What effects does summarizing have on comprehension skills?

Summarizing plays a crucial role in enhancing comprehension skills by helping learners distill and articulate the core ideas and concepts from the material they have read. This process requires readers to identify key information, eliminate extraneous details, and rephrase the content in their own words. As they summarize, they actively engage with the text, which promotes deeper understanding and retention of information.

By focusing on the main ideas, students improve their ability to synthesize information and strengthen their critical thinking skills. This practice also enables them to make connections between different parts of the text and relate it to their existing knowledge, further enhancing their comprehension. Therefore, summarizing is not merely an exercise in recall but a strategy that solidifies understanding and encourages active learning.