion, rolling down a hill or 

incline, that the moving stone is not likely to be covered all over with the kind of thick green 

moss that grows on stationary unmoving things. They become a nuisance giving the impression 

that they haven’t moved in a long time and possibly would not move any time soon. 

Macrostructure: A rolling stone gathers no moss (6 words) 

Analysis: This short passage is full of redundant materials:  

i.  “in motion”, “rolling down”, “the moving stone” all share the same meaning (the notion of 

movement). 

ii. “hill” and “incline” also share the same meaning  

iii. “stationary”, “unmoving”, “have not moved”, “would not move” are redundant ways of 

saying the same thing. 

iv. “In a long time” and “any time soon” also share the same meaning 

v. The phrase “to be covered all over” is replaced with a single word – “gathers” 



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Result: All the redundant and unimportant information were successfully deleted and the short 

passage which was made up of sixty six words, was reduced to only six words. 

 

The use of Super-ordinate Terms 

Two types of substitutions are required here: 

1. Replace a list of items with a super-ordinate or general term 

2. Substitute a list of actions with a “super-act” or “macro-act”. 

Consider the following examples: 

Re-write the following sentences replacing the list of items/actions with a general term: 

i. James went to the market and bought hoe, shovel, go-to-hell, machete, cutlass, pruning saw and 

spade. 

Macrostructure: James bought farm implements/tool.Farm implements or farm tools is the 

general term for the list given above. 

ii. Ken decorated the house with roses, lilies, hibiscus, marigold, and allamanda. 

Macrostructure: Ken decorated the house with flowers. 

iii. George did the arithmetic problems, then he did the five-page reading assignment on social 

studies. Finally, he studied the spelling list for tomorrow’s test. 

Macrostructure: George did his homework. 

All the sentences are the sub-component acts of the “global” or “macro-act” of doing his 

homework. 

 

The Macro-rule of selection 

This rule applies where the topic sentences are explicitly stated. On identifying the topic sentence the 

student then re-states it in his/her own language, using as few words as possible. It is a punishable 

offence to lift the topic sentence verbatim from the original passage. 

Consider the following example: 

Identify the topic sentence in the following short passage and restate it in your own words: 

1. His choice of career has been criticized by his teacher. His father had also attempted to 

dissuade him from it. His friends as well had laughed at his ambition. But Sam Kolade did not 

give; he was determined as ever to become a champion wrestler. 

Macrostructure: Despite all oppositions, Sam Kolade was bent on becoming a wrestler. 

Note: The underlined sentence is the topic sentence, but it was condensed to get at the answer. (No 

verbatim lifting!) 

 

The Macro-rule of Invention 

The rule of invention states that where there is no topic sentence, or where the topic sentence is not 

explicitly stated, the summary writer should invent or construct one. The summary writer has to infer 

from the sequences of sentences that make up that unit or paragraph, the meaning that the author 

wants to convey. He relates this with his world view or personal experience and finally arrives at a 

conclusion. Then he/she constructs a topic sentence for that unit, where the main idea is not explicitly 

stated. 

Example: Provide topic sentences for the short passages below: 

1. A lot of children came and brought presents. They played games and blew bubbles at each 

other. A magician came and showed them some magic. Later, Jennifer opened her presents and 

blew out the candles on her cake. 

Macrostructure: Jennifer had a birthday party. 

2. Sarah was playing football. Fatima was jumping over a rope. Selma was drawing a house and 

Matilda was running round the field. 

Macrostructure: The children were playing. 

According to Abushihab, the construction/invention rule does not eliminate irrelevant propositions. 

Rather, all the propositions are constructed into a single macro-proposition. 

 

Recommendations 

An adage says, “Make hay while the sun shines”. The overall importance of summary skills 

underscores the need to introduce the skills to our children early in school. It is pertinent to note here 



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that without the knowledge of macrostructures, and how they are derived through the application of 

macro-rules, developing effective summary writing skills will be a mirage. Based on this, the paper 

recommends the following: 

• There is need for total over hauling of our school system to accommodate programmes that will 

enhance reading and writing skills in schools. 

• More specifically, summary writing instruction should be taken seriously in our secondary 

school curriculum. 

• Language teachers should be given refresher training on how to teach summary writing. 

• They should acquaint themselves with the knowledge of macro-rules and macrostructures and 

how best they can use them to teach the students how to write summaries. 

• Parents should join hands with schools to provide the students enough reading materials to 

enable them engage in extensive reading, which will in turn enhance their store of vocabulary. 

• Students should be exposed to varieties of sentence structures which enable flexibility in 

sentence construction and restructuring that are required for paraphrasing and integration of 

ideas in summary writing tasks.  

 

Conclusion 

Summary writing is about eliminating wordiness and producing a clear and concise account of a 

material read. Often, writers use several small ambiguous words to express a concept; wasting energy 

expressing ideas that are better relayed through fewer specific words. Summaries take care of all these 

and help to reduce complex information to its gist. 

 

The benefits of developing effective summary skills cannot be over-emphasized. Summary skills help 

students at all levels in their general academic work. Their reading skills improve and they have better 

understanding of the materials they read across all subjects. They develop critical thinking as they 

evaluate what to take up as important information and what to discard in any reading they engage in. 

At the tertiary level, students often write academic/research papers. In these papers, information is 

gathered from many sources and included in the work. This is usually done to make the work more 

forceful and convincing. A few direct quotations are allowed but generally, students are expected to 

summarize or paraphrase this information in their own words. Summary writing gives practice in this 

rather difficult task. 

 

In the world of work, each profession has its own special needs for summary skills. The professional 

teacher needs it to gather the knowledge/information that he/she wants to pass across to his/her 

students. The executive manager who is busy with so many engagements prefers the summary of a 

report instead of having to wade through a very long report. The journalist needs the skill to select and 

present essential information from among a host of information available to him. Even the housewife, 

who makes a list before going to the market, unconsciously engages in summary skills. Suffice it then 

to say that acquiring effective summary skills is not an option; it is a must development for students at 

all levels. They are life-long skills needed, not only in school but also in the world of work and in life 

after school. 

 

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