In summarizing a passage, the writer has to select the main points and to some extent reformulate them in coherent sentences. That sounds simple enough, but in practice it is far more difficult, particularly when dealing with tautly‐written technical prose. Yet the ability to select facts or arguments and rank them in order of importance is one of the hallmarks of an educated person, if by that is understood a manipulator rather than a regurgitator of ideas. The summary can show if the passage to be summarized has been understood as a whole, if the main points have been correctly discerned, and if they can be reassembled into meaningful prose. It is, in short, a meaningful test of linguistic comprehension and manipulation, as well as an area for the practice of logic and deductio