Reading to Writing

Summarise and Paraphrase

Summary:
According to Sebranek, Meyer and kemper “A summary
is a condensed version of another text. An effective
summary gleans the key factual information from an
original document and does not contain personal opinions
or evaluations.”

Summarizing involves taking the main ideas from a piece

of text and rewriting them in your own words. A summary
is significantly shorter than the original text and tends to
give an overview of a topic area.
All important thinking skills such as an ability to
comprehend, analyze, synthesize and evaluate information
are required. In other words it’s simply getting rid of
smaller details and leaving only the primary points.
The summary gets to the ‘heart of the matter”. It does not
waste time on illustrations, examples and other minor
points, but carefully focuses on the essence of the
chapter’s content.
It should be a short version of a longer original source. Its
main goal is to present a large amount of information in a
short and concise text that includes only the most
important ideas of the original text.
 Highlight
Guidelines the amain
for writing ideas
Summary in the text you want to
summarise (skim the text).
 Read the selection carefully (pay attention to key words
and phrases).
Review the selection so that you have the overall meaning
clearly in mind as you begin to write.
Combine these ideas together in your own words.
Correctly interpret the original ideas.
Do not include your own opinion or add extra
information.
Use your own words unless you quote the author.
Paraphrase

According to Sebranek, Meyer and Kemper “a paraphrase

is a type of summary that is written in your own words. It
is particularly good for clarifying the meaning of a
difficult or symbolic piece of writing (poems, proverbs,
and documents). Because a paraphrase often includes your
interpretation, it is sometimes longer than the original.”
Paraphrasing means to rewrite an author’s ideas in your
own words. Often you are referring to a text in greater
detail than you would in a summary. Therefore it enables
you to explore and interrogate individual ideas at a deeper
level.
According to Paldino, it is the restatement of certain
pieces of information from a source.
When do we use Paraphrase?
You want information from a source but the words of the
author are not that important.
Paraphrase contains specific information not general
information.
Guidelines for writing a Paraphrase

Skim the passage carefully and quickly.

Reread the original passage until you understand its full
meaning.
Extract the main idea from the sentence and think about it on
its own.
Frame the idea in a new sentence.
Check your version with the original to make sure that your
version accurately expresses all the essential information.
Cite your source using recognized referencing format (APA).
The original passage:
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking
notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final
[research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final
manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter.
Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
Lester, J. D. (1976). Writing Research Papers. 46-47.
A plagiarized version:

Students often use too many direct quotations when they

take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final
research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the
final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it
is important to limit the amount of source material copied
while taking notes.
Summary
 Students should take just a few
notes in direct quotation from
sources to help minimize the
amount of quoted material in a
research paper (Lester, 1976).
Paraphrase
In research papers students
often quote excessively, failing
to keep quoted material down
to a desirable level. Since the
problem usually originates
during note taking, it is
essential to minimize the
material recorded verbatim
(Lester ,1976).
Niagara Falls is viewed by thousands of tourists every
year.
 Each year, thousands of people visit Niagara Falls.
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was painted by
Michelangelo.
 Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.
It was a spacious room with lit candles all over.
 Candles flickered from many areas of the large room.
In ancient times the olive branch was used as a peace
symbol, as well as the dove.
 Many centuries ago, peace was shown with an olive
branch and a dove.