Information Retrieval and Summary Writing from a Passage or Chart
Information retrieval and summary writing
This domain combines two skills: locating and comparing data in a passage, table, or chart, and compressing the central information into a short summary within a word limit.
Retrieval rules
- Read the question first, then scan for the category, year, and unit.
- Check the legend, axis labels, and baseline; a truncated axis exaggerates change.
- Compare like with like: percentages with percentages, totals with totals.
- For tables, note the highest, lowest, and largest change rather than every cell.
Summary rules
- State the controlling idea in your own words.
- Select three or four key points; drop examples, repeated statistics, and rhetorical questions.
- Compress with noun phrases: The number of visitors rose sharply → a sharp rise in visitors.
- Add no interpretation that the source does not support.
- Stay within the limit; count words, including articles.
Worked example
Table: library visits, 2019: 40,000; 2023: 52,000. Question: summarise the change. Weak: "In 2019 there were 40,000 visits and in 2023 there were 52,000 visits." Strong: "Library visits increased by 12,000, or 30%, between 2019 and 2023." Reasoning: the strong version computes the change and expresses it concisely, which is what summarise the change requires; the weak version merely copies cells.
Traps
- Copying source sentences verbatim.
- Confusing percentage points with percent.
- Mixing units or currencies.
- Including an example as if it were the main finding.
- Overshooting or undershooting the word limit.