Would practice writing summaries may improve my writing and reading comprehension and reading critical skills or not?

Answer 1

Writing summaries would definitely help with reading comprehension, especially a very difficult and complex reading assignment. If there is a document with a main central thesis with different topics for each paragraph, a brief summary (no more than 4-5 sentences per paragraph) would help organize the main thoughts of 1) the topic for each paragraph and 2) the main theme throughout. Though it might take some time to perfect, it will definitely help in one's overall reading comprehension. Not only will it make the reading clearer, it will also dispel any notions you may or may not have had about the reading. Instead of jumbled words on a long page (or pages), you will have quick, short sentences giving you a concise summary about what you have just read.

It also does wonders for one's writing comprehension! I actually use this skill to help with some of my more in-depth papers for class, the most recent one being a research paper; with that, I had to figure out which paragraph would go where, and why. It helped with the organization of the entirety of my paper and helped it flow a lot nicer. When you know where you are going to write and why, it makes the actual "writing" part a lot easier. The summary skill might not always be a "summary" here (as you might not have written anything substantial), but more of a precise outline/draft. If this is a skill you are going to utilize, make sure you already have an outline and some sort of draft in hand.