Summarizing and Paraphrasing Techniques

Flashcards covering definitions, differences, steps, examples, and best practices for summarizing and paraphrasing based on lecture slides.

Paraphrase

Your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form; it changes the words or phrasing while retaining and fully communicating the original meaning, and must be accompanied by accurate documentation.

Summary

A concise restatement that puts ideas into your own words but presents a broad overview containing only the main points, making it usually much shorter than the original text and requiring attribution to the original source.

Distinction Between Paraphrasing and Summarizing

A paraphrase provides a more detailed restatement of essential information in a new form, whereas a summary focuses concisely on a single main idea and offers a broad overview.

Benefits of Paraphrasing

It provides a better alternative to quoting an undistinguished passage, helps control the temptation to quote excessively, and involves a mental process that helps the writer fully grasp the original meaning.

Step 1 of Effective Paraphrasing

Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.

Step 2 of Effective Paraphrasing

Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.

Step 3 of Effective Paraphrasing

At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase, and jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material.

Step 4 of Effective Paraphrasing

Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.

Step 5 of Effective Paraphrasing

Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.

Step 6 of Effective Paraphrasing

Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.

Direct Quotation Guideline (Lester)

A guideline from James D. Lester's Writing Research Papers (2nd ed., 1976) stating that probably only about $10\%$ of a final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter.

Legitimate Paraphrase

A restatement that translates the ideas of a source into completely different phrasing and syntax without copying verbatim sentence structures, while giving credit with proper citation (e.g., Lester 46-47).

Plagiarized Version

A restatement that closely mirrors the original text's syntax, sentence order, and vocabulary with only minor word substitutions and fails to provide attribution or quotation marks for copied phrasing.

Acceptable Summary

A heavily condensed version of a passage that reduces the original message to a single, essential takeaway and properly credits the author and page numbers.

Shanxi Province Environmental Report (Example Passage)

A case example where original statistics ($22.94\%$ sewage treated adequately, less than $20\%$ household garbage handled properly, $178$ cities without sewage facilities, $130$ without garbage plants, $16$ Shanxi cities listed, and Beijing/Shanghai unlisted) are transformed into a legitimate paraphrase using equivalent expressions like 'over three-fourths' and 'almost $80\%$'.