Paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting

PARAPHRASING, SUMMARIZING, AND QUOTINGWhat is the difference?

Paraphrasing Paraphrasing means putting an author’s

thoughts in your own words. You must still use citations to give credit to the author when you paraphrase.

When paraphrasing, say what the source says, but not more.

Expect your paraphrase to be as long, or possibly longer, that the material.

Summarizing Summarizing means putting just the

main ideas from one or more authors into your own words.

Summaries identify only the main points and are generally about 1/3 the length of the original material. Like paraphrasing, it is still necessary to use a citation to attribute the ideas to the original source.

Quotations Quotations are the exact words of the author

copied word for word and set off with quotation marks. They must be cited!

Use quotations to support what you say, not to present your thesis and main points.

Choose quotations if the language is particularly apt, if the thought is difficult to rephrase accurately, the authority is important to support your ideas.

Keep long quotations to a minimum and work them smoothly into your writing.

When to use paraphrasing When you want to reproduce your

source’s order of ideas for emphasis Use notes that you have taken on the

material Want to avoid too many quotations

When to summarize When you want to condense the main

points without losing the essence of the material

When you want to give an overview of the topic

When you want to combine material from a number of sources

So do you have to have citations for everything? No.

You don’t have to cite: Facts that are common knowledge (like

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president, was assassinated on November 22, 2963.

Your own beliefs, observations, or experiment results.