The summary selection and paraphrase studio gives you a short original passage and a task. You tick the points you would use, the tool explains which ones answer the task, and then you write your own summary with a word count and a check for copied phrases.
It separates two skills that often get mixed: choosing the right points, and putting them in your own words.
How do you use it?
- Choose a Task focus: what the villagers did to clean the river, or the results of cleaning it.
- Read the eleven numbered points and tick the points you would use.
- Press Check my selection. Press Reset to start again.
- Write your summary in Your summary, in your own words, aiming for 70 words or fewer.
- Tick the checklist items as you finish each check.
How do you read the result?
Point coverage says how many of the relevant points you chose and how many of your choices do not answer the task. Each choice is labelled Good choice or Not rewarded, with a reason.
A list of relevant points you did not select follows. If you picked a colourful detail, the tool reminds you to ask whether it answers the question.
Under your summary box, the tool shows the word count against the 70-word suggestion. It also reports any run of four or more words that matches the passage, which may be lifting.
Example walk-through
The passage is about a village cleaning its river. With the focus on what the villagers did, the relevant points are 2 (forming a committee and weekly clean-ups), 4 (wire nets across the stream), 6 (the school teaching waste sorting) and 10 (the council funding a rubbish lorry).
Suppose you tick points 2, 3, 4 and 10.
Point 3 is the chairman’s bright orange cap. The tool reports that you chose 3 of the 4 relevant points and 1 that does not answer this task. It explains that the cap is a colourful detail, and lists point 6 as missed.
Now write:
Villagers set up a committee that organised weekly river clean-ups, put nets in the stream to catch plastic, and persuaded the council to fund a rubbish lorry. The school also taught pupils to recycle.
That is 34 words. The tool should find no long copied runs, because the ideas are combined in new sentences rather than lifted. Switch the focus to results, and the relevant points become 5, 8 and 9: clearer water, fewer illnesses and savings for farmers.
What are the assumptions and limits?
- The relevant-point labels are written by us for this passage and depend on the task focus.
- No automated official mark is given.
- The copy check only catches runs of four or more identical words in a row.
- Use only your own practice text. Do not paste copyrighted books or assessed submissions.
Which lessons explain the ideas behind it?
- Separate a relevant point from an interesting detail is the skill this tool trains first.
- Combine repeated ideas without losing meaning covers merging points.
- Group points using a clear organising principle helps with structure.
- Paraphrase while preserving qualifications covers your own wording.
- Check a summary against the task focus is the final check.
- My summary repeats rather than combines ideas helps when summaries read like lists.
The wider topic is summary selection and synthesis, and the mixed practice set tests it. The full course overview is the English First Language learning guide.
For a teacher to read your own drafts, see online one-to-one English First Language tuition. Other tools are in the learning tools directory.