Summarizing and Paraphrasing
Academic Writing in English
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN SUMMARIZING
AND PARAPHRASING?
• A summary generalizes the original text in your own
words, omitting all unnecessary information.
• ’it aims to reduce information to a suitable length’ (Bailey,
2011, p. 50)
•
• A paraphrase is an explanation of a part of a text in
your own words.
• It usually focuses on a more specific part of the text than the
whole text in general.
• ’[it] attempts to restate the relevant information’ (Bailey,
2011, p. 50)
• You can paraphrase in a summary.
Summarizing
Summarizing – macro steps
• Decide what are the main ideas and
what is subsidiary.
• If there are related ideas, try to combine
them into a statement of the whole.
• Do not add your own comments.
• Follow the same order of thoughts and
facts.
• Edit further.
Practice
HYPNOSIS TEXT
Read the text and in small
groups, summarize the text in
about 100 words.
Answer
There are various ways of hypnotising people. In the
commonest,the patients are told that hypnosis will help
them, is safe, and is not a sign of weakness of
character. They are then asked to concentrate on a
bright object, and the hypnotist suggests they are
going to sleep. The patients goes into a trance, and can
be made to remember things they have forgotten, or to
do various surprising things. Hypnosis is sometimes
used for public entertainment, but this is undesirable.
People cannot be hypnotised into doing things
they think are wrong.
http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm
Example – original text
• Pradip, S., and R. Rahim. (1997)
There has been much talk of the ”Bombay Miracle” (e.g., Time,
August 3, 1996) but rather less of the communication failures of the
computer engineers and scienteists in the city. We have developed
training courses for engineering graduates stressing cross-cultural
differences in negotiation, writing styles, patent laws, and
contractual obligations among Indian, Japanese, and North
American leaders in technological change. Although no empirical
evidence is yet available, there are signs that the case approach to
success and failure in Indian computer engineering initiatives for
export is having beneficial results.
Taken from: English in Today’s Research World, Swales and Feak (2002) U of Michigan Press.
Paraphrasing
Possible paraphrases 1/4
1. Another communication program is
developed by Pradip and Rahim (1997)
for engineering graduates. All of these
programs show appreciable results.
Possible paraphrases 2/4
• Pradip and Rahim (1997) have
developed training courses for
engineering graduates stressing crosscultural differences via a case study
approach of success and failure in
Indian computer engineering initiatives
for export, and again find signs of
beneficial results.
Possible paraphrases 3/4
• In their article Pradip and Rahim (1997) talk about the
successes in Indian computer engineering and also
point out its weakness as a result of communication
failures. They relate this with cross-cultural
differences and have developed a program for
training graduate students stressing cross-cultural
differences in negotiations, writing, laws and
contracutal obligatuions among Indian, Japanese,
and North American leaders in technology.
Possible paraphrases 4/4
• Pradip and Rahim have designed
training courses stressing cross-cultural
differences in engineering
communications.
Why paraphrase?
• it is better than quoting information from
an undistinguished passage.
• it helps you control the temptation to
quote too much.
• the mental process required for
successful paraphrasing helps you to
grasp the full meaning of the original.
Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/ [accessed: 2.10.2008]
How to paraphrase
1.
Reread  understand
2.
Paraphrase (on a note card).**
3.
Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later
how you envision using this material.
4.
At the top of the note card - key word or phrase to indicate subject
5.
Check your version with the original  check accuracy and
essential info.
6.
Use quotation marks to identify any “unique term” or
“phraseology”
7.
Record the source (including the page) on your note card.
**Paraphrasing on a note card is like making notes because you might go back to
that source later.
Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/ [accessed: 2.10.2008]
More advice (Bailey)
• Use synonyms
• Arguesclaims, 18th century1700s
• Change the word class
• Expansion (n)  expand (v)
• Change the word order
• BEWARE OF PATCHWORK WRITING
Taken from: Bailey, s., 2011. Academic Writing : A Handbook for International Students. 3rd ed., Oxon: Routledge
Practice
• http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.ht
m
• ’exercisesreport’
Homework
• Textbook reading
• Chapters 1.6 – 1.8
Paraphrasing, Summarizing and
Referencing
• Chapter 2.10 – Academic Style
• Chapter 3.2 – Academic Vocabular
Extra resources
• AWE website: sana.tkk.fi/awe
• UEFAP website:
http://www.uefap.com/index.htm
• OWL Purdue:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resour
ce/563/01/