7 Summarizing Techniques to Improve Reading Comprehension

Summarizing is one of the most effective reading strategies for students and English learners. It allows readers to focus on the main ideas of a text, identify key points, and better retain the information they read. In this post, we’ll explore what summarizing is, why it matters, and five practical techniques you can use to improve reading comprehension.

What Is Summarizing?

Summarizing means expressing the essential ideas of a text in a shorter form — using your own words. It involves identifying the main idea and the most important details while leaving out less relevant information.

Summarizing is not just shortening; it’s about understanding. A good summary shows that you’ve grasped the key message and can communicate it clearly and briefly.

Why Is Summarizing Important in Reading?

Summarizing is a core reading strategy that offers several benefits:

• Helps readers focus on important information
• Boosts comprehension and retention
• Encourages active reading and critical thinking
• Prepares students for writing tasks, tests, or class discussions
• Supports language learning by reinforcing vocabulary and sentence structure

Summarizing can make students’ work more efficient and effective. It promotes active reading, whether they are managing heavy reading loads or, later on, handling complex information as professionals. More specifically, summarizing helps by:

• Saving time by focusing only on the essential points
• Reducing mental overload through clearer, simplified content
• Improving memory retention by reinforcing key ideas
• Speeding up decision-making by presenting the core message quickly

What Makes a Good Summary?

Before applying summarizing techniques, it’s important to understand the qualities of an effective summary. A good summary:

• Captures the main idea clearly and concisely
• Leaves out unnecessary or repetitive details
• Reflects the original meaning without copying it
• Avoids adding personal opinions or new information
• Is usually much shorter than the original text

Common Summarizing Mistakes to Avoid

To become a better reader and summarizer, avoid these typical mistakes:

• Including too many minor details
• Leaving out main points
• Copying and pasting exact sentences
• Writing a summary that’s too long
• Adding new ideas that weren’t in the original text

Now that we’ve seen what makes a strong summary — and what to avoid — let’s explore five proven techniques that will help you summarize more effectively and boost your reading comprehension.

7 Summarizing Techniques for Better Reading Comprehension

Below are seven summarizing techniques that are easy to use and highly effective, especially for students, ESL learners, and anyone aiming to become a more strategic reader.

1. The GIST Strategy

GIST stands for Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text. It’s a strategy where the reader writes a summary of around 15–20 words for each paragraph or section, capturing only the main idea.

How to do it:

• After reading a paragraph, ask yourself:
  • What is the author mainly saying?
• Then write your answer in about 15–20 words, focusing only on the essential idea.

Example:

GIST Summary (15–20 words):

✅ Why it works: It trains your brain to focus on essential meaning and avoid unnecessary detail.

2. The 5W and 1H Technique

This technique is especially useful for summarizing informational texts like news articles or reports. You simply answer six key questions:

• Who?
• What?
• When?
• Where?
• Why?
• How?

Use the answers to construct a comprehensive yet concise summary.

Summary using 5W and 1H:

• Who: Firefighters
• What: A fire broke out
• When: Monday morning
• Where: Forests near Los Angeles
• Why: The cause is under investigation
• How: They used Canadair jets to stop the fire from spreading

✅ Why it works: It ensures you cover the core elements without getting lost in extra detail.

3. Somebody–Wanted–But–So–Then (SWBST)

This technique is ideal for summarizing stories or narrative texts. It provides a clear structure by breaking the summary into parts:

✅ Why it works: It guides students in organizing story elements logically.

4. Highlighting and Annotating

This technique encourages active reading, helping you stay engaged with the text and better understand what you’re reading. By highlighting key words or phrases and adding brief notes, you’re not just reading passively — you’re interacting with the content. This makes it easier to review the main points later and construct an accurate summary.

How to do it:

• Highlight topic sentences or key terms
• Write brief annotations in the margin or on sticky notes
• Use symbols like ★ for main ideas or ? for questions/confusing parts

✅ Why it works: It turns reading into a more focused activity and gives you ready-made reference points when writing your summary.

5. Paragraph Shrinking

Paragraph Shrinking is a simple but powerful reading strategy that helps readers identify the main idea and key details of a paragraph. By stopping after each paragraph and summarizing it in one or two sentences, you train yourself to focus on the most important information. This makes it easier to understand, remember, and eventually summarize the entire text.

How to do it:

After reading a paragraph, ask yourself:

• What is the paragraph mostly about?
• What are the most important details?
• Can I say this in a simpler way?

Example Paragraph:

Paragraph Shrinking Summary:

✅ Why it works: This technique builds confidence by allowing students to summarize texts one step at a time. It’s especially helpful for learners who feel overwhelmed by longer texts.

6. First–Then–Finally

The First–Then–Finally technique is a straightforward reading comprehension strategy that helps readers organize and retell events or ideas from a text in a logical sequence. It’s especially useful for summarizing narrative texts, short stories, or any passage that follows a clear order of events.

By identifying what happened first, what happened next, and how it ended (finally), learners can create a concise summary that captures the structure of the original passage.

How to do it:

After reading a short text, ask yourself:

• First: What happened at the beginning?
• Then: What happened next?
• Finally: How did it end?

Example Paragraph:

First–Then–Finally Summary:

• First: Mia gathered all the ingredients.
• Then: She mixed and shaped the dough.
• Finally: She baked the cookies and waited until they were ready.

✅ Why it works: This technique simplifies the summarizing process by focusing on sequence, making it easier for learners to organize their thoughts and recall events clearly.

7. SAAC Method (State, Assign, Action, Complete)

The SAAC method is a structured reading comprehension strategy that guides readers through the process of writing a strong summary sentence. It is especially effective for summarizing non-fiction texts, textbook passages, or short articles because it focuses on identifying the subject, the author, and the main action or idea.

SAAC stands for:

• State the name of the article or text
• Assign the name of the author
• Action – describe what the author is doing (explaining, describing, showing…)
• Complete the sentence with the main idea

How to do it:

• After reading a short informational text, follow this sentence frame:
  • → In “[Title],” [Author] [action verb] that [main idea]

Example SAAC Summary:

✅ Why it works: This technique gives students a clear structure to follow and ensures that their summary includes all the critical components: source, author, purpose, and main idea. It’s especially useful for academic reading.

Summary Table: 7 Summarizing Techniques for Reading Comprehension

Technique	Description	Best For	Why It Works
1. GIST Strategy	Write a 15–20 word sentence summarizing the main idea of a paragraph or section	Any type of text	Focuses on core meaning and filters out details
2. 5W and 1H	Answer Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How	Non-fiction, news, reports	Ensures key facts are identified in a logical format
3. SWBST	Somebody–Wanted–But–So–Then: Break down the plot structure	Narrative and story-based texts	Helps organize story elements for easy summary writing
4. Highlight & Annotate	Mark key words and take notes while reading	Any reading (especially academic or long texts)	Encourages active reading and provides cues for later summarizing
5. Paragraph Shrinking	Summarize each paragraph in 1–2 sentences	Any paragraph-heavy text	Builds summarizing skill one step at a time
6. First–Then–Finally	Retell events in simple sequence: beginning, middle, end	Young readers, ESL learners, short stories	Simplifies structure and improves sequencing
7. SAAC Method	State, Assign, Action, Complete: Summarize with title, author, purpose, idea	Articles and non-fiction texts	Encourages structured, academic summary writing

Bonus Tip: Use Graphic Organizers

Visual aids like main idea charts, story maps, or summary frames help students break down and organize information before writing a summary.

🧾 You can download or create simple templates to support classroom or self-study use from canva.com.

Conclusion

Summarizing is a valuable reading skill that helps learners understand and remember what they read. The seven summarizing techniques above will help students become more focused and effective readers, whether they’re studying for a test, preparing to write, or just trying to make sense of a complex text.

Try different techniques and choose the one that works best for your reading style!

Related Pages

• 13 Powerful Reading Strategies To Teach In ESL Classrooms
• How To Teach Reading Comprehension: A Comprehensive Guide (PPT)
• Unveiling the 3 Key Stages of a Reading Comprehension Lesson Plan: Pre-reading, While Reading, and Post-reading