Summary Writing - Writing at University by Creme & Lea (page 76-80)

Making an outline is very important for writers before starting to write. It helps you to organize the structure of your writing so that your writing is cohesive and coherent. You can make your own way to organize the writing as long as you feel comfortable. You can also ask for others’ advice about the strategy for making an outline that is not messy and time-consuming. 

You can start by choosing one of the types of structure that is suitable for your writing. In this book, Phyllis Creme and Mary R. Lea provide seven structures that are used in writing. There are:

1. Chronology Writing

This structure is used for the text to recount events by telling what happened at that time and also the timeline of the event chronologically. When you write a history about something, you must choose this type of structure for your writing.

2. Description Writing

This structure is used for the text to describe something or someone by their appearance, characteristics, and so on. You may find this type of structure in descriptive text and it is usually signed with many adjectives in the text.

3. Cause-effect Writing

This structure is used for the text to tell how and why the event happened by telling the cause and effect. When you write using this type of structure, you have to be aware that the whole sentences have to be related to each other because one sentence tells the cause and the other sentence tells the consequence. Moreover, it should be logical.

4. Compare/Contrast Writing

This structure is used for the text to tell the similarities and differences between two similar things. 

5. Summary Writing

This structure is for the text to tell the main points of a reading text that is read by you. You can start by reading it entirely and writing down the main points. Besides the main points, it also tells what the writer talking about is. This type is used also by me when making this summary of Creme & Lea’s book 😀 Remember, the summary should be simple, made of your own understanding, and written in your own words.

6. Analysis Writing

This structure is used for the text to analyze something and the writer wants to know about it deeply. We may know that this is the hardest writing when it goes to ‘analyzing something’ because we have to research first and also make some questions that will be answered from the results of our research. 

7. Evaluating Writing

This structure is used for the text to judge something based on some features that have to be evaluated. You may find this type of structure when making a review of something. Usually, it will tell about the advantages & disadvantages of something based on someone's perspective.

So, we have known seven structures that are used in writing. All we have to do is make an outline and choose the right type of writing structure that is suitable for our writing because it will affect our writing later whether it is cohesive and coherent or vice versa.