Summary Writing: A Tool to Improve Student Comprehension and Writing in Psychology

Abstract

A psychology instructor and a Writing Across the Curriculum director used summary writing to improve text comprehension and develop student writing skills. The mean score on the final exam for the class with summary writing was 8% higher than the mean score of the class without summary writing. Students evaluated these activities as effective tools to (a) learn the content of the course; (b) develop more effective strategies for reading text; and (c) make their own writing clearer, more concise, and more accurate.