Summarizing and Paraphrasing [Lesson]
Brandi Morley
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this lesson, students will
- distinguish between summarizing and paraphrasing.
- practice summarizing and paraphrasing while maintaining the meaning of the original text.
Introduction
Summarizing and paraphrasing are skills that are often used to respond to information that is read, heard, or viewed. In addition, the same skills are used to incorporate and attribute information from outside sources into your writing.
How are they the same? How are they different?
As the below Venn Diagram illustrates, summarizing and paraphrasing are different in that summarizing omits specific details, is concise and shorter in length, and focuses on general ideas from the original text. In contrast, paraphrasing includes specific details, is longer in length (similar to the length of the original text), and amounts to a translation of the original idea or text.
Despite these differences, summarizing and paraphrasing are also similar. Both include the main idea(s) of a piece of text and should be written in your own words.
When To Summarize and Paraphrase
Summarize when you want to generalize information or give an overview of a topic.
Paraphrase when you want to use or explain an author’s original idea.
Summarizing and Paraphrasing: See This Skill in Action
Read the excerpt from the article “Why Good People Turn Bad Online” by Gaia Vince.[1] Then read the examples to see how the same text can be summarized and paraphrased.
Why Good People Turn Bad Online
Brain-imaging studies show that when people act on their moral outrage, their brain’s reward centre is activated – they feel good about it. This reinforces their behaviour, so they are more likely to intervene in a similar way again. So, if they see somebody acting in a way that violates a social norm, by allowing their dog to foul a playground, for instance, and they publicly confront the perpetrator about it, they feel good afterwards. And while challenging a violator of your community’s social norms has its risks – you may get attacked – it also boosts your reputation.
This text can be summarized as:
Brain studies show expressing moral outrage is rewarding, reinforcing the behavior even when there are risks.
This text can be paraphrased as:
In her article “Why Good People Turn Bad Online,” Vince discusses how when individuals act on their sense of moral indignation—such as speaking up when someone lets their pet make a mess on a playground—they experience a positive neurological response in their brain’s reward system. Not only does moral outrage feel good, Vince suggests, but also it can boost how others see you.
Your Turn!
Read this additional excerpt from the article “Why Good People Turn Bad Online” by Gaia Vince. Then summarize and paraphrase the information in your own words.
Why Good People Turn Bad Online
Much antisocial behaviour online stems from the anonymity of internet interactions – the reputational costs of being mean are much lower than offline. Here, bots may also offer a solution. One experiment found that the level of racist abuse tweeted at black users could be dramatically slashed by using bot accounts with white profile images to respond to racist tweeters. A typical bot response to a racist tweet would be: “Hey man, just remember that there are real people who are hurt when you harass them with that kind of language.” Simply cultivating a little empathy in such tweeters reduced their racist tweets almost to zero for weeks afterwards.
Citing Sources
Avoid plagiarism!
If you use an outside source in your writing – in any way – you must cite the text. This is not limited to using direct quotes but also includes summarizing and paraphrasing. Notice the footnotes in the example texts above to see how this may look in your document.
Follow instructions for your course about crediting sources using MLA or APA citations.
Downloadable Resources (Lesson)
Click here to download a PowerPoint version of this lesson:
Summarizing and Paraphrasing lesson
Attribution:
Morley, Brandi. “Summarizing and Paraphrasing [Lesson].” Strategies, Skills and Models for Student Success in Writing and Reading Comprehension. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2024. Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
- "Why Good People Turn Bad Online" by Gaia Vince is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). ↵