Đọc sang viết: tóm tắt trung thực và kể lại có kiểm soát

Read, then retell faithfully

• A reading-to-writing task gives you a longer story to read, then takes it away. You retell it from memory in a shorter version.
• The task tests faithful summary: keep the main events, causes and outcome, add no opinions, and do not change who did what.

While reading: build a skeleton

• Note the four anchors: who (person人物rén wù), what happened first (cause起因qǐ yīn), the turning point (to pass经过jīng guò), the outcome (outcome结果jié guǒ).
• Example skeleton: 一位yī wèiteacher老师lǎo shī — student学生xué shēngto take an exam考试kǎo shìto be defeated失败shī bài — teacher老师lǎo shīevery day每天měi tiānto accompany陪péihe / him他tāto practice练习liàn xí — student学生xué shēngto pass a university…考上kǎo shàng(completed / change)了leuniversity大学dà xué.

cause起因qǐ yīn、development经过jīng guò、outcome结果jié guǒ。

Retell in your own words

• Write the skeleton out in connected sentences: to have / there is有yǒu一个yí gèstudent学生xué shēngto take an exam考试kǎo shìto be defeated失败shī bài(completed / change)了le，degree / adjective linker很hěnto lose heart灰心huī xīn。he / him他tā(modifier / structural particle)的deteacher老师lǎo shīnot have / haven't没有méi yǒuto criticize批评pī pínghe / him他tā，rather而是ér shìevery day每天měi tiānto accompany陪péihe / him他tāto practice练习liàn xí。一年yī niánafter以后yǐ hòu，he / him他tāto pass a university…考上kǎo shàng(completed / change)了lean ideal理想lǐ xiǎng(modifier / structural particle)的deuniversity大学dà xué。
• Keep causes: the student succeeded because the teacher helped — do not drop or invent the link.

No additions, no opinions

• Do not add a moral (this这zhèto tell告诉gào sùwe / us我们wǒ men…) unless the source states one; do not judge the characters.
• Keep qualifiers: if the source says almost几乎jī hūevery day每天měi tiān, don't write every day每天měi tiān.

Common mistakes

Recap