Mingjie Feng

Summary writing is not only a core skill for Chinese English major students but also an indispensable part of their academic life, especially playing a significant role in the English Major Level 4 (TEM-4) and English Major Level 8 (TEM-8) examinations. These exams assess not only students’ language abilities but also serve as an important test of their comprehensive ability to use English for academic expression. However, students often face multiple challenges when engaging in effective summary writing: they may struggle to identify and extract key information from the original text; avoid unintentional plagiarism; meet the examination’s strict requirements for word count and content; organize their thoughts coherently and orderly; and overcome expression barriers due to insufficient language proficiency. Moreover, many students may not have mastered effective summary writing strategies, which further increases their difficulties in this area. This paper aims to delve into the aforementioned challenges and synthesize various strategies proposed in the current literature, in hopes of providing practical guidance and suggestions for Chinese English major students to improve their summary writing skills.

Summary Writing; EFL Students; Writing Instruction

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