Paraphrasing and Summarizing
- 2. Learning Goals ● To understand why it is important to learn to paraphrase and summarize ● To understand when to use paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting in research writing ● To learn the basic APA style for citing a paraphrased, quoted or summarized text.
- 3. Why paraphrase? • To simplify an idea that may be more complex in original source • To highlight only the most relevant part in the way you understand it • To avoid having too many quotes in your literature review • To integrate other authors’ ideas more efficiently in your writing
- 4. Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is restating—in your own words— someone else’s ideas. Changing a few words of the original sentences is NOT paraphrasing. You must change both the words and the sentence structure of the original, without changing the content. Sentences and phrases translated from another language and incorporated in discussion are also examples of paraphrase.
- 5. Paraphrasing • Paraphrased passages still require citation because the ideas came from another source, even though you are putting them in your own words. • APA Style guide prescribes that: o Paraphrased text is cited in-text by mentioning author’s last name and the year of publication in a parenthesis at end of the paraphrase. o The in-text entry is properly referenced in the reference list.
- 6. Why summarize? • To expand the breadth of your writing by summarizing the main ideas of several publications • To cover a larger body of relevant literature • To present important ideas in a succinct way to avoid redundancy
- 7. Summarizing • Summarizing means putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). • Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material. • Summarized ideas must also be attributed to the original source through in-text citation- author’s last name +year of publication.
- 8. Why quote? • To highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage that strengthens your argument • To distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue readers that the words are not your own • To emphasize on a certain idea, phrase or words in your discussion
- 9. Quoting ● A quote is identical to the original and must match the source document word for word. – A quote is a small segment of the source and it can be: a whole paragraph a sentence a phrase or a word. ● A quote must be cited in-text with author’s last name, year of publication and page number from the original source.