Paraphrasing and Summary

Paraphrase and Summary Exercises

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing refers to rewriting a given sentence using your own words. When we need to use a sentence in our writing that someone else wrote, we paraphrase it. That is, we use the same idea(s) in that sentence and write it differently. In addition to using different words, we use different grammar. The main purpose of paraphrasing has to do with being able to use someone else’s ideas while we write our own texts. Of course, it is required that any writer acknowledges the original source using the proper citation format.

Example

Original sentence: 

PayLess is closed because of the bad weather conditions.

Inappropriate paraphrase: 

PayLess is closed because of the bad weather. 

This paraphrase has too many words, such as “PayLess is closed because of” are repeated. It is important to use different words and grammatical structure, while keeping the same meaning of the original sentence.

Appropriate paraphrase:

Since the weather is terrible, the grocery store is not open 

As can be seen in the above example, in addition to using different words, the grammatical structure of the sentence was changed by starting with the second part (dependent clause) of the original sentence.

Summarizing

A summary should be a short version of a longer original source. Its main goal is to present a large amount of information in a short and concise text that includes only the most important ideas of the original text.

Example

Original sentence:

“The movement toward education by computer is developing fast. Massive Open Online Courses, called MOOCs, are changing how people learn in many places. For years, people could receive study materials from colleges or universities and take part in online classes. But such classes were not designed for many thousands of students at one time, as MOOCs are.” (MOOCS Are Moving Forward , Voice of America, learningenglish.voanews.com)

Inappropriate summary:

Voice of America website:

“Computer education is growing fast. MOOCs are influencing how we study. People received materials from universities for a long time to be able to take classes online. MOOCs are the only ones thousands can take at a time.”

The inappropriate summary is almost as long as the original text, which is a characteristic of a paraphrase. A summary needs to be concise.

Appropriate summary:

 According to a Voice of America article, a fast-growing MOOCs movement allows thousands to take online classes at once, changing how we learn.

The appropriate summary keeps the original main idea and it is much shorter than the original text.