Module 5: Use and Cite Information Correctly, Decide when to Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize (4 pages 1, 2, 3, 4) what's this?
| Learn about Plagiarism | Decide when to Quote | Learn to Paraphrase | Learn to Summarize | Find Additional Resources | Use APA or MLA Style |
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When
should you summarize? Again,
you will want to paraphrase or summarize when the wording of the
source is less important than the meaning of the source. The
paraphrase and summary allow you to maintain continuity of style in
your paper and show your mastery of source material.
A summary may be preferred to a paraphrase because summaries
can provide a brief overview of a text.
The summary is very flexible.
For example, you could summarize a book in a sentence, or in
several paragraphs, depending on your writing situation and
audience. You may use the summary often for the following reasons: |
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To condense the material. You may have to condense or to reduce the source material to draw out the points that relate to your paper.
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To omit extras from the material. You may have to omit extra information from the source material to focus on the author’s main points.
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To simplify the material. You may have to simplify the most important complex arguments, sentences, or vocabulary in the source material.
When
you decide to summarize, avoid keeping the same structure of ideas,
sentence structure, or just changing some of the words.
Be careful not to add your ideas into the summary and to be
faithful to the meaning of the source material.
In the next section in this module, you'll learn how to paraphrase.
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Copyright 2003 by the Academic Center, the University of Houston-Victoria, and
Summer Leibensperger.
Created 2003 by Summer Leibensperger.
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