SUMMARY WRITING SKILLS

EXERCISE 1
Condense the following sentences by leaving out all the details.

1. The Multimedia Library has many resources such as newspapers, magazines, books, compact
discs, CD-ROMS and video tapes.
2. Besides cooking, cleaning and washing, most mothers also have to drive their children to and
from tuition classes.
3. The Avillion chalets, which are beautiful, well-equipped, wooden chalets built over the sea in
Port Dickson, are very expensive to rent.
4. Puan Wong, who is the most senior and most popular Science teacher in the school, has
been promoted to Senior Assistant.
5. Favourite weekend activities of teenage boys nowadays include playing games like futsal and
basketball, hanging around shopping complexes and cybercafs, as well as going to the
movies.

EXERCISE 2
Write out the main idea of each sentence by eliminating all the details.
1. The golden rays of the morning sun peeped silently through the tiny gap in the curtains.
2. The alarm clock vibrated on the spot and gave off a loud out-of-tune instrumental version of
Its a Small World.
3. She woke up from her deep slumber.
4. She stretched her skinny arms, opened her mouth wide and let out a big yawn.
5. Reluctantly, she dragged her feet from under her blanket and got out of bed.

EXERCISE 3
Shorten the following sentences by replacing the lists of examples with collective nouns.
1. When they went into the science laboratory, they were shocked to see broken beakers, test
tubes, burettes as well as conical flasks strewn on the floor.
2. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and deodorant are essential things to take along
when we go travelling.
3. The recipe for Curry Kapitan calls for ingredients such as cloves, coriander, star anise,
cinnamon, ginger and cardamom.
4. The janitor often complains about the tissue paper, sweet wrappers, plastic bottles