Summarizing & paraphrasing Information provided by purdue university writing center

Any time you use someone else’s ideas, you MUST give them credit or you are plagiarizing. There are three different ways to use another person’s ideas in your paper, quoting directly, paraphrasing, and summarizing. Direct Quote Paraphrasing Summarizing

Below is how Purdue University describes each. Quotation Paraphrasing Summarizing They must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author. They involve putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly. They involve putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Grab an article. Below are the topics. Orange – How common home chemicals may effect children Blue – Are men obsolete? Yellow – A new immigration strategy Pale Yellow – how the redskins plan to keep their name Pink – Sort-of sorry – Fake apologies are good

What’s next? Take out a blank piece of paper. Take 5 minutes to read your article. Turn your article over (face down) on your desk. Write a short (2-3 sentence) summary over your article on your own paper.

Now… Find a partner with the same colored article and move next to one another. Trade summaries with your partner. Read one another’s summary. Rate the summary on a scale of 1-5 with 1 meaning it did not represent the article and 5 meaning it was perfect.

Paraphrasing Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly. Paraphrases also help one shape the meaning from the text to one’s specific project. Some instructors will say that 4 consecutive words will make a paraphrase too close to the original language. This is certainly a grey area; check and see what your instructor says.

paraphrasing Use your article and follow the 5 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing: 1. Read and then reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning. Focus only on the paragraph or sentences you want to paraphrase. 2. Take notes on the most essential elements of the passage—the main claim, supporting claims, evidence, explanations, etc. 3. Set the original aside, then write your paraphrase on another sheet of paper. 4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. This takes time to master; don’t worry if you have trouble changing the original language into your own language. 5. If you have borrowed any unique terms or phrases from the original source, use quotation marks to identify them and include an internal citation.

Now… Find a partner with the same color article as yourself. Trade and read one another’s paraphrase. Rate each paraphrase on a scale of 1-5 with 1 meaning it did not represent the article and 5 meaning it was perfect.

Organization Another important part of using evidence is being able to put research together in a way that makes sense to your reader. On the following slides, you will take the quotes presented and put them into two groups representing two different paragraphs.

Teenage girl empowerment Dystopia girls face the same obstacles as their male counterparts. It wasn’t until later she [Veronica Roth] noticed it: boys weren’t conditioned to identify with female characters in the way that girls were to see themselves in Harry Potter or Han solo. They do fall in love, but saving humanity comes first. Young women are starting to say…I want to be the main character in the story. What’s new is that they’re [girls] demanding to see themselves in the lead. …Pop culture can’t go back to a world where audiences think girls don’t know how to fight their own postapocalyptic battles…

US Economy is improving with low-wage jobs leading the way. While two-thirds of the jobs lost during the recession were middle-income jobs, about half of those created since have been in low wage sectors… Certainly, the U.S. is doing better than most of the rest of the world. In the coming year, we will grow far faster than Europe, faster even than emerging markets… If people don’t get paid more, they won’t spend more, and that will hold back private-sector growth.

SAT is part hoax, part fraud As every adult recognizes, knowing something, or knowing how to do something, in real life is never defined by being able to choose a “right” answer…put forward by faceless test designers. What is needed is…an entirely new generation of testing instruments that use modern technology not only to measure the performance of our students but also to teach them. The truth is that the only legitimate test is one in which a question is put forward and an answer is required with no options or hints. …the test taker never really finds out whether he or she got any answer right or wrong…