paraphrasing and summarizing

Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing (Differences, Examples, How To)

It can be confusing to know when to paraphrase and when to summarize. Many people use the terms interchangeably even though the two have different meanings and uses.

Today, let’s understand the basic differences between paraphrasing vs. summarizing and when to use which . We’ll also look at types and examples of paraphrasing and summarizing, as well as how to do both effectively.

Let’s look at paraphrasing first.

What is paraphrasing?

It refers to rewriting someone else’s ideas in your own words. 

It’s important to rewrite the whole idea in your words rather than just replacing a few words with their synonyms. That way, you present an idea in a way that your audience will understand easily and also avoid plagiarism. 

It’s also important to cite your sources when paraphrasing so that the original author of the work gets due credit.

When should you paraphrase?

The main purpose of paraphrasing is often to clarify an existing passage. You should use paraphrasing when you want to show that you understand the concept, like while writing an essay about a specific topic. 

You may also use it when you’re quoting someone but can’t remember their exact words. 

Finally, paraphrasing is a very effective way to rewrite outdated content in a way that’s relevant to your current audience.

How to paraphrase effectively

Follow these steps to paraphrase any piece of text effectively:

• Read the full text and ensure that you understand it completely. It helps to look up words you don’t fully understand in an online or offline dictionary.
• Once you understand the text, rewrite it in your own words. Remember to rewrite it instead of just substituting words with their synonyms.
• Edit the text to ensure it’s easy to understand for your audience.
• Mix in your own insights while rewriting the text to make it more relevant.
• Run the text through a plagiarism checker to ensure that it does not have any of the original content.

Example of paraphrasing

Here’s an example of paraphrasing:

• Original:  The national park is full of trees, water bodies, and various species of flora and fauna.
• Paraphrased:  Many animal species thrive in the verdant national park that is served by lakes and rivers flowing through it.

What is summarizing?

Summarizing is also based on someone else’s text but rather than presenting their ideas in your words, you only sum up their main ideas in a smaller piece of text.

It’s important to not use their exact words or phrases when summarizing to avoid plagiarism. It’s best to make your own notes while reading through the text and writing a summary based on your notes.

You must only summarize the most important ideas from a piece of text as summaries are essentially very short compared to the original work. And just like paraphrasing, you should cite the original text as a reference.

When should you summarize?

The main purpose of summarizing is to reduce a passage or other text to fewer words while ensuring that everything important is covered.

Summaries are useful when you want to cut to the chase and lay down the most important points from a piece of text or convey the entire message in fewer words. You should summarize when you have to write a short essay about a larger piece of text, such as writing a book review.

You can also summarize when you want to provide background information about something without taking up too much space.

How to summarize effectively

Follow these steps to summarize any prose effectively:

• Read the text to fully understand it. It helps to read it a few times instead of just going through it once.
• Pay attention to the larger theme of the text rather than trying to rewrite it sentence for sentence.
• Understand how all the main ideas are linked and piece them together to form an overview.
• Remove all the information that’s not crucial to the main ideas or theme. Remember, summaries must only include the most essential points and information.
• Edit your overview to ensure that the information is organized logically and follows the correct chronology where applicable.
• Review and edit the summary again to make it clearer, ensure that it’s accurate, and make it even more concise where you can.
• Ensure that you cite the original text.

Example of summarization

You can summarize any text into a shorter version. For example, this entire article can be summarized in just a few sentences as follows:

• Summary:  The article discusses paraphrasing vs. summarizing by explaining the two concepts. It specifies when you should use paraphrasing and when you should summarize a piece of text and describes the process of each. It ends with examples of both paraphrasing and summarizing to provide a better understanding to the reader.

Paraphrasing vs. summarizing has been a long-standing point of confusion for writers of all levels, whether you’re writing a college essay or reviewing a research paper or book. The above tips and examples can help you identify when to use paraphrasing or summarizing and how to go about them effectively.

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About the author

Dalia Y.: Dalia is an English Major and linguistics expert with an additional degree in Psychology. Dalia has featured articles on Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, Grammarly, and many more. She covers English, ESL, and all things grammar on GrammarBrain.

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Summarizing vs Paraphrasing: Key Differences and Best Practices

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on Summarizing vs Paraphrasing! Ever found yourself tangled in the web of long texts, struggling to extract the main points?

Or perhaps you've been stumped on how to restate another's idea without using direct quotations?

You're not alone.

In this guide, we'll discuss summarizing and paraphrasing, two essential writing techniques that can help you communicate information and ideas effectively. We'll delve into their definitions and key differences and provide practical tips to ace both.

Whether you're summarizing a chapter or paraphrasing a sentence, we've got you covered. So, buckle up and get ready to transform your writing skills. Let's dive into the world of summarizing and paraphrasing, where every word counts, and every idea matters.

Stay tuned!

Understanding Summarizing and Paraphrasing: Definitions and Differences

In writing , summarizing and paraphrasing are two essential skills. They serve as powerful tools for writers to convey the essence of an original source in a unique manner. This section will delve into the definitions and differences between these two common terms, providing a comprehensive understanding of their usage and importance.

We'll explore the meaning and definition of paraphrasing and summarizing, and how they differ in handling a sentence or paragraph versus a long text. Let's dive in.

What is Summarizing?

Summarizing is a common term in writing and editing . It's the process of condensing a long text, such as a book or an article, into a brief and concise version to improve readability . The main point here is to capture the general idea or the main details of the original source without losing the context.

This practice is not just about shortening the text. It's about understanding the key differences, the background information, and the essence of the content. A well-crafted summary provides a clear, succinct understanding of the material, making it an invaluable tool for readers.

What is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing, a common term in writing, is the art of rewriting a text in your own words while maintaining the original meaning and message. It's a skill that requires a deep understanding of the original source, as the goal is to convey the main point accurately, but with a fresh perspective.

Summarizing vs Paraphrasing: Key Differences

Summarizing is about condensing the main points of a long text into a brief and concise version , focusing on the general idea. It's like giving a snapshot of a book, the difference being the scope of the content.

Paraphrasing, on the other hand, involves rewriting a specific sentence or paragraph in your own words, without changing the original meaning. It's more about presenting the main detail in a new light.

While both processes require understanding the key differences in the original source, summarizing is more about the 'big picture', and paraphrasing is about the 'fine details'.

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How to Summarize: Guidelines and Tips

Mastering the art of summarizing can be a game-changer in your academic or professional journey. This section will provide you with practical guidelines and tips on how to summarize effectively.

Whether you're summarizing a paper, a chapter, or a book, these tips will help you identify the main points and present them concisely.

Steps to Summarizing Effectively

• Read the Material : Start by thoroughly reading the material you want to summarize. This could be a paper, a chapter, or a book. Understand the context and the main points of the passage.
• Identify the Main Points : Highlight or note down the key ideas. This will help you summarize the source effectively.
• Write a Draft : Write a brief draft summarizing the main points. Make sure it's in your own words.
• Review and Edit : Review your draft and make sure it accurately represents the main ideas of the source. Edit as necessary for clarity and conciseness.

Top Tips to Ace Summarizing

✅ Identify the Main Points : Start by identifying the main points of the passage. This will help you to focus on the most important information and ignore less significant details.

✅ Avoid Specific Details : When summarizing, avoid listing specific details and individual pieces of data. Instead, stick to general ideas, conclusions, and results.

✅ Keep it Brief and Concise : Remember, the goal of summarizing is to condense a longer text into a brief and concise overview. So, keep your summary short and to the point.

✅ Paraphrase to Avoid Plagiarism : If you're using an AI to help you summarize, make sure to paraphrase the AI's summary to avoid plagiarism. This will also help you to better understand and retain the information.

✅ Use APA Style : If you're summarizing for academic purposes, make sure to follow APA style guidelines . This will ensure that your summary is properly formatted and cited.

How to Paraphrase: Guidelines and Tips

Paraphrasing is an art that requires a deep understanding of the source material and the ability to express the same ideas in a fresh, unique way. This section will provide you with practical guidelines and tips to master this skill. Whether you're summarizing a paper chapter or trying to paraphrase a passage, these tips will come in handy.

Remember, the goal is not just to change a few words here and there but to share the same message in a new light. Let's explore the steps and tips for ace paraphrasing.

Steps to Paraphrasing Effectively

• Understand the Source : Read the original text thoroughly until you grasp its meaning. This is the first step in paraphrasing.
• Rewrite in Your Words : Write down the main points in your own words without looking at the original text. This helps to ensure that you're not just copying the original wording.
• Compare and Edit : Compare your version with the original. Make sure you haven't changed the meaning. Edit for clarity and impact.
• Add Your Interpretation : Add your own thoughts and interpretation to the material. This can help make your paraphrase unique.
• Use a Plagiarism Checker : Finally, run your text through a plagiarism checker to ensure it's sufficiently different from the original.

Top Tips to Ace Paraphrasing

✅ Understand the Source : Before you begin paraphrasing, ensure you fully comprehend the source material. This will help you share the same message in your own words.

✅ Use Synonyms : Swap out words from the original text with synonyms . This helps maintain the meaning while creating a unique turn of phrase.

✅ Change Sentence Structure : Rearrange the sentence structure or change the subject of the sentence to add variety to your paraphrase.

✅ Add Your Interpretation : Don't just rewrite the text, add your own thoughts and interpretation to the material.

✅ Use a Plagiarism Checker : To ensure your paraphrase is distinct enough from the original, use a plagiarism checker. This will help you avoid unintentional plagiarism.

✅ Cite the Source : Even when paraphrasing, it's important to cite the source. This gives credit to the original author and adds credibility to your work.

When to Use Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Understanding when to use summarizing and paraphrasing can significantly enhance your writing. These techniques serve different purposes and are best suited for specific situations. Let's delve into the ideal scenarios for each.

Ideal Situations for Summarizing

When you want to present the general idea of a lengthy document or speech, summarizing is the way to go.

• If you have multiple points that need to be condensed into a few key takeaways, summarizing is your best bet.
• Summarizing is also ideal when you want your reader to grasp the important parts of a complex topic quickly.
• Lastly, summarizing can help you effectively support a specific point with another idea.

Ideal Situations for Paraphrasing

When you want to state another idea in a different way, paraphrasing can be a powerful tool.

• If you're trying to highlight a specific point from a source, paraphrasing allows you to do so without directly quoting the material.
• Paraphrasing is also beneficial when you need to present multiple points from a source, but want your reader to grasp the important part of each point.
• Lastly, paraphrasing is ideal when you're dealing with complex ideas that need to be broken down into simpler terms for better understanding.

Comparing Examples of Summarizing and Paraphrasing

In this section, we'll explore practical examples of summarizing and paraphrasing. We'll explore how to condense a long text into a brief and concise summary and how to rephrase a passage while preserving the original source's main detail. These examples will provide a clear definition and example of each technique, offering valuable writing tips for both summarizing and paraphrasing.

Example of Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Consider a long text from an original source.

• Summarizing the difference between the two concepts, you might say, "Concept A focuses on individual growth, while Concept B emphasizes community development." This brief and concise statement captures the main detail without delving into the specifics of each concept.
• In contrast, if you were to paraphrase the passage, you would restate the same point and detail in your own words, maintaining the length and depth of the original passage. For instance, "Concept A is all about fostering personal advancement, whereas Concept B is more concerned with nurturing communal progress."

The Benefits of Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Both techniques offer unique advantages, aiding in comprehension and communication. Whether you're summarizing the difference between a long text and its main details or paraphrasing to grasp a complex topic, these methods are invaluable tools.

They not only help in presenting information and ideas in a digestible manner but also foster critical thinking. Let's explore these benefits in detail.

Advantages of Summarizing

• Summarizing the difference between a long text and its main details allows for a brief and concise understanding of the content.
• It's useful when you need to present the general idea of a complex topic without delving into individual details.
• Summarizing can support points made in a discussion by providing a condensed version of the important parts.
• It's an effective way to pinpoint the key ideas in a document, identifying any knowledge gaps.
• Summaries can serve as a convenient resource for future reference, saving reading time.

Advantages of Paraphrasing

• Paraphrasing allows you to have a better understanding of the source material, as you're required to interpret and rephrase the information in your own words.
• It helps you to explain the original text's meaning to others in a more digestible manner, which can be particularly useful when dealing with complex or technical subjects.
• Paraphrasing can spark new ideas on how to approach a subject, as the process of rewording can lead to fresh perspectives and insights.
• It can help you develop your writing style, as you're not just copying and pasting information, but actively engaging with it and presenting it in your own unique way.
• Lastly, paraphrasing is a great way to avoid plagiarism. By rewording and citing the original source, you're respecting the original author's work while also adding your own touch to the content.

Wrapping Up: Summarizing and Paraphrasing

In conclusion, mastering the art of summarizing and paraphrasing is a crucial skill in academic writing and beyond. It allows you to present another's ideas in your own voice without losing the essence of the original source.

Remember, summarizing is about condensing a long text into a brief and concise overview, focusing on the main points. On the other hand, paraphrasing involves restating specific points or details in your own words, maintaining the same level of detail as the original.

Whether you choose to summarize or paraphrase largely depends on the scope of the information and the purpose of your writing. In all cases, it's essential to cite the source to avoid plagiarism.

With practice and the right approach, you can effectively use these techniques to enhance your writing, making it more engaging and informative for your readers.

If you need help perfecting your written content, try Strategically AI for free. Our AI content platform plans, builds, and optimizes well-structured articles for your website.

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Microsoft 365 Life Hacks > Writing > The Difference Between Summarizing & Paraphrasing

The Difference Between Summarizing & Paraphrasing

Summarizing and paraphrasing are helpful ways to include source material in your work without piling on direct quotes. Understand the differences between these approaches and when to use each.

Summarizing vs. Paraphrasing: The Biggest Differences

Though summarizing and paraphrasing are both tools for conveying information clearly and concisely, they help you achieve this in different ways. In general, the difference is rooted in the scale of the source material: To share an entire source at once, you summarize; to share a specific portion of a source (without quoting directly, of course), you paraphrase.

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What is Summarizing?

Summarizing is simplifying the content of a source to its main points in your own words. You literally sum up something, distill it down to its most essential parts. Summaries cover whole sources rather than a piece or pieces of a source and don’t include direct quotes or extraneous detail.

How to Summarize

• Understand the original thoroughly. You may start by scanning the original material, paying close attention to headers and any in-text summaries, but once you’re sure that this source is something you’re going to use in your research paper , review it more thoroughly to gain appropriate understanding and comprehension.
• Take notes of the main points. A bulleted list is appropriate here-note the main idea of each portion of the source material. Take note of key words or phrases around which you can build your summary list and deepen your understanding.
• Build your summary. Don’t just use the list you’ve already created—this was a first draft . Craft complete sentences and logical progression from item to item. Double check the source material to ensure you’ve not left out any relevant points and trim anything extraneous. You can use a bulleted or numbered list here or write your summary as a paragraph if that’s more appropriate for your use. Make sure to follow the rules of parallelism if you choose to stay in list form.

What is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is rephrasing something in your own words; the word comes from the Greek para -, meaning “beside” or “closely resembling”, 1 combined with “phrase,” which we know can mean a string of words or sentences. 2 Paraphrasing isn’t practical for entire sources—just for when you want to highlight a portion of a source.

How to Paraphrase

• Read actively . Take notes, highlight or underline passages, or both if you please-whatever makes it easiest for you to organize the sections of the source you want to include in your work.
• Rewrite and revise. For each area you’d like to paraphrase, take the time to rewrite it in your own words. Retain the meaning of the original text, but don’t copy it too closely; take advantage of a thesaurus to ensure you’re not relying too heavily on the source material.
• Check your work and revise again as needed . Did you retain the meaning of the source material? Did you simplify the language of the source material? Did you differentiate your version enough? If not, try again.

Summarizing and paraphrasing are often used in tandem; you’ll likely find it appropriate to summarize an entire source and then paraphrase specific portions to support your summary. Using either approach for including sources requires appropriate citing, though, so ensure that you follow the correct style guide for your project and cite correctly.

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How to Paraphrase and Summarize Work

Summing up key ideas in your own words.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Imagine you're preparing a presentation for your CEO. You asked everyone in your team to contribute, and they all had plenty to say!

But now you have a dozen reports, all in different styles, and your CEO says that she can spare only 10 minutes to read the final version. What do you do?

The solution is to paraphrase and summarize the reports, so your boss gets only the key information that she needs, in a form that she can process quickly.

In this article, we explain how to paraphrase and how to summarize, and how to apply these techniques to text and the spoken word. We also explore the differences between the two skills, and point out the pitfalls to avoid.

What Is Paraphrasing?

When you paraphrase, you use your own words to express something that was written or said by another person.

Putting it into your own words can clarify the message, make it more relevant to your audience , or give it greater impact.

You might use paraphrased material to support your own argument or viewpoint. Or, if you're putting together a report , presentation or speech , you can use paraphrasing to maintain a consistent style, and to avoid lengthy quotations from the original text or conversation.

Paraphrased material should keep its original meaning and (approximate) length, but you can use it to pick out a single point from a longer discussion.

What Is Summarizing?

In contrast, a summary is a brief overview of an entire discussion or argument. You might summarize a whole research paper or conversation in a single paragraph, for example, or with a series of bullet points, using your own words and style.

People often summarize when the original material is long, or to emphasize key facts or points. Summaries leave out detail or examples that may distract the reader from the most important information, and they simplify complex arguments, grammar and vocabulary.

Used correctly, summarizing and paraphrasing can save time, increase understanding, and give authority and credibility to your work. Both tools are useful when the precise wording of the original communication is less important than its overall meaning.

How to Paraphrase Text

To paraphrase text, follow these four steps:

1. Read and Make Notes

Carefully read the text that you want to paraphrase. Highlight, underline or note down important terms and phrases that you need to remember.

2. Find Different Terms

Find equivalent words or phrases (synonyms) to use in place of the ones that you've picked out. A dictionary, thesaurus or online search can be useful here, but take care to preserve the meaning of the original text, particularly if you're dealing with technical or scientific terms.

3. Put the Text into Your Own Words

Rewrite the original text, line by line. Simplify the grammar and vocabulary, adjust the order of the words and sentences, and replace "passive" expressions with "active" ones (for example, you could change "The new supplier was contacted by Nusrat" to "Nusrat contacted the new supplier").

Remove complex clauses, and break longer sentences into shorter ones. All of this will make your new version easier to understand .

4. Check Your Work

Check your work by comparing it to the original. Your paraphrase should be clear and simple, and written in your own words. It may be shorter, but it should include all of the necessary detail.

Paraphrasing: an Example

Despite the undoubted fact that everyone's vision of what constitutes success is different, one should spend one's time establishing and finalizing one's personal vision of it. Otherwise, how can you possibly understand what your final destination might be, or whether or not your decisions are assisting you in moving in the direction of the goals which you've set yourself?

The two kinds of statement – mission and vision – can be invaluable to your approach, aiding you, as they do, in focusing on your primary goal, and quickly identifying possibilities that you might wish to exploit and explore.

We all have different ideas about success. What's important is that you spend time defining your version of success. That way, you'll understand what you should be working toward. You'll also know if your decisions are helping you to move toward your goals.

Used as part of your personal approach to goal-setting, mission and vision statements are useful for bringing sharp focus to your most important goal, and for helping you to quickly identify which opportunities you should pursue.

How to Paraphrase Speech

In a conversation – a meeting or coaching session, for example – paraphrasing is a good way to make sure that you have correctly understood what the other person has said.

This requires two additional skills: active listening and asking the right questions .

Useful questions include:

• If I hear you correctly, you're saying that…?
• So you mean that…? Is that right?
• Did I understand you when you said that…?

You can use questions like these to repeat the speaker's words back to them. For instance, if the person says, "We just don't have the funds available for these projects," you could reply: "If I understand you correctly, you're saying that our organization can't afford to pay for my team's projects?"

This may seem repetitive, but it gives the speaker the opportunity to highlight any misunderstandings, or to clarify their position.

When you're paraphrasing conversations in this way, take care not to introduce new ideas or information, and not to make judgments on what the other person has said, or to "spin" their words toward what you want to hear. Instead, simply restate their position as you understand it.

Sometimes, you may need to paraphrase a speech or a presentation. Perhaps you want to report back to your team, or write about it in a company blog, for example.

In these cases it's a good idea to make summary notes as you listen, and to work them up into a paraphrase later. (See How to Summarize Text or Speech, below.)

How to Summarize Text or Speech

Follow steps 1-5 below to summarize text. To summarize spoken material – a speech, a meeting, or a presentation, for example – start at step three.

1. Get a General Idea of the Original

First, speed read the text that you're summarizing to get a general impression of its content. Pay particular attention to the title, introduction, conclusion, and the headings and subheadings.

2. Check Your Understanding

Build your comprehension of the text by reading it again more carefully. Check that your initial interpretation of the content was correct.

3. Make Notes

Take notes on what you're reading or listening to. Use bullet points, and introduce each bullet with a key word or idea. Write down only one point or idea for each bullet.

If you're summarizing spoken material, you may not have much time on each point before the speaker moves on. If you can, obtain a meeting agenda, a copy of the presentation, or a transcript of the speech in advance, so you know what's coming.

Make sure your notes are concise, well-ordered, and include only the points that really matter.

The Cornell Note-Taking System is an effective way to organize your notes as you write them, so that you can easily identify key points and actions later. Our article, Writing Meeting Notes , also contains plenty of useful advice.

4. Write Your Summary

Bullet points or numbered lists are often an acceptable format for summaries – for example, on presentation slides, in the minutes of a meeting, or in Key Points sections like the one at the end of this article.

However, don't just use the bulleted notes that you took in step 3. They'll likely need editing or "polishing" if you want other people to understand them.

Some summaries, such as research paper abstracts, press releases, and marketing copy, require continuous prose. If this is the case, write your summary as a paragraph, turning each bullet point into a full sentence.

Aim to use only your own notes, and refer to original documents or recordings only if you really need to. This helps to ensure that you use your own words.

If you're summarizing speech, do so as soon as possible after the event, while it's still fresh in your mind.

5. Check Your Work

Your summary should be a brief but informative outline of the original. Check that you've expressed all of the most important points in your own words, and that you've left out any unnecessary detail.

Summarizing: an Example

So how do you go about identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them? SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you to do this.

What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you to uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt your ability to move forward in your role.

If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself from your peers, and further develop the specialized talents and abilities that you need in order to advance your career and to help you achieve your personal goals.

SWOT Analysis is a technique that helps you identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Understanding and managing these factors helps you to develop the abilities you need to achieve your goals and progress in your career.

Permission and Citations

If you intend to publish or circulate your document, it's important to seek permission from the copyright holder of the material that you've paraphrased or summarized. Failure to do so can leave you open to allegations of plagiarism, or even legal action.

It's good practice to cite your sources with a footnote, or with a reference in the text to a list of sources at the end of your document. There are several standard citation styles – choose one and apply it consistently, or follow your organization's house style guidelines.

As well as acknowledging the original author, citations tell you, the reader, that you're reading paraphrased or summarized material. This enables you to check the original source if you think that someone else's words may have been misused or misinterpreted.

Some writers might use others' ideas to prop up their own, but include only what suits them, for instance. Others may have misunderstood the original arguments, or "twisted" them by adding their own material.

If you're wary, or you find problems with the work, you may prefer to seek more reliable sources of information. (See our article, How to Spot Real and Fake News , for more on this.)

Paraphrasing means rephrasing text or speech in your own words, without changing its meaning. Summarizing means cutting it down to its bare essentials. You can use both techniques to clarify and simplify complex information or ideas.

To paraphrase text:

• Read and make notes.
• Find different terms.
• Put the text into your own words.
• Check your work.

You can also use paraphrasing in a meeting or conversation, by listening carefully to what's being said and repeating it back to the speaker to check that you have understood it correctly.

To summarize text or speech:

• Get a general idea of the original.
• Check your understanding.
• Make notes.
• Write your summary.

Seek permission for any copyrighted material that you use, and cite it appropriately.

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A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

Depending on the conventions of your discipline, you may have to decide whether to summarize a source, paraphrase a source, or quote from a source.

When and how to summarize

When you summarize, you provide your readers with a condensed version of an author's key points. A summary can be as short as a few sentences or much longer, depending on the complexity of the text and the level of detail you wish to provide to your readers. You will need to summarize a source in your paper when you are going to refer to that source and you want your readers to understand the source's argument, main ideas, or plot (if the source is a novel, film, or play) before you lay out your own argument about it, analysis of it, or response to it.

Before you summarize a source in your paper, you should decide what your reader needs to know about that source in order to understand your argument. For example, if you are making an argument about a novel, you should avoid filling pages of your paper with details from the book that will distract or confuse your reader. Instead, you should add details sparingly, going only into the depth that is necessary for your reader to understand and appreciate your argument. Similarly, if you are writing a paper about a journal article, you will need to highlight the most relevant parts of the argument for your reader, but you should not include all of the background information and examples. When you have to decide how much summary to put in a paper, it's a good idea to consult your instructor about whether you are supposed to assume your reader's knowledge of the sources.

Guidelines for summarizing a source in your paper

• Identify the author and the source.
• Represent the original source accurately.
• Present the source’s central claim clearly.
• Don’t summarize each point in the same order as the original source; focus on giving your reader the most important parts of the source
• Use your own words. Don’t provide a long quotation in the summary unless the actual language from the source is going to be important for your reader to see.

Stanley Milgram (1974) reports that ordinarily compassionate people will be cruel to each other if they are commanded to be by an authority figure. In his experiment, a group of participants were asked to administer electric shocks to people who made errors on a simple test. In spite of signs that those receiving shock were experiencing great physical pain, 25 of 40 subjects continued to administer electric shocks. These results held up for each group of people tested, no matter the demographic. The transcripts of conversations from the experiment reveal that although many of the participants felt increasingly uncomfortable, they continued to obey the experimenter, often showing great deference for the experimenter. Milgram suggests that when people feel responsible for carrying out the wishes of an authority figure, they do not feel responsible for the actual actions they are performing. He concludes that the increasing division of labor in society encourages people to focus on a small task and eschew responsibility for anything they do not directly control.

This summary of Stanley Milgram's 1974 essay, "The Perils of Obedience," provides a brief overview of Milgram's 12-page essay, along with an APA style parenthetical citation. You would write this type of summary if you were discussing Milgram's experiment in a paper in which you were not supposed to assume your reader's knowledge of the sources. Depending on your assignment, your summary might be even shorter.

When you include a summary of a paper in your essay, you must cite the source. If you were using APA style in your paper, you would include a parenthetical citation in the summary, and you would also include a full citation in your reference list at the end of your paper. For the essay by Stanley Milgram, your citation in your references list would include the following information:

Milgram, S. (1974). The perils of obedience. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), The Blair reader (pp.725-737).

When and how to paraphrase

When you paraphrase from a source, you restate the source's ideas in your own words. Whereas a summary provides your readers with a condensed overview of a source (or part of a source), a paraphrase of a source offers your readers the same level of detail provided in the original source. Therefore, while a summary will be shorter than the original source material, a paraphrase will generally be about the same length as the original source material.

When you use any part of a source in your paper—as background information, as evidence, as a counterargument to which you plan to respond, or in any other form—you will always need to decide whether to quote directly from the source or to paraphrase it. Unless you have a good reason to quote directly from the source , you should paraphrase the source. Any time you paraphrase an author's words and ideas in your paper, you should make it clear to your reader why you are presenting this particular material from a source at this point in your paper. You should also make sure you have represented the author accurately, that you have used your own words consistently, and that you have cited the source.

This paraphrase below restates one of Milgram's points in the author's own words. When you paraphrase, you should always cite the source. This paraphrase uses the APA in-text citation style. Every source you paraphrase should also be included in your list of references at the end of your paper. For citation format information go to the Citing Sources section of this guide.

Source material

The problem of obedience is not wholly psychological. The form and shape of society and the way it is developing have much to do with it. There was a time, perhaps, when people were able to give a fully human response to any situation because they were fully absorbed in it as human beings. But as soon as there was a division of labor things changed.

--Stanley Milgram, "The Perils of Obedience," p.737.

Milgram, S. (1974). The perils of obedience. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), The Blair reader (pp.725-737). Prentice Hall.

Milgram (1974) claims that people's willingness to obey authority figures cannot be explained by psychological factors alone. In an earlier era, people may have had the ability to invest in social situations to a greater extent. However, as society has become increasingly structured by a division of labor, people have become more alienated from situations over which they do not have control (p.737).

When and how much to quote

The basic rule in all disciplines is that you should only quote directly from a text when it's important for your reader to see the actual language used by the author of the source. While paraphrase and summary are effective ways to introduce your reader to someone's ideas, quoting directly from a text allows you to introduce your reader to the way those ideas are expressed by showing such details as language, syntax, and cadence.

So, for example, it may be important for a reader to see a passage of text quoted directly from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried if you plan to analyze the language of that passage in order to support your thesis about the book. On the other hand, if you're writing a paper in which you're making a claim about the reading habits of American elementary school students or reviewing the current research on Wilson's disease, the information you’re providing from sources will often be more important than the exact words. In those cases, you should paraphrase rather than quoting directly. Whether you quote from your source or paraphrase it, be sure to provide a citation for your source, using the correct format. (see Citing Sources section)

You should use quotations in the following situations:

• When you plan to discuss the actual language of a text.
• When you are discussing an author's position or theory, and you plan to discuss the wording of a core assertion or kernel of the argument in your paper.
• When you risk losing the essence of the author's ideas in the translation from their words to your own.
• When you want to appeal to the authority of the author and using their words will emphasize that authority.

Once you have decided to quote part of a text, you'll need to decide whether you are going to quote a long passage (a block quotation) or a short passage (a sentence or two within the text of your essay). Unless you are planning to do something substantive with a long quotation—to analyze the language in detail or otherwise break it down—you should not use block quotations in your essay. While long quotations will stretch your page limit, they don't add anything to your argument unless you also spend time discussing them in a way that illuminates a point you're making. Unless you are giving your readers something they need to appreciate your argument, you should use quotations sparingly.

When you quote from a source, you should make sure to cite the source either with an in-text citation or a note, depending on which citation style you are using.  The passage below, drawn from O’Brien’s  The Things They Carried , uses an MLA-style citation.

On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. Then he burned the two photographs. There was a steady rain falling, which made it difficult, but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it with his body holding the photographs over the tight blue flame with the tip of his fingers.

He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too, but mostly just stupid. (23)

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried . New York: Broadway Books, 1990.

Even as Jimmy Cross burns Martha's letters, he realizes that "it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental too, but mostly just stupid" (23).

If you were writing a paper about O'Brien's The Things They Carried in which you analyzed Cross's decision to burn Martha's letters and stop thinking about her, you might want your reader to see the language O'Brien uses to illustrate Cross's inner conflict. If you were planning to analyze the passage in which O'Brien calls Cross's realization stupid, sentimental, and then stupid again, you would want your reader to see the original language.

• Locating Sources
• Evaluating Sources
• Sources and Your Assignment
• A Source's Role in Your Paper
• Choosing Relevant Parts of a Source
• The Nuts & Bolts of Integrating

PDFs for This Section

• Using sources
• Integrating Sources
• Online Library and Citation Tools

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Paraphrasing and summarizing

Part 3: Chapter 9

Questions to consider

A. What are the qualities of a strong summary?

B. What, when, and why do scholars summarize?

A summary is a condensed version of a longer text. Summaries of different lengths are useful in research writing because they provide readers with an explanation of supporting material. The first step in writing a good summary is to do a thorough reading of the text. Even the strongest readers sometimes find very new, very complex, or very dense work difficult to process.

Read for comprehension by remaining engaged. Continuously ask and answer a few basic questions.

A. What is the unique point here?

B. Which ideas come from the author; which material is support cited from other sources?

C. How are the ideas connected (e.g. cause and effect? chronologically?)?

D. What is the likely conclusion?

Three steps to producing a strong summary

• Read for main ideas;
• articulate the primary message without relying too heavily on the original language (including vocabulary and sentence structure); then,
• draft a paraphrase that includes a citation giving credit to the source in the appropriate format.

Other summarizing guidelines

A quote is a direct restatement of the exact words from the original source. Using three or more words exactly as they appear in the original source is a quote. In contrast, a paraphrase is a restatement of the information or point of the original source. Paraphrases and quotes must always accompanied by a proper citation of the source.

Long and direct quotations are discouraged in research writing, especially in the STEM fields. Material incorporated from an outside source should be paraphrased in almost all situations. The use of direct quotes should be limited to when

• the exact words of the source are important, particularly with technical language, terms, or very specific word choices; or
• the author or speaker of the original language is uniquely powerful.

In higher level summaries, source information is generally restricted to the citation; it is not necessary to mention the author or their credentials, the article title, or the publication name in the summary. This is contrary to what many students learn in earlier writing instruction.

Following the order of the original source information is often tempting, as it seems well organized and effective (indeed, it has been published). However, summary writers may omit what they do not need and reorganize material to suit their purposes. These efforts can contribute to the freshness of the paraphrase when they are implemented well.

Finally, research writers must only summarize from an original source (the primary source ) and NOT the reference material (the secondary sources ) included for support.

Exercise #1 – Practice Summary

Read this discussion section from Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30-country, multi-industry study and then respond to the questions below.

1 Adopting a HCT perspective (Becker, 1993, 2008; Tan, 2014), we proposed and found that IWE, as an investment in human capital, is associated with higher perceived external employability, which in turn is positively related to promotions and subjective financial success. 2 Although this mediated relationship was not moderated by economic freedom as hypothesised, supplementary analyses that differentiated between short-term and long-term IWE however showed that, in countries with low economic freedom, the indirect relationships between short-term IWE and career success indicators through perceived external employability were more pronounced. 3 The present study thus highlights the role of perceived external employability as a core mediator underlying the IWE–career success link. 4 Including promotions and subjective financial success as indicators of both OCS and SCS provides a more nuanced picture of how IWE relates to career success. 5 Although the study focuses on specific indicators of OCS and SCS, the empirical findings have greater generalisability compared to much of research that precedes our study given that our results hold across a large-scale sample of employees in four broad occupational groups from 30 countries and more than 20 industries. 6 While empirical evidence overrepresents countries from the Anglo, Latin European and/or Germanic European clusters, our study incorporates a sample that includes countries from all GLOBE clusters (House et al., 2004) and thus many countries that have never been researched with respect to international assignments and career outcomes. [1]

HCT: human capital theory suggests education and training contribute to a person’s earning power IWE: international work experience OCS: objective career success SCS: subjective career success

• What is the main idea here? Is there only one?
• What language (words or phrases) cannot be paraphrased without compromising meaning?
• What material should not be included in the summary? Why?
• Draft two versions of a complete summary of this material including a citation in an appropriate format. Strive to make them grammatically distinct from each other and from the original.

The opinions or interpretation of the summary writer do not belong in a summary. When the assignment is an evaluative review, the author may inject information beyond the main idea of the summarized material.

Writers quote and paraphrase from research in order to support their points and to persuade their readers. A quote or a paraphrase from a piece of evidence in support of a point answers the reader’s question, “Says who?” This is especially true in academic writing since scholarly readers are most persuaded by effective research and documented evidence. For example, readers of an article about a new cancer medication published in a medical journal will be most interested in the research and statistics that demonstrate the effectiveness of the treatment. Conversely, they will not be as persuaded by emotional stories from individual patients about how a new cancer medication improved the quality of their lives. The real art to research writing is using evidence effectively to support the point. Certain rules of style are applied as prescribed by academic departments and publication editors, including which citation system to use.

Language in Action

A. How common are direct quotations in scholarly publications found in academic journals? Are they more or less common in publications meant for general consumption, like newspapers or internet blogs?

B. What is the strongest incentive for including and citing material from other sources?

Plagiarism awareness

Plagiarism is the unauthorized or uncredited use of the writings or ideas of another. While it might not be as tangible as stealing a car or robbing a bank, plagiarism is still a form of theft. The use of artificial intelligence programs (like Chat GPT ) does not produce original writing a researcher can call their own. As these resources become increasingly available, it is important for writers to focus on producing their own sentences, paragraphs, theses and ideas that they can explain and defend.

In the academic world, plagiarism is a serious matter because ideas in the forms of research, creative work, and original thought are highly valued. As it is a form of academic dishonesty, most schools have strict rules about what happens when someone is caught plagiarizing.

Like theft, plagiarism can take several different forms. The most well-known, purposeful plagiarism is submitting work written by someone else or material copied word for word from a source.

Both purposeful and accidental plagiarism are wrong, violate established rules, and often result in harsh punishments. Ignoring or not knowing the rules of how to properly cite evidence might be explanations, but they are not acceptable excuses.

Here are examples that use quotations and paraphrases from this original text from Cyberculture as translated by Robert Bononno:

1 Those who denounce cyberculture today strangely resemble those who criticized rock music during the fifties and sixties. 2 Rock started out as an Anglo-American phenomenon and has become an industry. 3 Nonetheless, it was able to capture the hopes of young people around the world and provided enjoyment to those of us who listened to or played rock. 4 Sixties pop was the conscience of one or two generations that helped bring the war in Vietnam to a close. 5 Obviously, neither rock nor pop has solved global poverty or hunger. 6 But is this a reason to be “against” them? (ix).

Source: Lévy, P. (2001). Cyberculture. Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press.

Examples of plagiarized work

First, an obvious example of plagiarism from that article.

1 Those who denounce cyberculture today strangely resemble those who criticized rock music during the fifties and sixties.

The writer has literally taken one of Lévy’s sentences and represented it as her own.

Another example:

1 The people who criticize cyberculture are the same kind of people who criticized rock and roll music back in the fifties and sixties. But both cyberculture and rock music inspire and entertain young people.

While these aren’t Lévy’s exact words, they are certainly close enough to constitute a form of plagiarism.

Examples of acceptable paraphrasing

These are stronger paraphrases, although the use of a direct quotation is not ideal.

1 Pierre Lévy suggests that people who criticize cyberculture are the same kind of people who criticized rock and roll music back in the fifties and sixties. But both cyberculture and rock music inspire and entertain young people (ix).

1 In the introduction of his book Cyberculture, Pierre Lévy observes that “Those who denounce cyberculture today strangely resemble those who criticized rock music during the fifties and sixties” (ix).

Note that changing these passages from examples of plagiarism to acceptable examples of a quotation and a paraphrase is only achieved by properly citing the source.

Often, students are unclear as to whether they need to cite a piece of evidence because they believe it to be common knowledge or because they are not sure about the source of information. What is common knowledge in a field is typically seen without a citation in a range of publications (from journal articles to dissertations and textbooks). [2]

Review and Reinforce

A. How does the research of others influence readers?

B. How much material from outside sources is required to support a message or thesis statement?

Exercise #2

1 In Taiwan, the delayed graduation of graduate students has become an important educational issue of social concern (Ho et al., 2020). 2  Gardner (2009) found that the reasons for the low graduation rate of doctoral students include being unable to complete their degree theses, among others. 3 The completion of the degree thesis is an important milestone and the biggest obstacle for graduate students (Blum, 2010).  4 Muszynski (1990) found that graduate students who fail to graduate in time may be uninterested in the research topic, have low academic confidence, or have too many research papers to complete.  5 Spaulding and Rockinson-Szapkiw (2012) interviewed 76 doctoral graduates and found that motivation, persistence factors, and completion strategies were necessary to complete their dissertations. [3]

1. Consider the above opening paragraph from A Study of Graduate Students’ Achievement Motivation, Active Learning, and Active Confidence Based on Relevant Research .

2. Then look at a paragraph from one of its primary sources (sentence #4 above), Hearing their Voices: Factors Doctoral Candidates Attribute to their Persistence .

1 When participants were interviewed, they worked in different states and professional settings across the United States and earned their degrees from varying institutions across the span of five decades (Participant 3 – 1976; Participant 36 – 2011); however, each participant shared one common experience—doctoral persistence, evidenced by the completion of an educational doctorate. 2 Though the contexts differed and motivations for pursuing the degree varied, participants all cited various personal sacrifices along the way, often found their completion expectations to be unrealistic due to a myriad of intervening factors, and largely found the dissertation to be the most challenging aspect of the degree completion process. 3 However, because they were both personally and professionally motivated to begin the degree, had compelling reasons to persist, developed an array of resilience mechanisms, and generated strategies for dissertation completion, these participants evaded becoming an attrition statistic, unlike presumably half of their peers (Ivankova & Stick, 2007; Nettles & Millet, 2006), and currently hold a terminal degree in their discipline. [4]

3. Evaluate how and why the supporting material was incorporated.

Media Attributions

• masks © Edmonton Economic Development Corporation is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA (Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike) license
• Andresen, M., Lazarova, M., Apospori, E., Cotton, R., Bosak, J., Dickmann, M., Kaše, R., & Smale, A. (2022). Does international work experience pay off? The relationship between international work experience, employability and career success: A 30-country, multi-industry study. Human Resource Management Journal , 32(3), 698–721. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12423 ↵
• Adapted from Krause, S. (2021, March 23). The Process of Research Writing Retrieved June 2, 2021, from https://human.libretexts.org/@go/page/6460 ↵
• Chang, J.-C., Wu, Y.-T., & Ye, J.-N. (2022). A Study of Graduate Students’ Achievement Motivation, Active Learning, and Active Confidence Based on Relevant Research . Frontiers in Psychology,  13, 915770–915770. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.915770 ↵
• Spaulding, L. S., & Rockinson-Szapkiw, A. (2012). Hearing their Voices: Factors Doctoral Candidates Attribute to their Persistence.  International Journal of Doctoral Studies , 7, 199-219. https://doi.org/10.28945/1589 ↵

a condensed version of a longer text

a direct restatement of the exact words from the original source

a restatement of the information or point of the original source in entirely new wording

a reference presenting their own data and information

reference material used and cited by a primary source

to act of presenting another source of information or ideas as one's own work; literary theft

Sourcing, summarizing, and synthesizing:  Skills for effective research writing  Copyright © 2023 by Wendy L. McBride is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center at MTSU

University writing center, res 3: quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.

Dynamic PDF:   Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

Overview 

Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are tools writers can use to incorporate sources into their own writing.  Learning when and how to utilize each of these skills is key to producing polished, professional research projects. Though the exact specifics of incorporating outside sources can differ between disciplines, knowing some basic guidelines can help.

Quoting occurs when you incorporate part of another person’s writing or speech word for word. They are set off by quotation marks. However, be careful not to “pluck” and “plop” the original source into your work. Instead, consider introducing your quote with a leading phrase and make sure you note where the information comes from.

• Example: Stephen King (2000) advises, “You can read anywhere, almost, but when it comes to writing, library carrels, park benches, and rented flats should be courts of last resort” (155).

When to quote: Quotes should be used sparingly in writing since too many quotes can bog down the reader. However, a carefully-placed quote can be used to demonstrate specific details about a source that might be lost in a paraphrase.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing occurs when you incorporate an idea from another person’s writing or speech, but instead of using the exact wording of the author, you write the idea in your own way. A paraphrase uses approximately the same amount of words as the original text. Even though you are not directly quoting, you should still cite where the information comes from.

• Example: Stephen King (2000) advises fellow writers that while reading can be done from anywhere, writing should occur, if possible, away from distracting places like park benches (155).

When to paraphrase: Paraphrasing should be used when you want to incorporate ideas from others but feel like your own phrasing will make the idea become better integrated into your writing. The choice between quote and paraphrase depends on the writing situation. 

Summarizing

Summarizing occurs when you want to condense information and present the idea in a concise way to the reader. Like a paraphrase, a summary will be worded in your own way and must be cited. However, a summary will be much shorter in length from the original source.

• Example: In the “On Writing” section of Stephen King’s (2000) book, he emphasizes that good writers should be constantly reading as a way to inadvertently hone their writing craft (145-148).

When to summarize: Summarizing can be used any time you want to express a main idea of an entire text or a larger portion of a text.

Best practices: Avoiding Plagiarism and Patchwriting

Effective paraphrasing begins with your own research process. When you encounter a passage you think might be helpful, try not to copy down that passage verbatim. Instead, jot down the outline of the argument or thought and make sure to indicate the page number or location for future reference. When you’re ready to incorporate that research into your paper, you can expand your notes using your own words. Once you’ve written and incorporated a paraphrase, remember to include a citation.

Patchwriting  occurs when a writer essentially uses the original source’s wording but only rearranges, adds, or deletes a few words or phrases. This is not best practice in responsibly using sources.

• Original Source: “You can read anywhere, almost, but when it comes to writing, library carrels, park benches, and rented flats should be courts of last resort.”
• Patchwritten: Stephen King (2000) says that you can read any place, almost, but when it comes time to write, benches, library spaces, and rented flats should be a last resort (155).

The underlined portion here indicates the author’s original words. As one can see, the student needs to decide whether or not to quote directly or attempt a better paraphrase.

To paraphrase responsibly:

• Close it  (After you’ve read the part of the source you wish to use, close it or put it away.)
• Compose it  (Attempt your paraphrase.)
• Check it  (Check to ensure that your paraphrase is not only original but also still accurately captures the idea of the original source.)
• Cite it  (Don’t forget to cite the source in the citation style required.)

Some Helpful Resources

• Driscoll, Dana Lynn and Allen Brizee. “Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing.”  Purdue OWL , 2018 . 
• Plotnick, Jerry. “Paraphrase and Summary.”  UC Writing Centre: Handouts on Writing .

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Module 2: Reading Strategies

Summarizing and paraphrasing, learning objectives.

• Summarize a passage of reading
• Paraphrase a passage of reading

Have you ever heard, “the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else”?

Writing a summary of a source is a very similar process to teaching someone the content—but in this case, the student you’re teaching is yourself.

Summarizing , or condensing someone else’s ideas and putting it into your own shortened form, allows you to be sure that you’ve accurately captured the main idea of the text you’re reading. When reading, summarizing is helpful for checking your understanding of a longer text and remembering the author’s main ideas. When writing, summarizing is critical when reviewing, writing an abstract, preparing notes for a study guide, creating an annotated bibliography, answering essay questions, recording results of an experiment, describing the plot of a fictional work or film, or writing a research paper.

How to Write Summary Statements

Use these processes to help you write summary statements:

• Underline important information and write keywords in the margin.
• Record ideas using a two-column note-taking system. Record questions you have about the text concepts in the left column and answers you find in the reading in the right column.
• Identify how concepts relate to what you already know.
• Add examples and details

For retaining key ideas as you read, write a summary statement at the end of each paragraph or section. For capturing the major ideas of the entire work, write a summary paragraph (or more) that describes the entire text.

Tips for Summary

For longer, overall summary projects that capture an entire reading, consider these guidelines for writing a summary:

• A summary should contain the main thesis or standpoint of the text, restated in your own words. (To do this, first find the thesis statement in the original text.)
• A summary is written in your own words. It contains few or no quotes.
• A summary is always shorter than the original text, often about 1/3 as long as the original.  It is the ultimate fat-free writing. An article or paper may be summarized in a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs. A book may be summarized in an article or a short paper. A very large book may be summarized in a smaller book.
• A summary should contain all the major points of the original text , and should ignore most of the fine details, examples, illustrations or explanations.
• The backbone of any summary is formed by crucial details (key names, dates, events, words and numbers). A summary must never rely on vague generalities.
• If you quote anything from the original text, even an unusual word or a catchy phrase, you need to put whatever you quote in quotation marks (” “).
• A summary must contain only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.

You can view the transcript for “Summarizing” here (opens in new window) .

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the act of putting an author’s ideas into your own words. When reading, paraphrasing is helpful for checking your understanding of what you read as well as remembering what you read. When writing, paraphrasing is an important skill to have when constructing a research paper and incorporating the ideas of others alongside your own.

Click to view the transcript for “Paraphrasing” here (opens in new window) .

paraphrasing : rewriting a passage of text in your own words

• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• PQRST Script. Provided by : Lethbridge College. Located at : http://www.lethbridgecollege.net/elearningcafe/index.php/pqrst-script . Project : eLearning Cafe. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Summarizing. Provided by : Excelsior College. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-after-reading/summarizing/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Why Use Quotes?. Authored by : The News Manual. Provided by : Media Helping Media. Located at : http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/journalism-basics/659-how-to-use-quotes-in-news-stories-and-features . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• How to Write an A-plus Summary of a Text. Authored by : Owen M. Williamson. Provided by : The University of Texas at El Paso. Located at : http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl0310/summaryhints.htm . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

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Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Summing up key ideas in your own words.

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Make complex information easier to digest!

Imagine you're preparing a presentation for your CEO. You asked everyone in your team to contribute, and they all had plenty to say!

But now you have a dozen reports, all in different styles, and your CEO says that she can spare only 10 minutes to read the final version. What do you do?

The solution is to paraphrase and summarize the reports, so your boss gets only the key information that she needs, in a form that she can process quickly.

In this article, we explain how to paraphrase and how to summarize, and how to apply these techniques to text and the spoken word. We also explore the differences between the two skills, and point out the pitfalls to avoid.

What Is Paraphrasing?

When you paraphrase, you use your own words to express something that was written or said by another person.

Putting it into your own words can clarify the message, make it more relevant to your audience   , or give it greater impact.

You might use paraphrased material to support your own argument or viewpoint. Or, if you're putting together a report   , presentation   or speech   , you can use paraphrasing to maintain a consistent style, and to avoid lengthy quotations from the original text or conversation.

Paraphrased material should keep its original meaning and (approximate) length, but you can use it to pick out a single point from a longer discussion.

What Is Summarizing?

In contrast, a summary is a brief overview of an entire discussion or argument. You might summarize a whole research paper or conversation in a single paragraph, for example, or with a series of bullet points, using your own words and style.

People often summarize when the original material is long, or to emphasize key facts or points. Summaries leave out detail or examples that may distract the reader from the most important information, and they simplify complex arguments, grammar and vocabulary.

Used correctly, summarizing and paraphrasing can save time, increase understanding, and give authority and credibility to your work. Both tools are useful when the precise wording of the original communication is less important than its overall meaning.

How to Paraphrase Text

To paraphrase text, follow these four steps:

1. Read and Make Notes

Carefully read the text that you want to paraphrase. Highlight, underline or note down important terms and phrases that you need to remember.

2. Find Different Terms

Find equivalent words or phrases (synonyms) to use in place of the ones that you've picked out. A dictionary, thesaurus or online search can be useful here, but take care to preserve the meaning of the original text, particularly if you're dealing with technical or scientific terms.

3. Put the Text into Your Own Words

Rewrite the original text, line by line. Simplify   the grammar and vocabulary, adjust the order of the words and sentences, and replace "passive" expressions with "active" ones (for example, you could change "The new supplier was contacted by Nusrat" to "Nusrat contacted the new supplier").

Remove complex clauses, and break longer sentences into shorter ones. All of this will make your new version easier to understand   .

4. Check Your Work

Check your work by comparing it to the original. Your paraphrase should be clear and simple, and written in your own words. It may be shorter, but it should include all of the necessary detail.

Paraphrasing: an Example

Despite the undoubted fact that everyone's vision of what constitutes success is different, one should spend one's time establishing and finalizing one's personal vision of it. Otherwise, how can you possibly understand what your final destination might be, or whether or not your decisions are assisting you in moving in the direction of the goals which you've set yourself?

The two kinds of statement – mission and vision – can be invaluable to your approach, aiding you, as they do, in focusing on your primary goal, and quickly identifying possibilities that you might wish to exploit and explore.

We all have different ideas about success. What's important is that you spend time defining your version of success. That way, you'll understand what you should be working toward. You'll also know if your decisions are helping you to move toward your goals.

Used as part of your personal approach to goal-setting, mission and vision statements are useful for bringing sharp focus to your most important goal, and for helping you to quickly identify which opportunities you should pursue.

How to Paraphrase Speech

In a conversation – a meeting or coaching session, for example – paraphrasing is a good way to make sure that you have correctly understood what the other person has said.

This requires two additional skills: active listening   and asking the right questions   .

Useful questions include:

• If I hear you correctly, you're saying that…?
• So you mean that…? Is that right?
• Did I understand you when you said that…?

You can use questions like these to repeat the speaker's words back to them. For instance, if the person says, "We just don't have the funds available for these projects," you could reply: "If I understand you correctly, you're saying that our organization can't afford to pay for my team's projects?"

This may seem repetitive, but it gives the speaker the opportunity to highlight any misunderstandings, or to clarify their position.

When you're paraphrasing conversations in this way, take care not to introduce new ideas or information, and not to make judgements on what the other person has said, or to "spin" their words toward what you want to hear. Instead, simply restate their position as you understand it.

Sometimes, you may need to paraphrase a speech or a presentation. Perhaps you want to report back to your team, or write about it in a company blog, for example.

In these cases it's a good idea to make summary notes as you listen, and to work them up into a paraphrase later. (See How to Summarize Text or Speech, below.)

How to Summarize Text or Speech

Follow steps 1-5 below to summarize text. To summarize spoken material – a speech, a meeting, or a presentation, for example – start at step 3.

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1. Get a General Idea of the Original

First, speed read   the text that you're summarizing to get a general impression of its content. Pay particular attention to the title, introduction, conclusion, and the headings and subheadings.

2. Check Your Understanding

Build your comprehension of the text by reading it again more carefully. Check that your initial interpretation of the content was correct.

3. Make Notes

Take notes on what you're reading or listening to. Use bullet points, and introduce each bullet with a key word or idea. Write down only one point or idea for each bullet.

If you're summarizing spoken material, you may not have much time on each point before the speaker moves on. If you can, obtain a meeting agenda, a copy of the presentation, or a transcript of the speech in advance, so you know what's coming.

Make sure your notes are concise, well-ordered, and include only the points that really matter.

The Cornell Note-Taking System   is an effective way to organize your notes as you write them, so that you can easily identify key points and actions later. Our article, Writing Meeting Notes   , also contains plenty of useful advice.

4. Write Your Summary

Bullet points or numbered lists are often an acceptable format for summaries – for example, on presentation slides, in the minutes of a meeting, or in Key Points sections like the one at the end of this article.

However, don't just use the bulleted notes that you took in step 3. They'll likely need editing or "polishing" if you want other people to understand them.

Some summaries, such as research paper abstracts, press releases, and marketing copy, require continuous prose. If this is the case, write your summary as a paragraph, turning each bullet point into a full sentence.

Aim to use only your own notes, and refer to original documents or recordings only if you really need to. This helps to ensure that you use your own words.

If you're summarizing speech, do so as soon as possible after the event, while it's still fresh in your mind.

5. Check Your Work

Your summary should be a brief but informative outline of the original. Check that you've expressed all of the most important points in your own words, and that you've left out any unnecessary detail.

Summarizing: an Example

So how do you go about identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them? SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you to do this.

What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you to uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt your ability to move forward in your role.

If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself from your peers, and further develop the specialized talents and abilities that you need in order to advance your career and to help you achieve your personal goals.

SWOT Analysis is a technique that helps you identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Understanding and managing these factors helps you to develop the abilities you need to achieve your goals and progress in your career.

Permission and Citations

If you intend to publish or circulate your document, it's important to seek permission from the copyright holder of the material that you've paraphrased or summarized. Failure to do so can leave you open to allegations of plagiarism, or even legal action.

It's good practice to cite your sources with a footnote, or with a reference in the text to a list of sources at the end of your document. There are several standard citation styles – choose one and apply it consistently, or follow your organization's house style guidelines.

As well as acknowledging the original author, citations tell you, the reader, that you're reading paraphrased or summarized material. This enables you to check the original source if you think that someone else's words may have been misused or misinterpreted.

Some writers might use others' ideas to prop up their own, but include only what suits them, for instance. Others may have misunderstood the original arguments, or "twisted" them by adding their own material.

If you're wary, or you find problems with the work, you may prefer to seek more reliable sources of information. (See our article, How to Spot Real and Fake News   , for more on this.)

Paraphrasing means rephrasing text or speech in your own words, without changing its meaning. Summarizing means cutting it down to its bare essentials. You can use both techniques to clarify and simplify complex information or ideas.

To paraphrase text:

• Read and make notes.
• Find different terms.
• Put the text into your own words.
• Check your work.

You can also use paraphrasing in a meeting or conversation, by listening carefully to what's being said and repeating it back to the speaker to check that you have understood it correctly.

To summarize text or speech:

• Get a general idea of the original.
• Check your understanding.
• Make notes.
• Write your summary.

Seek permission for any copyrighted material that you use, and cite it appropriately.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter , or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

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Comments (10)

• Over a month ago Midgie wrote Hi sahibaMehry, My view is that we paraphrase the meaning and essence of what has been said, rather than sentence by sentence or word for word. If you are to use the exact words, that would be 'quoting' someone. Hope that helps. Midgie Mind Tools Team
• Over a month ago sahibaMehry wrote Hello could you please answer my question do we need to paraphrase sentences in summarizing or not we should summarize it word to word?
• Over a month ago Michele wrote Hi SabrinaSeo, You are most welcome. We hope the information in the article was helpful. Michele Mind Tools Team

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• Peterborough

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Putting it in your own words, summarizing and paraphrasing, step one: skim the source, step two: take point-form notes, step three: close or put away the source, step four: turn your point-form notes into sentences.

• Step Five: Test What You Have Written to Ensure You Have Avoided Plagiarism

Step Six: Make Any Necessary Corrections

When writing a research paper, you, the writer, must incorporate into the paper the information and ideas you have learned in the course of your research that come from primary and secondary sources. Occasionally, it is appropriate to quote, but, usually, it is better to either paraphrase or summarize what you have learned. This task may seem simple; how often have we heard a teacher or instructor tell us to put what we have read “into our own words”? Yet, while easy to say, it is not so easy to do. 

It is important to be able to summarize and paraphrase correctly in order to effectively integrate your research into your essay without relying on direct quotation or committing plagiarism.

Summarizing – means rewriting something in your own words but shortening it by stating only the main idea and the supporting points you need for your purposes. A summary can be just one sentence or it can be much longer, depending on whether you are presenting a broad overview or a more thorough outline.

Paraphrasing – means rewriting something in your own words, giving the same level of detail as the source and at roughly the same length as the original. You may choose to paraphrase details or particular evidence and/or examples.

The choice between summarizing and paraphrasing depends on how much detail from the source you need for your paper. When you need the source’s main argument and/or supporting points, summarize. Or, you may summarize a section or part of a source, by identifying the section’s main point or idea. When you want all the details from a particular passage or section of a source, paraphrase. (Don’t try to paraphrase an entire source.)

Whether you decide to summarize or paraphrase a source, the process is similar. You just can’t cut and paste a chunk of text   into your essay draft and then change a few words here and there. You will remain too close to the source’s organization, sentence structure and phrasing. Instead follow these six steps.

Skim a source to determine what you need from it: its argument, a specific supporting point, and/or particular evidence. Identify exactly what information you want to go into your paper. This decision will help you decide how detailed your notes about this source should be.

For a paraphrase, the notes will be more detailed and extensive. For a summary, the notes will focus on the main points of a reading. Either way, taking notes is an acquired skill and takes practice.

The first stage in the note-taking process is illustrated below. The note-taker has decided to paraphrase the passage as it has lots of detailed information relevant to the paper being written. The note-taker then reads the passage, bolding the important information and ideas he or she wishes to capture for the paper, and then pauses to jot down notes.

In America today, millions of people leave their homes in a protracted and often futile search for healthy food for their families. Many walk out their front doors and see nothing but fast-food outlets and convenience stores selling high-fat, high-sugar processed foods; others see no food vendors of any kind . Without affordable fresh food options, especially fruit and vegetables, adults and children face fundamental challenges to making the healthy food choices that are essential for nutritious, balanced diets. And without grocery stores and other viable fruit and vegetable  merchants, neighborhoods lack a critical ingredient of vibrant, livable communities: quality food retailers that create jobs, stimulate foot traffic, and bolster local commerce .

(From: Bell.J. & Standish, M. (2009). Building healthy communities through equitable food access. Community Development Investment Review, 5 (3), 75-87.)

• For millions in the US: looking for healthy food to buy difficult. Why?
• Many neighbourhoods have no grocery stores: only fast-food and convenience stores

Convenience Stores:

• Sell high-fat, high-sugar candy, junk and processed food (anything healthy is more expensive?)

No grocery stores = fund. challenges to healthy eating

Neighbourhoods lack grocery stores, any kind of fruit and vegetable vendors that create jobs

• stimulate foot traffic (how? Usually surrounded by parking lots?)
• bolster local commerce

Overall effect:

• Hard to eat in healthy manner (lack of health? obesity?)
• Breakdown of vibrancy and livability of communities

The note-taker first identifies the main point of the passage. The notes are in point-form: the reason for not writing out full sentences is to break the connection with the original’s sentence structure. The note-taker also occasionally inserts questions for further analysis or follow-up.  Doing all of these things filters the information and ideas of the source through the note-taker’s own understanding.

If, instead of paraphrasing, you make the decision to summarize the passage, the notes would include only the major points of the passage.

This is a fairly self-explanatory step, but the point is that when you try to write about the information you have learned from this source, you do so without the source in front of you.

How to do this? Keep in mind that both paraphrasing and summarizing are about showing that you have internalized what you have read to the point where you can say it yourself. So, read over your notes two or three times, put those out of sight too, and, perhaps pretending you are explaining what you have just read to a fellow student or your instructor, write either your paraphrase/summary. Remember that, for a summary all you have to do is convey the main point and key supporting points of the passage, not the details.  

You need to make clear where the information and arguments come from, so it can be a good idea to start off with the author’s or authors’ name(s).  Writing “Bell and Standish argue that...” or “Bell and Standish’s main point is that...” is often a good way to get the words to start to flow. Remember you can rearrange the information, group it differently, or change the sequence slightly to suit your purposes; all of these actions will help you to write the paraphrase or summary in “your own words.”

Step Five: Test What You Have Written To Ensure You Have Avoided Plagiarism

If you followed the first four steps rigorously, you should pass this test. The way to test your writing is to go through your passage and the original passage and underline, highlight or put in bold the words that appear in both passages. There is no way to write a paraphrase or a summary that does not have some of the same words as the original, but doing this test will show you any places where you have lifted whole phrases or sentences and put them in your text.

Words appearing in both passages are in bold:

Bell and Standish (2009) make the point that, for millions of Americans, buying healthy, fresh food such as fruits and vegetables , takes a major effort because many neighbourhoods do not have grocery stores close by but only fast-food outlets and convenience stores . Convenience stores do not sell much healthy food but, instead, sell junk food , candy, and processed food hi gh in fat and sugar . Some neighbourhoods do not have food vendors of any kind .  Bell and Standish argue that these kinds of neighbourhoods are not just places in which it is difficult to buy and eat healthy food , they are also less vigorous and energetic, and less comfortable to live in because grocery stores and other healthy food vendors may encourage walking, create jobs , and support the local economy in other ways as well.

The test shows that while the two passages share many common words, there are very few exact copies of phrases in the paraphrase. Phrases such as “grocery store,” “healthy food,” “convenience store,” or “food vendors” are not unique turns of phrase that belong to one writer; they are common terms, so changing these words is not necessary. For example, “convenience store” is the best and most commonly used phrase for that particular kind of retail outlet; changing it would be artificial and less clear. (The same rule applies to technical and scientific terminology. These terms don’t belong to anyone, and there is no reason to try to find synonyms for them.)

Precisely how long can a phrase that is identical to one in the original source be before it becomes a problem? A phrase of three words is usually too long; it should be changed or included as a direct quotation. Based on this criteria, in the paraphrase, there are a couple of problematic phrases that should be changed:  “fast-food outlets and convenience stores,” and “food vendors of any kind.”

Words common to the original source and to the paraphrase are in bold:

Bell and Standish (2009) argue that for millions of Americans, healthy eating is a difficult task because many neighbourhoods do not have grocery stores close by, only fast-food restaurants or convenience stores . These neighbourhoods lack the jobs and economic support that grocery stores bring, thus making them less “vibrant” and “livable” (75).

The words in bold show that the summary passes the test. It’s usually a little easier to write a summary in your own words than to write a paraphrase in your own words because condensing and shortening will automatically ensure some change in organization, sentence structure and wording. In this case, the decision was made to quote the two final adjectives, “vibrant” and “livable”, as none of the synonyms were as descriptive in as few words.  

You may find a few exact phrases from your test; it is important to change them. In the paraphrase, “fast-food outlets and convenience stores” can be changed to “convenience stores or fast-food restaurants.” Similarly, “food vendors of any kind” can be changed to “any type of food vendor.”

Another technique to keep in mind is to occasionally quote a short phrase in the midst of your summary or paraphrase. For example, in the final sentence of the original passage, the authors used two adjectives, “vibrant” and “livable.” These appear in the paraphrase as “vigorous and energetic” and “comfortable for its residents to live in.” However, the authors are here using a distinctive turn of phrase to describe ideal communities as opposed to using common terms such as “convenience store” or “healthy food”. So, in this instance, another good choice would be to quote the authors:

...Bell and Standish argue that these kinds of neighbourhoods are not just places in which it is difficult to buy and eat healthy food, they are also less “vibrant” and less “livable” (75) because grocery stores and other healthy food vendors may encourage walking, create jobs, and support the local economy in other ways as well.

As you can see, learning how to paraphrase and to summarize your sources takes practice and patience. Following the six steps suggested here should ensure that you are successful in conveying information and ideas learned from your sources “in your own words”.

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Paraphrase and Summary

When should i paraphrase, and when should i summarize.

To paraphrase means to restate someone else’s ideas in your own language at roughly the same level of detail. To summarize means to reduce the most essential points of someone else’s work into a shorter form. Along with quotation, paraphrase and summary provide the main tools for integrating your sources into your papers. When choosing which to use, consider first your discipline and the type of writing in which you are engaged. For example, literature reviews in science reports rely almost exclusively on summary. Argumentative essays, by contrast, rely on all three tools.

Paraphrase and summary are indispensable in argumentative papers because they allow you to include other people’s ideas without cluttering up your paragraphs with quotations . These techniques help you take greater control of your essay. Consider using either tool when an idea from one of your sources is important to your essay but the wording is not. Space limitations may guide you in your choice. But above all, think about how much of the detail from your source is relevant to your argument. If your reader needs to know only the bare bones, then summarize.

Though paraphrase and summary are often preferable to quotation, do not rely too heavily on them, either. Your ideas are what matter most. Allow yourself the space to develop those ideas.

How do I paraphrase?

Whenever you paraphrase, remember these two points:

• You must provide a reference.
• The paraphrase must be in your own words. You must do more than merely substitute phrases here and there. You must also create your own sentence structures.

Finding new words for ideas that are already well expressed can be hard, but changing words should not be your chief aim anyway. Focus, rather, on filtering the ideas through your own understanding. The following strategy will make the job of paraphrasing a lot easier:

• When you are at the note-taking stage, and you come across a passage that may be useful for your essay, do not copy the passage verbatim unless you think you will want to quote it.
• If you think you will want to paraphrase the passage, make a note only of the author’s basic point (or points). You don’t even need to use full sentences.
• In your note, you should already be translating the language of the original into your own words. What matters is that you capture the original idea.
• Make sure to jot down the source as well as the page number so that you can make a proper reference later on.

When it comes time to write the paper, rely on your notes rather than on the author’s work. You will find it much easier to avoid borrowing from the original passage because you will not have seen it recently. Follow this simple sequence:

• Convert the ideas from your notes into full sentences.
• Provide a reference.
• Go back to the original to ensure that (a) your paraphrase is accurate and (b) you have truly said things in your own words.

Let’s look at examples of illegitimate and legitimate paraphrase, using a passage from Oliver Sacks’ essay “An Anthropologist on Mars”:

The cause of autism has also been a matter of dispute. Its incidence is about one in a thousand, and it occurs throughout the world, its features remarkably consistent even in extremely different cultures. It is often not recognized in the first year of life, but tends to become obvious in the second or third year. Though Asperger regarded it as a biological defect of affective contact—innate, inborn, analogous to a physical or intellectual defect—Kanner tended to view it as a psychogenic disorder, a reflection of bad parenting, and most especially of a chillingly remote, often professional, "refrigerator mother." At this time, autism was often regarded as "defensive" in nature, or confused with childhood schizophrenia. A whole generation of parents—mothers, particularly—were made to feel guilty for the autism of their children.

What follows is an example of illegitimate paraphrase :

The cause of the condition autism has been disputed. It occurs in approximately one in a thousand children, and it exists in all parts of the world, its characteristics strikingly similar in vastly differing cultures. The condition is often not noticeable in the child’s first year, yet it becomes more apparent as the child reaches the age of two or three. Although Asperger saw the condition as a biological defect of the emotions that was inborn and therefore similar to a physical defect, Kanner saw it as psychological in origin, as reflecting poor parenting and particularly a frigidly distant mother. During this period, autism was often seen as a defence mechanism, or it was misdiagnosed as childhood schizophrenia. An entire generation of mothers and fathers (but especially mothers) were made to feel responsible for their offspring’s autism (Sacks 247-48).

Most of these sentences do little more than substitute one phrase for another. An additional problem with this passage is that the only citation occurs at the very end of the paragraph. The reader might be misled into thinking that the earlier sentences were not also based on Sacks.

The following represents a legitimate paraphrase of the original passage:

In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks lists some of the known facts about autism. We know, for example, that the condition occurs in roughly one out of every thousand children. We also know that the characteristics of autism do not vary from one culture to the next. And we know that the condition is difficult to diagnose until the child has entered the second or third year of life. As Sacks points out, often a child who goes on to develop autism will show no sign of the condition at the age of one (247). Sacks observes, however, that researchers have had a hard time agreeing on the causes of autism. He sketches the diametrically opposed positions of Asperger and Kanner. On the one hand, Asperger saw the condition as representing a constitutional defect in the child's ability to make meaningful emotional contact with the external world. On the other hand, Kanner regarded autism as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices. For many years confusion about this condition reigned. One unfortunate consequence of this confusion, Sacks suggests, was the burden of guilt imposed on so many parents for their child's condition (247-48).

This paraphrase illustrates a few basic principles that can help you to paraphrase more effectively:

• Refer explicitly to the author in your paraphrase. The passage above makes explicit right away that the ideas come from Sacks. Its indebtedness is signaled in a few strategic places. The single parenthetical note at the end of each paragraph is therefore all that is needed by way of citation. Referring to Sacks also strengthens the passage by clarifying the source of its ideas.
• Don’t just paraphrase. Analyze. In the paraphrase of Sacks, the decision to split the original passage into two paragraphs adds an analytical dimension: the new passage doesn’t just reiterate his points but lays out the two-part structure of his argument.
• Not all of the details from the original passage need to be included in the paraphrase.
• You don't need to change every word. For the sake of clarity, keep essential terms the same (e.g., autism , culture , children ). However, avoid borrowing entire phrases (e.g., reflection of bad parenting ) unless they are part of the discourse of your field (e.g., psychogenic disorder ).

How do I summarize?

Summary moves much further than paraphrase from point-by-point translation. When you summarize a passage, you need first to absorb the meaning and then to capture in your own words the most important elements from the original passage. A summary is necessarily shorter than a paraphrase.

Here is a summary of the passage from "An Anthropologist on Mars":

In "An Anthropologist on Mars," Sacks notes that although there is little disagreement on the chief characteristics of autism, researchers have differed considerably on its causes. As he points out, Asperger saw the condition as an innate defect in the child's ability to connect with the external world, whereas Kanner regarded it as a consequence of harmful childrearing practices (247-48).

Written by Jerry Plotnick, Director, University College Writing Centre

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Paraphrasing Guide

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Published on: Feb 24, 2024

Last updated on: May 28, 2024

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Paraphrasing and summarizing are essential tools for effective communication. These techniques allow writers to convey information accurately and concisely in their own words, while maintaining the original meaning. 

Understanding the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing is key to becoming a proficient communicator. This blog aims to provide practical examples of both techniques, helping writers sharpen their skills and enhance the clarity of their writing.

Paraphrasing Examples 

Let's look at some real examples of paraphrasing . We'll show you how to rewrite text in your own words while keeping it clear and still conveying the same meaning. All of the examples below have been generated by the AI paraphrasing tool from MyEssayWriter.ai .

Example 1: Technological Advancement -  Paraphrased Perspectives 

Original text: 

“The rapid advancement of technology has revolutionized the way we communicate with each other. From traditional forms of communication such as letters and telegrams to modern digital platforms like social media and email, technology has greatly enhanced our ability to connect and interact with people around the world.”

Paraphrased version:  

“The fast progression of technology has transformed the methods through which we interact with one another. While we once relied on conventional means like written letters and telegrams, contemporary digital channels such as social networking sites and email have significantly amplified our capacity to engage with individuals globally.” 

Explanation of The Paraphrasing Process 

Here is how we paraphrased the original text:

• The original passage main ideas about technology and communication are preserved
• Language and sentence structure are changed to express the message differently
• “Rapid advancement” is rephrased as “fast progression”
• “Revolutionized” is replaced with “transformed”
• The essence of the original statement is maintained, providing a new viewpoint

Example 2: Simplified Insights on Artificial Intelligence 

Original text:

“The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has become increasingly prevalent in various industries. Through machine learning algorithms and data analysis, AI systems have the capability to automate tasks, optimize processes, and improve decision-making.”

Paraphrased text:  

“Artificial intelligence (AI) has gained prominence across diverse sectors due to its capacity for automation, process enhancement, and data-driven decision-making facilitated by machine learning algorithms and analytical tools.”

The following key points explain the paraphrasing process of Example 2:

• The essence of the original text about the growing importance of artificial intelligence and its capabilities remains unaltered
• The wording and structure have been adjusted to convey the same meaning using varied phrasing
• Terms like “increasingly prevalent” have been paraphrased as “gained prominence”
• “Optimize processes” has been simplified to “process enhancement” while preserving the core message

If you’re interested in exploring more paraphrasing examples, we encourage you to check out the following resources available on our website:

• The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Technology
• Artificial Intelligence: Unveiling Its Power and Potential

Summarizing Examples 

Summarizing is the act of condensing the main ideas of a text or communication to convey the key information concisely. You only include the most important parts and leave out the rest. 

Here are some examples to help you understand summarization better. These examples have been generated by the AI content summarizer from MyEssayWrtier.ai . 

Example 1: Harry Potter's Journey - A Summarized Adventure 

Original text:  “The novel follows the journey of a young orphan named Harry Potter who discovers he is a wizard on his eleventh birthday. He attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he learns about the magical world and battles the dark wizard Voldemort, ultimately defeating him and saving the wizarding world from evil.”

Summarized version:   “Harry Potter, an orphaned wizard, attends Hogwarts School, learns about magic, and confronts Voldemort, ultimately triumphing over evil.”

Summarizing Process 

• In the above summary of the example, we: Simplified the story to include only the most important parts
• Left out small details and extra storylines to keep it short
• Kept the main focus on Harry Potter's story: finding out he's a wizard, going to Hogwarts, and fighting Voldemort

Example 2: The Industrial Revolution - A Condensed Overview 

Original text:  

“The Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 18th century, marked a significant shift in human history. It brought about mechanization, urbanization, and social transformation. The invention of steam engines and the rise of factories revolutionized manufacturing processes, leading to economic growth and societal changes.”

Summarized version:  

“The Industrial Revolution, starting in the late 18th century, transformed society through mechanization, urbanization, and economic growth driven by steam engines and factories.”

In the above summary of the example, we:

• Highlighted key historical period and its impact.
• Condensed the description of mechanization, urbanization, and economic changes.
• Focused on major technological advancements like steam engines and factories as driving forces behind societal transformation.

If you’re interested in exploring more summarizing examples, check out the following resources available on our website:

Technological Landscape with AI Applications of Artificial Intelligence

Here are some short examples to show how brief sentences can be said in different ways. Each original sentence is rephrased and then summarized to make it shorter.

In summary , this blog has helped you understand the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing with some great examples. Both techniques help simplify complex ideas. With the practical examples included, we have shown how language can be reshaped while keeping the meaning intact. 

If you require a quick and easy solution for your academic writing worries, we have the perfect solution for you. MyEssayWriter.ai has a suite of features designed to enhance your productivity. Enhance your writing easily and clearly with the best AI Essay Writer available today!

Frequently Asked Questions

How are quotations, paraphrases, and summaries different.

Quoting means copying the exact words. Paraphrasing means saying the same thing in your own words. Summarizing means shortening the main points.

What could be some paraphrase quote examples?

For example, instead of saying, “The sky is blue,” you can say, “The sky looks blue today.”

What are some examples of paraphrasing and summarizing in counseling?

In counseling, paraphrasing means repeating what someone said using different words, like saying “You seem worried” instead of “You look anxious.” Summarizing means summing up what was talked about in the session.

What do summarizing and paraphrasing have in common?

Summarizing and paraphrasing both mean simplifying ideas. They help people understand better by putting things in simpler words

Caleb S. (Masters, Mass Literature and Linguistics)

Caleb S. is an accomplished author with over five years of experience and a Master's degree from Oxford University. He excels in various writing forms, including articles, press releases, blog posts, and whitepapers. As a valued author at MyEssayWriter.ai, Caleb assists students and professionals by providing practical tips on research, citation, sentence structure, and style enhancement.

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• Key Differences

Know the Differences & Comparisons

Difference Between Summary and Paraphrase

On the other hand, paraphrase means the restatement of the passage, in explicit language, so as to clarify its hidden meaning, without condensing it. In paraphrasing, the written material, idea or statement of some other person is presented in your own words, which is easy to understand.

These two are used in an excerpt to include the ideas of other author’s but without the use of quotations. Let us talk about the difference between summary and paraphrase.

Content: Summary Vs Paraphrase

Comparison chart, definition of summary.

A summary is an abridged form of a passage, which incorporates all the main or say relevant points of the original text while keeping the meaning and essence intact. It is used to give an overview of the excerpt in brief, to the reader. In summary, the author’s ideas are presented in your own words and sentences, in a succinct manner.

A summary encapsulates the gist and the entire concept of the author’s material in a shorter fashion. It also indicates the source of the information, using citation. Basically the length of the summary depends on the material being condensed.

It encompasses the main idea of every paragraph and the facts supporting that idea. It does not end with a conclusion, however, if there is a message in the conclusion, it is included in the summary. It also uses the keywords from the original material, but it does not use the same phrases or sentences.

Summaries save a lot of time of the reader, as the reader need not go through the entire work to filter the most important information contained in it, rather the reader gets the most relevant information in hand.

Definition of Paraphrase

Paraphrasing is not a reproduction of a similar copy of another author’s work, rather it means to rewrite the excerpt in your own language, using comprehensible words and restructuring the sentences, but without changing the context. Hence, in paraphrasing, the original idea and meaning of the text are maintained, but the sentence structure and the words used to deliver the message would be different.

The paraphrased version of the text is simple and easily understandable. The length is almost similar to the original text, as it only translates the original text into simplest form. It is not about the conversion of the text in a detailed manner, rather it is presented in such a way that goes well with your expression.

In paraphrasing, someone else’s written material is restated or rephrased in your own language, containing the same degree of detail. It is the retelling of the concept, using a different tone to address a different audience.

Key Differences Between Summary and Paraphrase

The points discussed below, explains the difference between summary and paraphrase

• To summarize means to put down the main ideas of the essential points of the excerpt, in your own words, while keeping its essence intact. On the contrary, to paraphrase means to decode the original text in your own words without distorting its meaning or essence.
• A summary is all about emphasizing the central idea (essence) and the main points of the text. In contrast, paraphrasing is done to simplify and clarify the meaning of the given excerpt, so as to enhance its comprehension.
• If we talk about the length of the summary in comparison to the original text, it is shorter, because summary tends to highlight the main points only and excludes the irrelevant material of the text. As against, in case of paraphrasing, the length is almost equal to the original text, because its aim is to decipher, i.e. to convert the complex text in a language which is easily understandable without excluding any material from the text.
• The main objective of summarizing is to compile and present the gist of the author’s idea or concept in a few sentences or points. Conversely, the primary objective of paraphrasing is to clarify the meaning of author’s work in a clear and effective manner when the words used by him/her are not important or the words are too complex to understand.
• A summary is used when you want to give a quick overview of the main ideas to the reader about the topic. On the contrary, Paraphrase is used when the idea or main point is more significant than the actual words used in the material and also when you want to use your own voice to explain the concept or idea.
• A summary does not include lengthy explanations, examples and what the reader has understood. In contrast, a paraphrase does not include the exact same wordings or paragraphs used in the original source, so as to avoid plagiarism.

Steps for Summarizing

• First of all, you need to read the entire passage twice or thrice to grasp the meaning and essence of the material.
• Identify and underline all the important points, ideas and supporting facts which you have read.
• Now, explain the material to yourself, for better understanding.
• Rewrite in your own words, the salient points and central idea from the original text, in a few sentences.
• Omit unnecessary detailing and examples.
• Make a comparison of the original text and the summary which you’ve created.

Steps for Paraphrasing

• Read the entire text carefully, twice or thrice, to absorb the meaning and essence.
• Rewrite the author’s ideas in a unique language, i.e. in your own voice. Make sure that the sentences and words used are your own and it should not be a mere substitution or swapping of words and phrases.
• Further, the sequence in which idea is presented, need not be different from the original source.
• Compare the paraphrased version with the main text, and ensure that the essence clearly presented, as well as make sure that it is free from plagiarism.
• Check that the words and phrases which are directly taken from the text are within quotation marks.
• Provide references.

In a nutshell, a summary is nothing but a shorter version of an excerpt or passage. On the contrary, a paraphrase is the restatement of the original text or excerpt. One can use any of the two sources, as per the requirement, when the idea of any of the sources is relevant to your material, but the wording is not that important.

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Paraphrasing VS Summarizing: Differences and Examples

• Smodin Editorial Team
• Updated: September 13, 2022

Composing a piece of text for an assignment or a blog can require you to perform thorough research, compose content, and ensure its uniqueness. That brings the need for paraphrasing the content and summarizing. However, the terms paraphrasing and summarizing are mistaken as synonyms. They are both related, but they are not the same. To clarify the concepts in this blog, we will focus on paraphrasing vs summarizing and their differences.

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing refers to writing a piece of content again without changing its actual meaning. It would require you to read the text and present that in your own words. A paraphrased text can take the major part of the original text and can be generally shorter.

The need to paraphrase

From blogs to assignments, paraphrasing can be the call for creating content in different situations. For a broader picture, here is the set of reasons why you need to paraphrase:

• To refine the specific text from a short passage.
• To save from the overuse of quotations.
• To explain the word without focusing on wordings.
• To report statistics and numerical data.
• To share the crucial part of a passage.
• To avoid plagiarism.

How to paraphrase without the occurrence of any plagiarism issue?

Plagiarism refers to presenting the work of some other author as one’s. With many benefits and usage of paraphrasing, using content without plagiarism is another. Either through adding synonyms or changing the speech, there are different ways to paraphrase without plagiarizing. To facilitate it for you, here are the steps you can proceed with:

• Understand the meaning

Before you begin to compose the content in your own words, it is necessary for you to understand it properly. For this, you can read the resource several times, and you can even look for multiple references. It can allow you to have several sources and a lot of information.

• Note down the major points

  Whether you consider single or multiple references, you should note down the important points. With this, you can take the information and still not copy the same notion of the writer. You can use the material and phrase it in your words.

• Write your content

  Once you understand the meaning and take the major points, you can compose fresh content. While doing so, you must make sure that you do not have to look at the original passage and prepare for what you have understood.

• Compare the content

After writing your content, the next step should be comparing it with the original passage. It can allow you to evaluate the authenticity of the facts and check if you have missed any crucial information.

• Cite the Source

  Even if you write the content in your own words, citation helps track the original idea. It also gives the credit to the original source.

What does paraphrased content look like?

To get a clearer idea of paraphrased content, you can take a look at these examples of paraphrasing:

Original Content

Digital marketing has been a growing field in the past decades. It includes using different platforms to promote businesses. Its purpose is to connect to its target audience present in digital mediums.

Paraphrased Content

Over the past decades, digital marketing has become a booming field. It consists of promoting a brand while availing of the different digital platforms. It paves the way for businesses to reach their potential customers on various platforms.

Both of these passages have the same meaning but are written differently. The choices of the words are not the same, and in the first sentence only, there is a change in the sentence structure. That is how you can paraphrase the content.

What Is Summarizing?

Summary refers to a short review, a restatement of the major points, which is a conclusion of the work in most cases. With this, summarizing refers to composing a summary of the content or other resources. It has to communicate the most crucial part for the writer. You have to prepare it in your own words, and it has to state the information you want to emphasize.

When to Summarize?

Several benefits come with the need to summarize. First of all, it allows you to understand the structure in which the content has been organized and then combine them into the major parts. With this, you can focus on putting lights in the most crucial part of the text. Here are the conditions that require summarizing:

• To reduce the source material and bring out the major and relatable points.
• To remove extra information from the crucial source material.
• To make the material simple and easy to understand.

How to Summarize?

Summarizing involves taking the ideas from a text, which can be some other author. You must also add the citation information for sharing the source of the concept. You can use Smodin Summarizer to summarize all the texts you want. Like we did for paraphrasing, here is the step-by-step explanation of summarizing:

Find and Read

The first step you need to do is select the text. It can be four to five lines and can support the idea. After that, you have to thoroughly read it to get a detailed idea and understanding of the topic. You must prepare notes, and add the keywords, terms, and keywords you can use to understand it better.

Filter the Content

Once done with this, you have to filter the content you will compose into the summary. For this, you have to select the text you want to keep and eliminate the unnecessary. After sorting the material you have to include, you can write the summary in your own words.

Revise and Edit

After completing your summary, you have to read it and correct any mistakes. You also have to verify the facts presented over there. To attain that, you can compare it with the text and make sure that there are no aspects left for you to make changes.

Before submitting your summary, you must check if it can identify the writer of the actual text. It has to consist and combine the ideas initially written and present unbiased information.

What does summarizing look like?

To get a clear picture of what summarization can look like, let us present an example of the summary.

Here are a few paragraphs on the importance of language:

Language plays a crucial role in communication among people. After becoming a master in it, you can become well-versed with its grammar, the system of words, and structure to facilitate the exchange of thoughts and emotions. It is also essential to express the ideas and customs in societies and cultures. When you choose to learn the concepts of a new language, you can connect with new thoughts and ideas. You can also make yourself familiar with customs and the manner in which people greet each other.

The role of learning a language also encompasses professional growth as a person with a command of the global language can find more career possibilities. Several sectors and industries need professionals well-versed in common languages.

(Anonymous)

This is an anonymous paragraph, but it is necessary to identify the writer. So, let us assume that Dr. A has written it for a paper presented at University Y in 2020. The title is The influence of language on an individual . In that case, here is how you will present the summary of the paragraph:

In the paper on The influence of language on an Individual at Y University, Z, Dr. A presented his thoughts on language. It allows people to exchange their thoughts and ideas. Learning a new language can allow people to connect to new thoughts and ideas and learn about new customs. It can also pave the way for your growth at a professional level. This is because industries often look for professionals who master a commonly-spoken language.

About the Summary

This summary has the source, time, and writer while expressing the essential points. It also states the perception presented by the author but in a different and neutral manner.

Final Thoughts

Paraphrasing and summarizing are somehow different from each other. This blog has focused on putting some light on paraphrasing vs summarizing . Where paraphrasing is about conveying the same messages without shortening the length, summarizing explains the crucial points more succinctly. However, the need is to create plagiarism-free content through both the methods you prefer to go ahead with. Talking of composing unique content, Smodin.io can provide you with the tools to prepare an assignment/blog for you. All you need to do is copy your content, use it, and wait for fresh and distinct content.

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1.8: Paraphrasing and Summarizing

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• Gabriel Winer & Elizabeth Wadell
• Berkeley City College & Laney College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

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Exploring paraphrasing and summarizing

Let's explore paraphrasing and summarizing in an article about DACA recipients or "Dreamers". Figure 1.8.1 shows a young woman protesting in support of DACA.

Look at the example quotation, paraphrase, and summary from the article “What the Supreme Court’s DACA Ruling Means for Undocumented Students and the Colleges and Universities They Attend, Today” in Table 1.8.1 below. What similarities do you notice between the quotation, paraphrase, and summary? What differences do you observe?

Now, check the following list. Did you observe all the similarities and differences?

Similarities:

• Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries all use reporting words to refer to the source.
• Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries all report ideas from the original text.
• Paraphrases and summaries both report ideas from the original text, but change the words and sentence structure.

Differences:

• Quotations use the same exact words from the original text, unlike paraphrases and summaries.
• Quotations use quotation marks "..." to show which words are copied directly.
• Summaries are shorter than the original passage, while quotations and paraphrases are closer to the same length as the original. 

Paraphrasing

We can paraphrase a passage to show our comprehension and the meaning of a text. In essays, we might use a paraphrase to provide support for the point we are making. When we paraphrase, we capture what the text says.

With a paraphrase we:

• Keep the length similar to the text we are paraphrasing
• Use our own words - they should be different from the text (unless a key term is of essence)
• Keep the meaning the same as the original text - we do not include our opinion
• Use a different sentence structure - change up the grammar!
• Need to reference the writer’s name and title of the text.

Summarizing

We can also demonstrate our understanding of a text by writing a summary. A summary can be short or long, but it is always significantly shorter than the original text. We might be asked to summarize a whole text or a particular point in a text, and we may have to summarize a text or passage in a sentence, a paragraph, a page, or even a whole essay.

Examine the elements of a strong summary:

• Starts with an introductory sentence that lists the title of the text, author and the main idea (thesis) restated in your own words

Example: In “Title,” author states that.... (or choose a different verb, for example, claims, explains, defends, insists, asserts, compares, warns, observes, condemns, suggests, refutes, shows, or acknowledges. See the Chapter 4 Language Toolkit to learn more about reporting verbs).

• Uses your own words to express
• Condenses the text: it is significantly shorter than the original text
• Gives an overview of the text
• Accurately captures the key/main points of the original text and ignores most of the details, examples, illustrations or explanations.
• Only contains the ideas of the original text (not our own opinion)
• Uses academic conventions (e.g., avoid *you,* contractions such as isn’t - use is not instead - and qualifiers like really / very) + use the writer’s last name after you’ve introduced them by their full name
• Looks like a paragraph
• Makes sense - connect points with transition words, for instance

To summarize, consider doing the following:

• Preview the text
• Annotate it
• Look for the main idea (thesis)
• Write a 1-sentence summary for each paragraph in your own words
• Write a sentence that summarizes the whole text in your own words
• Order key points in a way that makes sense
• Connect the points with transition words
• Avoid repetition

Summarizing to help you read

Let's try summarizing an article from this chapter.

• Choose a text from this chapter, for example, “Undocumented Immigrants May Actually Make American Communities Safer – Not More dangerous – New Study Finds” by Robert M. Adelman and Lesley Reid in 1.4.
• Author and title: 
• 1-3 supporting details:    
• Use your notes to write a summary in 5 sentences or less.
• Compare your summary to your classmates What similarities and/or differences do you notice?
• As a fun challenge, try to condense your summary to 25 words (not including author’s name and title). You can do this individually or as a whole group.
• Reflect on the experience condensing an article to 25 words. Was this hard to do? Why or why not?

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Cc licensed content: original.

Authored by Marit ter Mate-Martinsen, Santa Barbara City College. License: CC BY NC.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Summarizing

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In many situations, you will not have to provide the level of detail that the original writer did. At such times, you should summarize, or remove minor details. Here’s an example:

Example: Overall, the first two quarters of 2008 have been profitable to the company. Nineteen of twenty departments report cutting costs at least twenty percent, and sales from fifteen departments have risen five percent, or about $5 million. Despite these positive developments, most department heads believe that they will not be able to maintain these levels for the remainder of the year.

Revision: The company has driven profits from January to June of 2008, but the rest of the year is not expected to be as good.

Unlike paraphrasing, the basic order of the original text is maintained. However, some words have been changed to close synonyms. When summarizing, avoid cutting too much important information.

For more information on paraphrasing, visit the OWL’s resource, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing .

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Paraphrase and Summary

Paraphrase and summary are different writing strategies that ask you to put another author’s argument in your own words. This can help you better understand what the writer of the source is saying, so that you can communicate that message to your own reader without relying only on direct quotes. Paraphrases are used for short passages and specific claims in an argument, while summaries are used for entire pieces and focus on capturing the big picture of an argument. Both should be cited using the appropriate format (MLA, APA, etc.).  See KU Writing Center guides on APA Formatting , Chicago Formatting , and MLA Formatting for more information. 

When you paraphrase, you are using your own words to explain one of the claims of your source's argument, following its line of reasoning and its sequence of ideas. The purpose of a paraphrase is to convey the meaning of the original message and, in doing so, to prove that you understand the passage well enough to restate it. The paraphrase should give the reader an accurate understanding of the author's position on the topic. Your job is to uncover and explain all the facts and arguments involved in your subject. A paraphrase tends to be about the same length or a little shorter than the thing being paraphrased.

To paraphrase:

• Alter the wording of the passage without changing its meaning. Key words, such as names and field terminology, may stay the same (i.e. you do not need to rename Milwaukee or osteoporosis), but all other words must be rephrased. 
• Retain the basic logic of the argument, sequence of ideas, and examples used in the passage. 
• Accurately convey the author's meaning and opinion. 
• Keep the length approximately the same as the original passage. 
• Do not forget to cite where the information came from. Even though it is in your own words, the idea belongs to someone else, and that source must be acknowledged. 

A summary covers the main points of the writer’s argument in your own words. Summaries are generally much shorter than the original source, since they do not contain any specific examples or pieces of evidence. The goal of a summary is to give the reader a clear idea of what the source is arguing, without going into any specifics about what they are using to argue their point.

To summarize:  

• Identify what reading or speech is being summarized. 
• State the author’s thesis and main claims of their argument in your own words. Just like paraphrasing, make sure everything but key terms is reworded. 
• Avoid specific details or examples. 
• Avoid your personal opinions about the topic. 
• Include the conclusion of the original material. 
• Cite summarized information as well. 

In both the paraphrase and summary, the author's meaning and opinion are retained. However, in the case of the summary, examples and illustrations are omitted. Summaries can be tremendously helpful because they can be used to encapsulate everything from a long narrative passage of an essay, to a chapter in a book, to an entire book.

When to Use Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing 

Updated June 2022  

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Cisco Security Vulnerability Policy

To learn about Cisco security vulnerability disclosure policies and publications, see the Security Vulnerability Policy . This document also contains instructions for obtaining fixed software and receiving security vulnerability information from Cisco.

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