This study aimed to investigate characteristics of English summary skills of Korean college freshmen. To achieve this aim, 120 English summary writings were collected from an English diagnostic test for college freshmen. Two texts with different features were used for the test. Text A is a persuasive essay with a problem/solution structure, and Text B is an expository essay with a collective structure. Fifty-three students summarized Text A and the others Text B. For each of the text groups, students were classified into two groups by their summary level. In the analysis of the writings considering the genre of the original text, organization, and adherence to summarization rules, it was found that the learners summarized the persuasive essay better than the expository essay. The high-ability group used various transition words and followed the structure of the original text when they organized their writings. As for summarization rules such as invention, selection, and paraphrasing, Text A group did not show any difference in their creation skill of topic sentence between the high- and low-ability group. On the other hand, the high-ability group that read Text B was better at creating general sentences than the low group. There was not a significant difference between the high- and low-ability groups in their paraphrasing skills, Text A group in general performing better than Text B group. Further suggestions and pedagogical implications are discussed.

1999년 10월 강원대학교에서 열렸던 한국지구과학회 추계학술발표회에서 발표되었던 한글 요약문들을 훑어보았다. 요약문에는 외국어표현과 분명치 않은 말들과 너무 긴 문장들이 섞여있다. 외국말 표현은 일본어, 영어, 중국어 표현 방법들과 단어들이다. 지구과학 요약문과 논문을 한글로 잘 쓰는 방안을 제안한다. 그 방안에는 일반교양 과학책을 많이 읽고 한 문장이 20 어절이 넘지 않도록 하며 지도교수나 동료들에게 요약문의 비평을 부탁하고 그들의 비평을 받아들일 열린 마음이 포함된다. 저자들이 이 논문 표 2에 있는 여러 가지 잘못을 범하지 않도록 관심을 가져야 한다.