English 1301 Week Three:
Summary and Paraphrase
Summary and Paraphrase Skills to
Prepare You for Brief Assignment
2, Due Next Week
Class Overview
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Discuss Quizzes, Participation Assignments
Guest Speaker from the University Writing Center
Brief Assignment #2
Summary: What is it? What is it not? How do we use
it effectively in an analysis?
Paraphrase: What is it? What is it not? How do we
avoid plagiarism?
Citing Sources
Summary and Paraphrase: Effective vs. Ineffective
Participation Assignment #3
Quizzes: How to Prepare for Them
• Read the texts assigned in Raider Writer as if you
will have to apply the information in writing.
• Focus on key terms and their application (think:
conceptual knowledge vs. procedural knowledge!)
• Review the Top Twenty Errors and understand their
definitions. Use the e-handbook to learn solutions to
these errors
• Review our class notes and come to class on time.
• On quiz days, the quiz will compose 50% of your
participation grade for the day. You must complete
the quiz and follow directions to receive credit.
Brief Assignment #2: Summary and
Paraphrase
• Primary directions are on Raider Writer
• Clearly label the first section “Summary” and the
second section “Paraphrase.” Please place
appropriate breaks (spacing) between sections.
• For our class, you must work with Birkerts’s “Into
the Electronic Millennium for both the summary
and paraphrase. Please paraphrase paragraph #4
(“Transitions like the one…”) on p. 227 in FYW. You
will not receive credit if you use a different
text for this assignment. Please follow
directions.
• Refer to the guidelines for summary and paraphrase
Brief Assignment #2: Continued
• Please clearly label the author and title of work
above both the summary and paraphrase
• You must use MLA citations (both in-text
and Work Cited). You will lose a letter grade for
failing to include citations. Label your Work
Cited entry at the end.
• For the Work Cited, please refer to the MLA
section of your BSM Handbook, 16d, particularly
“Work in an anthology or chapter book with an
editor.” We will discuss this further next class.
In-text Citations
• An in-text citation is: any MLA-style citation
used within your text for specific page
references. As in (Gee 547). Always place your
terminal punctuation (period, semi-colon)
AFTER the citation.
• Example: Gee informs the readers that “…,”
which suggests that… (547).
Summary: What is it, exactly?
• Summary is a form of source integration that accurately
“condenses a text’s main points” in your words, not the
author’s. Think of it like a report that covers the text and
its particular argument.
• Requires you to understand more than the content of a
text: you must understand the purpose and audience of
the text to understand which points are worth including
in a summary. Figure out purpose before you go looking
for rhetorical choices.
• Does not contain supporting details (quotations, wordy
examples) from the text.
• Does not contain your opinions or evaluation of the text.
True or False?
It’s okay to quote the author “a little” or borrow
phrases to support a summary.
A summary should cover every paragraph of a text
in some way.
A summary should be written from the
perspective of the author.
A summary should be fairly long.
Answers:
False to all three!
1.
2.
3.
4.
A summary’s purpose is to describe the major points and
significance of a text’s argument without relying on quotes
or the author’s language.
Although it’s important to not miss a major point of the
author’s purpose or argument, this does not mean you
absolutely must account for every single paragraph.
A summary should clearly refer to the author and text from
a scholarly third-person perspective. Remember: this is
someone else’s work you’re discussing, not your own.
A summary should be a great deal shorter than the original
text. Aim to summarize an article-length piece (like the ones
in your textbook) in about 200 words or so. One full
paragraph should be able to cover an article’s ideas
concisely.
A Familiar Example of Summary
Compare the following two summaries for Star Wars:
A New Hope. How are they different?
“Princess Leia is held hostage by the evil forces of the Galactic Empire in their
effort to take over the galaxy. Venturesome Luke Skywalker and dashing Han Solo
team together with the lovable robotic duo, R2D2 and C-3p0, to rescue the
beautiful princess and restore justice in the galaxy.” – Lynch, Robert. “Star Wars: A
New Hope.” The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc. Web. 9 Sep 2013.
“ Part IV in George Lucas’ epic, Star Wars: A New Hope opens with a Rebel ship
being boarded by the tyrannical Darth Vader. The plot then follows the life of a
simple farm boy, Luke Skywalker, as he and his newly met allies […] attempt to
rescue a Rebel leader, Princess Leia, from the clutches of the Empire. The
conclusion is culminated as the Rebels, including Skywalker and flying ace Wedge
Antilles make an attack on the Empire’s most powerful and ominous weapon, the
Death Star.” – Wong, P. “Star Wars: A New Hope.” The Internet Movie Database.
IMDb.com, Inc. Web. 9 Sep 2013.
Class Response
• What details did the two share in common?
• What details did either lack that you think is
important to understanding the film?
• Why do you think the first author chose different
details to include? How did that change his
explanation of the film? (Hint: who or what is
missing in their summary?)
Group Activity
• With your participation assignment from last week,
trade your summary with a partner and note the
style and details included in their summary of Gee’s
article.
• Note for yourself if and where the purpose of the
article is stated.
• What details do your two summaries share in
common? Where do they differ the most?
• Did your peer include too many details from the
text? Is the summary too vague? What does the
summary do well? How so?
Class Activity: Outlining and
Summarizing
• Everyone in rows 1 and 2: on a piece of paper,
briefly outline the main point and important
terms in paragraphs 1 and 2
• Everyone in row 3: as noted above, outline
paragraph #3 on p. 548
• Everyone in rows 4, 5 (and anyone else): outline
the final paragraph on p. 551
Paraphrase: What is it?
• To paraphrase a passage means to “restate in
your own words entirely the entirety of [an]
original passage’s main point.”
• Why might paraphrasing be necessary? In what
circumstances?
• What is the difference between paraphrasing,
quoting, and plagiarism?
• How do we indicate to our readers that we are
paraphrasing an author’s words? (Your FYW
textbook answers this)
Tips on Learning How to Write an
Effective Paraphrase
• Make sure you have read the passage or paragraph
at least twice. Mark (annotate) any important
phrases or concepts.
• Walk away from a the text for a few minutes, then
try to rewrite in your own words. Do not repeat any
phrases the author used.
• Compare the passage you produced to the original:
what did you retain? What did you miss? Make sure
you included all the important points in the same
order in which they appeared in the text.
Useful paraphrase or plagiarism?
1. Gee believes that if children had things like
walkthroughs for class, it would be called cheating.
Think of a class where students argue over why or why
not to use one. This situation occurs in real life to some
extent.
2. To illustrate the relevance of video games to textual
learning, James Gee uses an analogy in which he
compares guides to the information scientists and
other researchers already employ in their fields. In
doing so, he demonstrates that his audience’s
assumptions about games may get in the way of their
ability to see the value games may have for literacy and
contextual learning (Gee 547).
True or false?
1. A paraphrase should be shorter than the
original passage.
2. A paraphrase should only be used when you
find a quote that is too long to include in your
analysis.
3. It’s okay to not leave an in-text citation at the
end so long as you have a work cited entry at
the end of your document.
Again, False to All Three!
• Often, paraphrases are longer than the original.
However, you should aim to be concise with your
paraphrases in an analysis because you do not want to
imbalance your work with unnecessarily large source
integrations.
• Paraphrases are useful in many circumstances, though
particularly when you need supporting details from the
text to back your analysis or claim. Direct quotes and
paraphrases have different values and uses in an analyis.
They are not always interchangeable.
• Any idea, detail, or claim taken from another author’s
text must be cited both in-text and at the end of the
work. Not doing so constitutes plagiarism.
Review: Key Concepts
Summary
Paraphrase
• Does not contain evaluation or
opinion: only the key points of
the text.
• Should touch on the text’s
purpose in an accurate but
concise manner.
• Should not include detailed
examples or quotes from the
text.
• Should be composed of your
own words and phrasings, not
the author’s.
• Should be no longer than a full
paragraph (five to six developed
sentences).
• Contains the key points of the
passage in the original order in
which they appeared.
• Should not distort or
misconstrue the meaning of
the passage.
• Should be composed of your
own words and phrasings, not
the author’s.
• Generally short in scope, but
should not be dramatically
longer than original passage.
Homework and Participation Assignment
#3
READ: all readings designated for the coming week in Raider Writer (you
should be getting the hang of this by now).
WRITE: Annotate James Gee’s article (p.547 in FYW, same as last week). To
annotate, underline important passages, terms, and ideas; mark and define
difficult terms Gee uses; mark which passage you think most clearly expresses
the piece’s purpose; and note any recurrent patterns in the language. Bring
this to class!
With standard formatting (title, 12-pt Times New Roman font; name, date,
and section in upper right hand corner), please compose a detailed outline for
the text (see examples in your BSM Handbook 3f ). Mark this as item 1.
For item 2 (please mark as well), identify three or more rhetorical choices in
the text and state why you believe they connect to the author’s purpose and
audience (200-250 words). Remember: the rhetorical appeals (ethos
(authority), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) are not rhetorical choice.
Rhetorical choices build the appeals; think of it like cause and effect.
This document is due in class next week.
Reminders
• Don’t forget about your Brief Assignment #2!
• Also, please select the text you would like to
work with for your rhetorical analysis if you have
not already. These texts (mentioned in the
Powerpoint for Week 2) come from your FYW
Textbook. If you have not already, please read
and begin annotating your chosen text.