Summarising and paraphrasing

WHAT IS A SUMMARY?

• A summary is a shortened, CHANGED version of a longer

text.
• Usually, you will need to write an abstract of your research
• An abstract is a summary of an article or research paper
• Sometimes you need to extract the main points of a text or
lecture and write about them
• Sometimes you need to include a paraphrased summary of
other research in your own papers
• Summarising and paraphrasing are important skills often
used when researching, gathering or presenting information.
FEATURES OF A SUMMARY

It should not contain unnecessary detail or be written like an essay.

• It should not use the same words as the original text.
• It should focus on the points you want to extract.
• Paraphrasing is used when writing a summary.
• Paraphrasing changes a text into your own words.
• Paraphrasing and summarizing are necessary to
avoid plagiarism
TIPS FOR PARAPHRASING

• Write down the points you want to summarise

• Underline words that are the same as those in the
original text
• Establish what its word class is: noun, verb, adjective,
adverb etc
• Look for synonyms for the words
• Substitute the synonym for the original word in the same
form as the original word
PARAPHRASING CONT’D

Or
• Change the word class into another form:
• Make a noun into a verb, or vice versa
• Make an adjective into a noun, or vice versa
• Adjust the sentence structure to use the new form.
EXAMPLES

• We walked to raise money for charity

• The charity walk raised funds
• Ford became the world’s dominant car company
• The world automotive industry was led by Ford
• The first example uses nominalisation (when we
change verbs into nouns)
• The second example uses the Passive Voice verb form,
and changes nouns into adjectives and verbs.
EXAMPLES CONT’D

• Another option: change the word order of the original

sentences (while using synonyms and other devices)
• There has been much discussion about how tadpoles manage
to appear in puddles after rainfall (Smith & Jones, 2011)
Becomes:
• According to Smith & Jones (2011), the appearance of
tadpoles in residual surface rainwater has been the cause of
much debate.

• Notice how the order of the sentence has been

reversed.
PARAPHRASING PROPERLY

• In academic writing never use someone else’s ideas without

giving the source (attribution)
• Paraphrasing what someone has written must be in your own
words.
• Only technical/specialist terms may be left unchanged (e.g.
tadpoles).
• Summarise, paraphrase and condense lists as well
HINTS FOR SUMMARISING TEXTS

Step 1:
Highlight important sentences in the text.
Step 2
Write notes, use keywords
Step 3
Write the summary from notes (not original).
Step 4
Refer back to original to verify information
TIPS FOR SUMMARISING

• Topic sentences provide a quick outline of the main idea(s)

presented in a paragraph as well as an introduction.

• When summarising a chapter or article, the introduction

and conclusion should provide a good overview of the
content.

• Make sure you remember to quote your sources even when

you are paraphrasing (except for Abstracts).

• Only summarise passages you need for your own paper.

Don’t include irrelevant information