Reading skills involved in guided summary writing: A case study

Abstract

Guided summarization skills are widely used in tertiary education. Despite the more than five decades of research on summarization, information available about the reading sub-skills necessary for successful guided summary writing is still sparse. The aim of this article is to remedy this deficiency by exploring how reading strategies are used by English major BA students who have received explicit training in reading strategies and guided summary writing. Based on the reading strategies the participants applied, the analysis attempts to identify possible underlying reading sub-skills. The findings indicate that those students who can successfully solve a guided summary writing task use a variety of reading strategies and apply them very consciously. The reading sub-skills mostly involved in guided summary writing were skimming, search reading, scanning, and careful reading. The results suggest that in order to enhance students’ reading abilities, explicit instruction of reading strategies is needed.