AbstractBased on a review of the literature, the premise is developed that summary writing is an extremely complex task that is not appreciably enhanced through trial and error methods. Rather, the position is taken that some direct instruction is necessary to enable students to develop summaries that are brief, but yet contain a significant amount of meaningful information. A specific summary writing strategy is then advocated that integrates five steps from a model for direct instruction with six basic rules that have been identified for summarizing text. Finally, since summary writing can be a challenging and arduous task for some students, motivational considerations are discussed.