In Defence of Summarization

Teachers in both the high schools and at College of The Bahamas (COB) often put little emphasis on the teaching of summarization. Often, they assume that students are able to write summaries, though the research tells us that this is not necessarily so. This article argues that summary writing must be explicitly taught rather than taken for granted and that it is an essential skill that helps students make sense of the variety of materials they must read in college. The importance of teaching summarization and the benefits to students of so doing are affirmed and supported by a review of the literature on the topic.