Graduate students' summary writing problem

The purpose of the study was to investigate summaries of MA students in the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and English and Communication (EC) programs of the Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University to find out whether they included characteristics of a good summary or not, and if not, what problems they had and what might have caused them. Twenty-four MA students in the TEFL and EC programs during the academic years 2008 and 2009 were the informants of the study. The instruments were an academic reading passage of about 1,500 words and the students’ summaries. The summaries were judged by an English native speaking teacher based on an an analytic scoring rubric in terms of seven characteristics of a good summary-being comprehensive, being brief, being accurate, being neutral, using one’s own words, being well organized, and using good mechanics, grammar, and language.
The results of the study showed that their summaries included characteristics of a good summary but their overall score was low (57.75%). The students failed in two characteristics-being well organized, and using good mechanics, grammar and language. The students had problems in writing a good summary, which may be because they had poor English language proficiency, and poor writing and reading skills.