How to Summarise an Argumentative Passage

An argumentative passage is summarised by its claim and the reasons given for it. Find what the writer wants you to accept, list the reasons offered, and drop the examples that support each reason. Keep any concession the writer makes, because dropping it changes the argument into something more absolute than the original.

The format

Find the claim first

An argumentative passage is trying to get you to accept something. Before summarising anything, write down in one sentence what that is. Everything else in the passage exists to support it, and knowing the claim tells you what to keep.

Keep the reasons, drop the illustrations

Each reason usually comes with one or more examples. The reason stays; the example goes. This is the main compression available in an argumentative passage and it typically removes half the words on its own.

Keep the concessions

If the writer admits something that weakens their case — this is not true of every case, the objection has some force — keep it. Dropping a concession makes the argument more absolute than the original, which is a change of meaning and is marked as one.

Keep the qualifying words

Often, usually, in most cases, tends to are not padding. Removing them turns a careful claim into a sweeping one. A summary that says X causes Y where the passage said X often contributes to Y has misrepresented the writer.

Model answer

Worked example

Original passage (about 140 words)

Examinations are a poor measure of ability, though not a useless one. They test, above all, the capacity to perform under time pressure on a single morning, which is a real skill but a narrow one: the student who works slowly and thoroughly is penalised for a quality that would serve him well in almost any occupation. They also reward the memorisation of material that can be reproduced quickly, and so shape teaching towards it — a school judged by results will teach towards results, whatever its teachers privately believe. It must be admitted that examinations are impartial in a way that continuous assessment often is not, and in a country where influence is easily exercised that impartiality is worth a great deal. But impartiality is not the same as accuracy, and we should be careful not to confuse a fair measurement with a good one.

Summary (about 50 words)

Examinations measure ability poorly, though not uselessly. They chiefly test performance under time pressure, penalising careful slow workers, and they encourage memorisation, which distorts teaching. They are, however, more impartial than continuous assessment, which matters where influence operates. Even so, a fair measurement is not necessarily an accurate one.

Note

The concession — that examinations are impartial and that this is valuable — was kept, because dropping it would turn a balanced argument into a one-sided attack. The qualifier "though not a useless one" was also kept for the same reason. The example of a school teaching towards results was compressed to "distorts teaching".

What earns and loses marks

• Write the claim in one sentence before you summarise anything else. It tells you what every other sentence is for.
• 🚨 Keep the concessions. Dropping them is the commonest way an argumentative summary changes the meaning of its original.
• Keep qualifying words — often, usually, tends to. Removing them makes the writer say something stronger than they did.
• Compress each reason to one clause and delete its examples entirely.
• Check the finished summary against the claim: does it still argue the same thing, with the same amount of confidence?