handout: paraphrase and summary

7/26/2019 Handout: Paraphrase and Summary

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University of Arkansas

#6) Paraphrase and Summary

When incorporating sources into your writing, the most common technique you will employ is

paraphrase. A successful paraphrase captures the authors main idea and the supporting details, andrecasts the original passage in your own language and sentence structures in order to avoid plagiarism.

This handout describes step-by-step paraphrasing techniques and also describes the difference between

paraphrase and summary.

How to paraphrase1.

Read carefully the original passage. You may need to read more than once to understand the

meaning completely.

2.

Identify any key terms (a.k.a.jargon) that may need to be preserved. Such terms are words or

phrases that all writers discussing the topic would use. For example, if your source mentions that

the prime lending rate has risen .5 percentage points,then you do not need to use a synonymfor prime lending rate (or prime rate). All economists, business writers, and reporters use

that term to reference the benchmark rate at which banks lend to favored customers. But all other

language and sentence structures in the passage would need to be recast as your own.

3.

If you must, take extremely brief notes on the important ideas and supporting details. Take your

notes in shorthand and dont use any words or phrases from the original.

4. After you have read the source passage and identified any jargon, set the source aside so that its

out of view.

5.

Draft your paraphrase. Use your own language and sentence structures. Try writing without

your notes. Only consult your notes if absolutely necessary.

When your draft is complete, check it against the original passage. Make sure you have performed all of

the following steps:

o Used different sentence structures.

o

Used your own word choices (synonyms) except where jargon was needed.

o Included all ideas from the original passage. Made sure your paraphrase preserved the authors

original meaning.

o If any or all of the three checklist items above are problematic, the paraphrase will need

redrafting. (Return to #1 above.)

o Cited the source with a parenthetical reference (and signal phrase where necessary).

o

Documented the source on the list of works cited or references at papers end.

Avoid patchwriting

Dr. Rebecca Moore Howard, an expert at helping students avoid plagiarism, states that many students

new to academic writing and paraphrasing often patchwrite: They replace some terms with synonyms,

delete a few words, or alter the grammar slightly, but they do not put the passage fully into fresh words

and sentences (271).


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Patchwriting usually occurs when the student writer works too closely with the source text while

drafting the paraphrase. As Dr. Howard mentions, the student just changes a few words and does some

minor rearranging. The following failed paraphrase is an example:

Source: Seventy years ago, Zora Neale Hurston, the novelist and folklorist, made a collection of

tall tales by spending eighteen months listening to the old men in her hometown of Eatonville,Florida, as they told each other stories.

Patchwriting: Fulford states that seventy years ago, novelist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston

assembled a collection of tall tales after spending eighteen months listening to old men as they

told each other stories in her hometown of Eatonville, Florida (63-64).

In the example above, the student substitutes one wordmadefor assembledand makes minor changes

to word order. The students sentence istoo similar to the original. The student has not paraphrased

successfully and likely will have problems with the professor grading this paper.

Remember step #4 from the how-to list on the first page of this handout. When drafting your paraphrase,

you must set the source passage aside, somewhere out of view. Using this technique will help you to

avoid patchwriting and will stimulate the process of generating your own sentence structures and word

choices. The following is an example of a successful paraphrase. The writer uses fresh sentence

structures and word choices and preserves all of the important ideas from the source passage.

Source: Perhaps the most segregated and repressive urban center in the South, Birmingham,

Alabama, had long been dominated by diehard racist politicians led by Commissioner of Public

Safety Eugene Bull Connor. A substantial portion of the black population was cowed or

apathetic.

Paraphrase: In The Politics of Prophecy: Martin Luther King, Jr., Hamby writes that the

American-styled apartheid of Birmingham, Alabama, may have been the Southern extreme. The

longstanding political repression of bigoted local leaders, including Commissioner of Public

Safety Eugene Bull Connor, had created a black citizenry Hamby characterizes as largely

cowed or apathetic (203).

Notice in the example above that the paraphrase also includes a brief quotation: cowed orapathetic.

The writer decided that this brief phrase was potent, fresh, and memorable phrasing, and that his

attempt to paraphrase would have significantly diminished the original. You may integrate such brief

quotations into your paraphrases. Just be sure to do so in moderation.

Also notice the student writerssignal phrase, which includes the title of the article and the authors

name. In order to provide proper attribution, the student writer has also provided a closing

parenthetical citation indicating the page number where the original sentences may be found. We can

presume that this diligent writer also has taken care to document an entry for the Hamby source in the

papers bibliography.


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Paraphrase and summarywhats the difference?

A successful summary briefly presents the main idea and supporting evidence or points from one of

your sources. Although summaries vary in length, they are always shorter than the original and do not

include minor details. As mentioned earlier, the paraphrase includes the main idea and all supporting

details. The paraphrase is as long as or slightly longer than the original passage.

Generally, you will paraphrase when you need to incorporate a specific idea from one of your sources.You will use summary to briefly restate larger arguments and ideas developed by your sources. While

writing a research paper, you might briefly summarize an authors thesis from one of your sources. Your

summary may be just one sentence though the source is a 20-page article. Your professor might ask you

to summarize a 15-page article. His instructions might require that your summary include not only the

authors thesis but also the authors key subtopics, evidence, and reasoning. Your completed summary

might be 2-3 pages in length.

Qualities of an effective summary

Even though the length of the summary will vary depending on the type of writing assignment

annotated bibliography, literature review, research paper, article summaryall effective summaries

share the following good qualities.

Completeincludes the authors main idea and key supporting details

Accuratefairly represents the authors ideas, arguments, and support

Briefpresents the material concisely

Objectivevoices no opinions on the authors ideas, topic, or argument

How to summarize

1.

Read carefully the original passage. You may need to read more than once to understand the

meaning completely.

2. Identify the writers thesis, main points of support and evidence, reasoning and logic.

3.

Dont concern yourself with minor details.4.

Annotate the main ideas on a separate document. While annotating, take care to recast the points

in your own language. Dont copy sentences verbatim from the source.

5.

Draft a version of the summary using your own sentence structures and language.

6.

Your summary should have all four qualities identified above; it should be complete, accurate,

brief, and objective.

7.

A reader of your summary should understand the gist of the source.

Bibliography

Fulford, Robert. The Triumph of Narrative. New York: Broadway Books, 1999. Print.

Hamby, Alonzo. The Politics of Prophecy: Martin Luther King, Jr. Forging the American Character.

Ed. John R. M. Wilson. 2nd. ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 1997. 193-214. Print.

Howard, Rebecca Moore. Writing Matters: A Handbook for Writing and Research. New York: McGraw

Hill, 2010. Print.

Lunsford, Andrea. TheSt. Martins Handbook. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. Print.

handout: paraphrase and summary

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