Academic Writing and Reading 3

PARAPHRASING AND SUMMARIZING

What is a Paraphrase?
1. A restatement of a text passage in another
form or other words.

2. The restatement of texts in other words as

studying or teaching device.

According to these definitions, a student writes a

paraphrase for two reasons: to clarify the meaning of a
text, and to aid in studying (remembering and recalling)
that text.
PARAPHRASING
When paraphrasing you need to:

1. Change most words by using synonyms.

2. Use your own sentence.
3. Keep the same keywords of the original
text.
Notice the following and look at the excerpt below from
online article “Anosmia Means Loss of the Sense of Smell”
Compared sample 1: Notice how the same
information is paraphrased and summarized.

Summary: The human nose gets used to strong

lingering smells (“Anosmia Means” 2001). [8 words]
 Summary
1. the summary is much shorter than the original
text and the paraphrase.
2.It states only the main ideas of the original text.
3.Some keywords are used.
4.Synonyms are used for words that are not the
key terms.
5.An in-text-citation is given at the end of the
summarized information.
Summarized sample 1.

Read the comparison and

write down.
Summarized sample 2.

Compare the given sample of

summary above and write down in your
notebook.
Compared sample 2: Notice how the same information is
paraphrased and summarized.

Summary: In “Psychology Concepts and Applications”, J.S.Nevid defines sensation as

the ability to process external stimuli through sensory receptors. These specialized cells
are found in the human body and can detect very weak signals (Nevid, 2003) [33 words]
Read the original passage and try to paraphrase.

According to Robert Kreitner,

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Exercise. Writing a summary and paraphrasing
1. Write a summary of the text.
Use the strategies you learned
about summarizing (read it
once, reread and mark the text,
read one more time, cover the
text and retell the main ideas).

2. Paraphrase the paragraph.

Follow the guideline about
paraphrasing (use keywords,
use your own sentences and
some synonyms).
Source: Nevid, J.S. Psychology
concepts and applications; 2003