16 Paraphrasing in Summaries
Paraphrasing in Summaries
While the principles of paraphrasing apply to all types of academic writing assignments, there are special considerations in the case of academic summaries. Whether you summarize an article globally or selectively, your summary will contain a group of main ideas organized under subtopics.
Paraphrasing plays a fundamental role in representing the main ideas of the article in your own words. If you don’t paraphrase appropriately, your summary will contain plagiarized main ideas. Of course, you don’t want to submit a plagiarized summary.
Basic Features of Paraphrases in Academic Summaries
- Format: A paraphrase can be a fairly long sentence (or sentences) that retains the meaning of the original source but recasts the main idea in your own style and words. Your version will be about as long as the original, but the structure and vocabulary will be different.
- Citations: Paraphrased ideas must always be attributed to the original author and cited using in-text citations. Your instructor will explain what specific types of citation conventions you will use in each summary.
- Length: In general, the length of a paraphrase should not exceed 3 full lines. If a paraphrase goes over 4 lines, it must be shortened, or divided into two, in which case it may be necessary to cite twice or use additional attributive language.
Where in the original article can you find the main ideas?
The main ideas support subtopics, so they are located in the subtopics that you have identified in the article. Specifically, they may be found in:
- One or two sentences in a paragraph.
- One or two lines in a paragraph.
- A group of words, phrases, sentences, or lines that are dispersed within a paragraph or across paragraphs. In this case, it is necessary to group the sentences or lines and elaborate one solid paraphrase to be included in the summary. This is called synthesis. Check this definition https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/synthesis
