Lesson · R.1.1

Summarising a multi-paragraph text

How to find a text's topic and main idea, weigh key points against supporting details, and compress a passage into an accurate four to eight sentence summary.

ObjectiveR.1.1Read2 minExam weightKey Ideas and Details ≈ 38% of Reading

By the end of this lesson you can

Tell a text's topic apart from its main idea.
Decide which supporting details belong in a summary and which to cut.
Compress a passage into an accurate four to eight sentence summary.

Key takeaways

The topic is what the text is about. The main idea is what the author claims about it.
A key point supports the main idea. A supporting detail supports a key point.
Keep only details that explain, prove, or clarify, and cut anything merely related.
A good summary restates the topic, main idea, and key points in four to eight original sentences.

Check yourself

0 / 5

Passage: a daily walk

Of all the ways to stay well, few are as easy to start as walking. A brisk half-hour walk most days lowers blood pressure over time, lifts mood by releasing tension, and asks for nothing more than a pair of comfortable shoes. Unlike a gym membership, it costs nothing and fits around a busy shift. The route I walk each morning happens to pass a small bakery, though the smell is more a test of willpower than a health benefit. Start with ten minutes, the research suggests, and let the habit grow from there.

1What is the topic of the passage?
2Which statement best expresses the author's main idea?
3Which detail does NOT belong in a summary of the passage?
4Which of these is a key point that supports the main idea?
5Which of these is the most accurate summary of the passage?

Practise more →

Topic first, then main idea

The topic is simply what the passage is about, a word or short phrase you can usually lift from the title or the opening sentence. The main idea is a step further: what the author wants you to take away about that topic. Two writers can cover the same topic, blood pressure say, and land on completely different main ideas, one urging routine home monitoring, another explaining how a reading is taken.

Ask two questions as you read. "What is this about?" gives you the topic. "What does the author want me to know or believe about it?" gives you the main idea, usually close to a sentence in the introduction that reads like a claim rather than a plain fact.

Key points carry the main idea, details carry the key points

Each paragraph after the introduction typically makes one key point that supports the main idea. The sentences around that key point are supporting details: facts, examples, or explanations that back it up. A detail earns its place in a summary only if it explains, proves, or clarifies a key point. A detail that is merely related, an aside the author adds for colour, gets left out.

Practise this filter on a single paragraph before you try a full passage. A hospital newsletter announcing a nurse of the year award might also mention that the winner enjoys gardening. The gardening detail is not relevant to the main idea and does not belong in a summary.

Building the summary

Once you can name the topic, the main idea, and the key points with their strongest supporting details, compress all of it into four to eight sentences, in your own words. A useful order is one sentence for the topic and main idea, then one sentence per key point, folding in only the detail that is doing real work.

Take a short passage about hand hygiene in hospitals. It opens by noting that many healthcare-acquired infections are preventable, explains that proper handwashing between patients cuts transmission substantially, and closes by noting that compliance still lags in busy units. A fair summary keeps the claim, that handwashing prevents infection, and the key points, its effectiveness and the compliance gap, and drops anything incidental, such as a mention of a particular soap brand, that does not carry the argument.