Daniel Kies Department of English College of DuPage
Composition English 1102		Contact Form

Summarizing and Paraphrasing Successfully

Current work:   Days remaining this term: Notes: Add Note |  Log in? | Privacy | Change Name & Email Mail this page to a friend

To paraphrase and summarize successfully, and to avoid (unintentional) plagiarism at the same time, keep these principles in mind as you read and record notes.

1. When reading source material, first read. Just read. Read to understand the passage as a whole, rather than skimming and "cherry-picking" the occasional idea or phrase that seems relevant. Read with your thesis or research question in mind, so that you can better incorporate the general idea of the source into your project.

2. After you have a clear understanding of the source, now summarize that source in your own words. Remember that you are taking notes, not copying down quotations. Remember that your research project is a product of your own thinking, not a patchwork of quotes and borrowed ideas. Remember to record full bibliographic information (including page numbers) in your notes.

3. Take notes judiciously so that you record only ideas that are relevant to your focus on the topic. Paraphrase in your notes; this helps you learn and master the material as you research the topic. Limit the number of direct quotes you record in your notes, being careful to mark direct quotes clearly if you do record them.

4. Direct quotes are generally acceptable only when the source's ideas are memorably phrased or surprisingly expressed, or when the original source has an error that you will discuss in your paper, or when you are citing examples from the original that you wish to discuss at length in your essay or paper.

I'll grant that it is easier to say "now summarize" than to do. Therefore, here are some tips to writing a successful summary or paraphrase.

1. Restate the source's idea in your own words in the note.

2. When note taking, change the words as well as the paragraph and sentence structure of the source. Abstracts are wonderful types of summaries in this regard. Abstracts themselves have a defined structure and make an excellent method of summarizing an entire article, chapter, or even book.

   However, if you are summarizing a shorter passage, you still must think about rephrasing in your own words and using your own sentence/paragraph structure. If not, you run the risk of creating a summary that is too close to the original passage. Look at the Sample Paraphrase page to read some successful and unsuccessful examples.

^Take Note! | Table of Contents | Syllabus | Course Calendar | eForum | Search

The HyperTextBooks | The English Main Page | The Composition Links