BASIC ASSIGNMENT 2: SUMMARY AND PARAPHRASE
Purpose: Summarizing and paraphrasing are important skills for academic writers. You will need to
be able to condense other writers’ ideas into your own words so that you can write research papers,
analytical papers, argumentative papers, and other types of academic writing. In addition,
summarizing and paraphrasing will help you prepare for the rhetorical analysis, where you will need
to be able to succinctly state an author’s purpose and discuss specific passages of an article. For this
assignment, you will write both a summary and a paraphrase of a text. Use the discussion about
summaries and paraphrases in Part 3, Section 12f 2 & 3 of St. Martin’s Handbook to assist you in
doing so.
Part One: Article Summary: To complete your article summary, (1) select ONE of the articles
from the list. Your summary of an article should (2) follow the summary writing guidelines
discussed in Section 12f 3. Articles to summarize (all from First-Year Writing):
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Stephen Budiansky: “Lost in Translation” pp. 238-244
Scott Jaschik: “Winning Hearts and Minds on Plagiarism” pp. 261-266
Tina Rosenberg: “Everyone Speaks Text Message” pp. 267-271
Part Two: Paraphrase Assignment: After you’ve completed your summary, you will paraphrase a
brief but complex passage from the same text. Your goal in this assignment is to restate the ideas of
the passage in your own words and do so in a way that is readable and understandable. To complete
this assignment, (3) use the passage selected by your instructor that is part of the same text you
summarized and then (4) paraphrase that passage. (5) Identify the page number and paragraph
number of the original passage (i.e. p. 205, paragraph 1) above your paraphrase so that your
instructor can easily see the changes you have made to express the ideas of the passage in your own
words.
Selections for Paraphrase:
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Stephen Budiansky: p. 243, par 23 (starts with "In other words")
Scott Jaschik: p. 262, par 3 (starts with “After students turn in...")
Tina Rosenberg: p.270, par 15 (starts with "Digital technology has already transformed")
TIPS FOR ASSIGNMENT
 Your summary should summarize the argument of the article (i.e., what is the subject of the article,
what is the author saying about that subject, and how does he or she explain/support/prove what
he or she is saying?). Stay between 5 and 7 sentences in length.
 Your paraphrase should be in your OWN words and use a sentence structure that is different than
that of the original. To internalize the paragraph enough to make it your own, I suggest reading it
at least FIVE times, then putting it aside and trying to rewrite it in your own words.
 Never refer to the author by his or her first name only. Use the full name on first reference and
then the last name thereafter.
 Include a Works Cited section. The proper citation format for a reprinted article can be found at
the second item of #10 of section 16d of the SMH. It is:
Last name, First name. “Title.” Source publication. Issue. Number (year): Page numbers. Rpt. in
Reprinted publication. Ed. First name Last name. City: Publisher, year. Page numbers. Print.
EXAMPLES (MORE IN THE BACK FO THE BOOK)
Summary: In the article “Into the Electronic Millennium” author Sven Bikrerts
argues that the world is changing from a print-based culture to an electronic one. He
focuses almost entirely on the negative implications of this change. First he lists
some of the changes already underway in our world, including libraries becoming
more like museums, the electronic media entering public schools and young people
being less able to concentrate on one thing. After that he lists three negative
predictions for the future: Loss of language, loss of history and loss of the private
self. His argument is based on a debatable thesis: that reading an electronic text is a
fundamentally different experience than reading a text in a book. (Five sentences
long)
Paraphrase: Original paragraph: “Whether all this sounds dire or merely “different”
will depend on the reader’s own values and priorities. I find these portents of change
depressing, but also exhilarating—at least to speculate about. One the one hand, I
have a great feeling of loss and a fear about what habitations will exist for self and
soul in the future. But there is also a quickening, a sense that important things are on
the line. As Heraclitus once observed, “The mixture that is not shaken soon
stagnates.” Well the mixture is being shaken, no doubt about it. And here are some
of the kinds of developments we might watch for as our “proto-electronic” era
yields to an all-electronic future.” (Birkerts 231 par 17)
Paraphrased paragraph: Sven Birkerts says that people will react to the societal
changes he has discussed in his article in different ways depending on their
perspectives: some might find them frightening while others be less alarmed. At
times he is thrilled by the idea of an impending cultural shift, but mostly he sees it as
a bad thing and worries that this new world will threaten both privacy and
spirituality. The thrilling part, he says, relates to a quote by Heraclitus in which he
basically says that change is necessary for growth. Birkerts says the world is changing
from a pre-electronic culture to a completely electronic one and explains that in the
following section he will list some of the changes to come. (Birkerts 231 par 17)