IELTS Summary Completion: Tips, Strategy, Examples and Practice for Full Marks

🟢 Summary Completion in IELTS Reading

We all are familiar with the summaries in English or even our native languages, where a huge text is reduced into some key points. In order to write and understand a summary, one has to read and comprehend the text fully.

🔷 HOW IS IT DONE??

Now, in Summary Completion of IELTS Reading, the passage is summarized with some missing words. Your job is to fill those gaps and make that summary more meaningful. For this, you need good reading skills to understand the passage and the idea behind it.

🟡 Strategy

🔸 Read the question carefully, and check how many words you need to use to fill in the summary.
🔸 Have a look at the summary first, and try to get a gist of it. With this, you will easily scan where answers of your summary blanks might lie.
🔸 Predict the form of the word—whether it will be a noun, verb, or adjective.
🔸 Sometimes, you will be given a list of words. Try to eliminate some of them, but if you are not given the list, make sure to be good at prediction.
🔸 Do not look for the exact words—synonyms are often used.
🔸 Finally, make sure the sentence fits grammatically.

🟠 EXAMPLE OF A PASSAGE

“The 19th century English literature, under Queen Victoria, witnessed the beginning of novels at large scale. Many writers including Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, William M. Thackeray. Even women had started contributing to the realms of novel such as Brontë sisters and Jane Austen. The themes saw a shift from imagination to realism. They were more focused on portraying the darker and realistic aspects of society through their writings. Thus, it reflected the society of that time very well.”

🟣 SUMMARY OF THE PASSAGE WITH BLANKS

“The 19th century during the reign of __________, writers started writing novels. The themes of such works were __________ in nature. This exhibited the __________ of that time perfectly.”

🔵 YOUR TASK TO GET POINTS

It is to fill the gaps in the summary to make it more meaningful. The examiner, hereby, gets the idea whether you have understood the passage and its key ideas or not.

✅ ANSWER OF THE SUMMARY

“The 19th century during the reign of Queen Victoria, writers started writing novels. The themes of such works were realistic in nature. This exhibited the society of that time perfectly.”

🔶 SOME IMPORTANT TIPS TO REMEMBER…

• 📌 It is highly essential, for you guys, to look for the main points or key ideas in the passage.
• 🔄 Keep in mind the aspect of paraphrasing. The words in the passage might not be similar to the words present in the summary; yet, they would convey the same meaning.
• ✂️ The number of words to be filled in the blanks would not be more than 2, so make sure not to exceed this word limit.