From your friends
at the UW Platteville Writing Center
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A “Summary” is an overview of the entire text.
◦ Describes the main ideas of a text
 May include a direct quote of the main thesis
◦ Will often give the author’s credentials
 Scientist? Professor? Doctor? Expert in the field?
◦ Anywhere from 2 or 3 sentences to a couple of
paragraphs, depending on size of original
◦ Should provide the context for the paraphrased
passages
 Look for the key points in both your paraphrases and
summaries – they should compliment each other
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Paraphrase: a close rewording of a particular
passage from the text
◦ Idea, point, piece of information, or theory from a
small section of the text
◦ Will often include direct quotes from the source text
◦ Direct quotes are used…
To give credence to your own ideas
To show that you really understand the text
When a passage is particularly well written
When the author makes the point so well it would be
hard to improve the original
 To give different “voices” to your paper and thus make
it more interesting to read
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“Evidence of prehistoric people was first
discovered in mid-19th century when sharpedged stone tools and fossilized human
bones were found and identified. Since that
time, infrequent discoveries of other fossils
of prehistoric people have occurred. These
usually fragmented remains have provided
additional information about early humans
and what they looked like.”
2
2. Citation: “The Topic: Prehistoric
People.”
http://www.42explore2.com/prehi
st.htm Accessed: 9/11/2008
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“The first evidence for prehistoric people was
discovered in the 19th century. Fossilized
bones and sharp edged tools give us
tantalizing clues about how these ancient
people lived, although the discovery of these
artifacts from the days when saber-toothed
tigers and wooly mammoths roamed the
Earth are rare.”
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That both the original and paraphrased
versions begin with a summary of the
information…
◦ “The first evidence for prehistoric people was
discovered in the 19th century”
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And then move to the paraphrase section
with…
◦ Specific details (bones, saber toothed tigers, etc.)
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That the information retains the same
rhetorical structure:
• Both begin with a typical topic sentence…
 “first evidence for prehistoric people”
• And then broaden out to include important examples
of the main subject of the paragraph
 “bones and sharp edged tools… are rare”
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But that the author threw in some of his own
personality and observation into the rewritten
piece.
• “from the days when saber-toothed tigers and
wooly mammoths roamed the Earth”
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Learning tool
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Writing practice
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Shows the proper respect for the original
authors
An essential skill for your research later in
college when you will need to combine many
sources into a single written text
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“The first evidence for prehistoric people was
discovered in the 19th century…”
◦ Really? Who discovered them? When exactly? Where?
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“Fossilized bones and sharp edged tools give us
tantalizing clues about how these ancient people
lived…”
◦ What bones? What tools? What clues do they give us?
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“…although the discovery of these artifacts from
the days when saber-toothed tigers and wooly
mammoths roamed the Earth are rare.”
◦ How rare? When was the last discovery made?
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Some examples to compare from the Purdue OWL:
The original passage:
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they
overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final
manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to
limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester,
James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nded. (1976): 46-47.
A legitimate paraphrase:
In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material
down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is
essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
An acceptable summary:
Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize
the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
A plagiarized version:
Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too
many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final
copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of
source material copied while taking notes.
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Follow along as I read the follow article aloud
Underline the most important points
Turn the paper over
Write out in your own words the main points
of the article
◦ If you are having trouble remembering, turn the
paper over and look at what you underlined for
reference.
Writing Center
 306 Brigham Hall
 (608) 342-1615
 http://www.uwplatt.edu/writingcentr/
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