The one-sentence truth: Compression is the ability to find the idea above several details without flattening the distinctions that matter.
GP summary and synthesis depend on conceptual vocabulary. Instead of repeating examples, students need higher-level categories that preserve the relationship among them.
Move from instances to categories
Long waiting times, complex forms and unclear eligibility criteria can become administrative friction. Pollution, noise and congestion imposed on others can become negative externalities. Lack of staff, funding and facilities can become capacity constraints.
Do not over-compress
If separate details represent different points, one umbrella term may erase necessary distinctions. “Economic problems” may be too broad if the passage separately discusses affordability, unemployment and inequality.
Preserve direction
Compression must still show what causes, limits, redistributes or follows from what. “Social effects” is not enough when the original says distrust reduces compliance and weak compliance undermines policy effectiveness.
Use relational nouns carefully
Concepts such as trade-off, constraint, feedback, inequality, polarisation, legitimacy and resilience can compress many details, but only if the passage truly supports that category.
Nominalisation can help and hurt
Turning a process into a noun can compress: “people move from villages to cities” → “urbanisation”. But too many nouns make relationships opaque. Keep verbs where the mechanism matters.
Three levels of compression
Detail: specific example. Pattern: repeated relationship. Concept: abstract category explaining the pattern. Move upward only as far as accuracy allows.
Seven-day drill
- Group examples by category.
- Name patterns.
- Convert patterns into concepts.
- Test for over-compression.
- Preserve causal direction.
- Mix nouns and verbs.
- Complete a timed compression exercise.
Continue the JC2 GP vocabulary system
Return to General Paper Vocabulary Year 2 (JC2) and Vocabulary for Junior College (JC1–JC2).
Final thought
Compression is intelligent when the shorter phrase contains the same structure of meaning as the longer passage.