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The Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing Strategy

Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing helps older students acquire the fundamental skills they need to be able to identify and paraphrase main ideas and details. Lesson topics include paraphrasing words, phrases, and sentences; identifying details, topics, and main ideas; creating summaries; and more. These skills are foundational to being able to paraphrase and summarize information and are required when students write answers to questions or write reports in school.
There are multiple products associated with this strategy. Instructor materials are available through the KUCRL Shop . Student materials are published by Edge Enterprises, Inc.
Please note that professional development, coaching, and infrastructure support are essential components to effective implementation of SIM instructional tools and interventions. It is highly recommended that you work with a SIM professional developer.
An Online Professional Development Module is available for this strategy. See the SIM Event list for sessions or email [email protected] to learn more.
Author(s): Jean B. Schumaker, Jim Knight, and Donald D. Deshler
Publication Info: Edge Enterprises, 2007
Research on the Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing Strategy (.pdf)
An accessible version of the documents on this site will be made available upon request. Please contact the KU CRL Professional Development Research Institute, at [email protected] to request the document be made available in an accessible format.
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Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing: Instructor’s Manual
$ 12.00
Additional information
About the author, description, research on the fundamentals of paraphrasing and summarizing program.
Overview This study investigated the effects of teaching the fundamental skills associated with paraphrasing and summarizing in relation to students’ ability to identify and paraphrase main ideas and details. Two experimental general education classes of tenth graders (n = 43), in which some students with disabilities had been included, worked through the lessons in the Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing Program. A comparison class (n = 23) of tenth graders received typical English instruction. There were some students with disabilities included in this comparison class, as well. The classes were randomly selected into the conditions. All students took a test where they had to write paraphrases of the topic, main idea, and details of each paragraph in a different passage before and after the instruction. The design was a pretest-posttest comparison-group design.
Results Figure 1 shows the mean percentage scores earned by the students on a test where they had to paraphrase as they wrote the topic, main idea, and details for each paragraph in a passage. Students who had disabilities (SWDs) and students who did not have disabilities (NSWDs) in the experimental classes earned higher mean scores on the posttest than the pretest. The opposite was true for the students in the comparison class; their posttest mean scores were lower than their pretest scores.

An ANCOVA revealed significant differences between the posttest scores of the experimental and comparison students without disabilities (NSWDs) in favor of the experimental group [F (1,53) = 54.404, p < .0005, η2 = .507]. This difference represents a very large effect size. Two-tailed t tests revealed that there were no differences between the pretests of the students with disabilities in the groups, but there were significant differences between the groups’ posttests [t (4.115) = 3.307, p < .028, d = 3.31], in favor of the experimental students with disabilities. Again, this difference represents a very large effect size.
Conclusions Students in general education English classes could learn fundamental skills associated with paraphrasing and summarizing, two reading comprehension strategies. Both students with and without disabilities learned how to identify and paraphrase topics, main ideas, and details in paragraphs in reading passages above the 80% level, which is generally considered to be a mastery level for learning strategies. Moreover, their scores on the posttest were significantly higher than the posttest scores of their peers in a comparison class.
Reference Graner, P. (2007). The effects of strategic summarization instruction on the performance of students with and without disabilities in secondary inclusive classes. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Lawrence: University of Kansas.

Jean B. Schumaker, Ph.D.
Affliations
My Background and Interests I grew up with a concern for children who need special help. One of my earliest experiences was organizing birthday parties for children with disabilities at the Matheny Medical and Educational Center in New Jersey. After the birthday parties were over and all the decorations had been cleaned up, I spent additional time with those children, putting them to bed, reading to and talking with them, and singing to them. Through those experiences and others as a camp counselor, I found that I loved being with children and teaching them. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, and I went to college and graduate school with that goal in mind. However, along the way, I got hooked on doing research! In particular, I got hooked on research related to ensuring that children learn. I’ve worked with children in schools, camps, group homes, hospitals, and clinical settings. Across all those experiences, I’ve learned that all children can learn. I’ve learned that, if we hold high expectations for them and use special teaching methods, they usually meet those expectations. I continue to do research with the goal of helping teachers teach and students learn.
The Story Behind the Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing Program In 1999, as Jim Knight (one of my co-authors) was directing a comprehensive school reform project called “Pathways to Success,” he shared many of the learning strategies programs with general education teachers in the Topeka, Kansas School District. He found that the teachers loved to teach the writing strategies because every skill that each student had to learn was taught explicitly in sequence with other skills. The writing strategy instruction was very step-by-step, and that was really helpful for students and teachers. In particular, the teachers told us that the Fundamentals of the Sentence Writing Strategy program was very helpful because it provided students with the essential background skills they needed as prerequisites for the more complex writing strategies and helped them become successful writers.
Jim decided that we should create a Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing program, modeled on the Fundamentals of Sentence Writing Strategy program. He adapted the instructional format used in the Fundamentals of Sentence Writing Strategy instruction to teach some foundational reading strategies and skills. Over a semester, he created the learning sheets for this new program and tried them out in collaboration with teachers, modifying the materials based on their feedback. Then, he conducted the first of two studies using the materials with seventh-grade students at French Middle School.
Early in the development process, he convinced me to collaborate with him on the project, and I wrote the instructor’s manual to correspond to the learning sheets he had developed. Jim did a second study, again with seventh-grade students at French Middle School, and both studies demonstrated significant gains for students who received instruction in the strategy compared to students who had not received the instruction. Later, Patty Graner did another study in another school district that showed significant differences between students who received the instruction and those who did not.
My Thoughts About the Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing Program The Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing program is designed to be used in both large-group and small-group instructional situations. The program was initially used in reading classes with more than twenty students, and it worked very well, thanks in large part to the learn-by-watching, learn-by-sharing, learn-by-practicing approach, which is modeled after Anita Archer’s “I do it, We do it, You do it” approach.
One of our goals was to provide teachers with all of the reading passages students would need so they would have all materials required to teach the skills, and we really wanted to create readings that would be interesting for students. Jim was the main author of reading passages, and he created them in a way that they could be used as prompts for lively discussions in the classroom.
Teacher and Student Feedback on this Program During our initial development work on the Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing program, we heard many encouraging comments. Perhaps most importantly, students who were struggling learners were happy to plot their progress to depict just how well they were doing. Their teachers reported that they saw students who had been struggling all year succeeding with the program.
Since then, we’ve received dozens of emails from teachers who are grateful for the step-by-step structure of the lessons and for the inclusion of all the reading passages they need to teach the skills. Teachers have also written to say that they really didn’t know how to teach these skills before they learned about this program, but now they feel they clearly understand how to teach students the basic skills associated with paraphrasing and summarizing. District personnel are reporting that they are seeing gains on state reading competency exams when this program has been taught.
My Contact Information Please contact me through Edge Enterprises, Inc. ([email protected] or 877-767-1487).

Fundamentals of Paraphrasing & Summarizing Strategy 11/7/13
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Paraphasing & Summarizing 11/7
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The Fundamentals of Summarizing and Paraphrasing.
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Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing


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This handout is intended to help you become more comfortable with the uses of and distinctions among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. This handout compares and contrasts the three terms, gives some pointers, and includes a short excerpt that you can use to practice these skills.
What are the differences among quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing?
These three ways of incorporating other writers' work into your own writing differ according to the closeness of your writing to the source writing.
Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author.
Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.
Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.
Why use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries?
Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries serve many purposes. You might use them to:
- Provide support for claims or add credibility to your writing
- Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing
- Give examples of several points of view on a subject
- Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or disagree with
- Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage by quoting the original
- Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue readers that the words are not your own
- Expand the breadth or depth of your writing
Writers frequently intertwine summaries, paraphrases, and quotations. As part of a summary of an article, a chapter, or a book, a writer might include paraphrases of various key points blended with quotations of striking or suggestive phrases as in the following example:
In his famous and influential work The Interpretation of Dreams , Sigmund Freud argues that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious" (page #), expressing in coded imagery the dreamer's unfulfilled wishes through a process known as the "dream-work" (page #). According to Freud, actual but unacceptable desires are censored internally and subjected to coding through layers of condensation and displacement before emerging in a kind of rebus puzzle in the dream itself (page #).
How to use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries
Practice summarizing the essay found here , using paraphrases and quotations as you go. It might be helpful to follow these steps:
- Read the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas.
- Summarize in your own words what the single main idea of the essay is.
- Paraphrase important supporting points that come up in the essay.
- Consider any words, phrases, or brief passages that you believe should be quoted directly.
There are several ways to integrate quotations into your text. Often, a short quotation works well when integrated into a sentence. Longer quotations can stand alone. Remember that quoting should be done only sparingly; be sure that you have a good reason to include a direct quotation when you decide to do so. You'll find guidelines for citing sources and punctuating citations at our documentation guide pages.
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3.3 Using Source Text: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
Learning objectives.

After studying this unit, you will be able to
- quote source text directly with accuracy and correct punctuation
- paraphrase, summarize and reformat information collected from written materials
Introduction
Once you have a collection of credible sources as part of a formal secondary research project such as a report, your next step is to build that report using those sources as evidence. When you incorporate outside research into your writing, you must cite that information to ensure the reader knows what information is based on research sources. As with other areas of business writing, incorporate information from print or digital research into usable evidence takes skill and practice.

You essentially have four ways of using research material:
- Quoting text: copying the source’s exact words and marking them off with quotation marks
- Paraphrasing text: representing the source’s ideas in your own words (without quotation marks)
- Summarizing text: representing the source’s main ideas in your own words (without quotation marks)
- Reproducing media: embedding pictures, videos, audio, graphic elements, etc. into your document
In each case, acknowledging your source with a citation at the point of use and following-up with bibliographical reference at the end of your document is essential to avoid a charge of plagiarism. The following video provides a few tips on the why, where, and when of good citation practice.
Let’s now look at each of these research strategies in turn.
Research Strategies
Quoting sources.
Quoting is the easiest way to use sources in a research document, but it also requires care in using it properly so that you don’t accidentally plagiarize, misquote, or overquote. At its simplest, quoting takes word-for-word information from an original source, puts quotation marks (“ ”) around that information, and embeds it into your writing. The following points represent conventions and best practices when quoting:
- Use double quotation marks: In North America, we set off quoted words from our own words with double quotation marks (“ ”).
- According to researchers Tblisky and Darion (2003), “. . .”
- As Vice President of Operations Rhonda Rendell has noted, “. . .”
- John Rucker, the first responder who pulled Mr. Warren from the wreckage, said that “. . .”
- Spokespersons Gloria and Tom Grady clarified the new regulations: “. . .”
- “. . . ,” confirmed the minister responsible for the initiative.
- “. . . ,” writes Eva Hess, “. . .”
- Quote purposefully: Quote only when the original wording is important. When we quote famous thinkers like Albert Einstein or Marshall McLuhan, we use their exact words because no one could say it better or more interesting than they did. Also, quote when you want your audience to see wording exactly as it appeared in the source text or as it was said in speech so that they can be sure that you’re not distorting the words as you might if you paraphrased instead. But if there’s nothing special about the original wording, then you’re better to paraphrase properly (see paraphrasing sources below) than to quote and to source that paraphrase.
- Block-quote sparingly if at all: In rare circumstances, you may want to quote a few sentences or even a paragraph at length if it’s important to represent every single word. If so, the convention is to tab the passage in on the left margin, not use quotation marks, set up the quotation with a signal phrase or sentence ending with a colon, and place the in-text citation following the final period of the block quotation.
- Don’t overquote: As the above source says, a good rule of thumb is that your completed document should contain no more than 10% quoted material. Using more quotes will suggest that you’re using quotations to write your document. Quote no more than a sentence or two at a time if you quote at all.
- Quote accurately: Don’t misquote by editing the source text on purpose or fouling up a transcription accidentally. Quotation requires the exact transcription of the source text, which means writing the same words in the same order in your document as you found them in the original.
- Use brackets and ellipses to indicate edits to quotations: If you need to edit a quotation to be grammatically consistent with your own sentences framing the quotation (e.g., so that the tense is consistently past-tense if it is present-tense in the source text), add clarifying words, or delete words, do so using brackets for changed words and ellipses for deleted words. For more on quotations, consult How to Use Quotation Marks page and complete the online quiz.
Paraphrasing Sources
Paraphrasing or “indirect quotation” is putting research information in your own words. Paraphrasing is the preferred way of using a source when the original wording isn’t important. This way, you can incorporate the ideas and tailor the wording so it is consistent with your writing style and your audience’s needs. Also, paraphrasing a source into your own words proves your advanced understanding of the research information.
Only paraphrase short passages and ensure the paraphrase faithfully represent the source text by containing the same meaning as in the original source in about the same length. Remember, a paraphrase is as much a fact as a direct quotation . Therefore, your paraphrase must accurately reflect the information in the original text. As a matter of good writing, you should try to streamline your paraphrase so that it tallies fewer words than the original passage while still preserving the original meaning. In addition, a paraphrase must always be introduced . Since a paraphrase does not have visual cues to separate it from your writing, the reader must know when the paraphrase begins, for example with the phrase, “according to the author” and where the paraphrase ends, for example with a citation of the source.
For example: According to the author, paraphrasing can be challenging (author, year).
Properly paraphrasing without distorting, slanting, adding to, or deleting ideas from the source passage takes skill. The stylistic versatility required to paraphrase can be especially challenging to students whose general writing skills are still developing. A common mistake that students make when paraphrasing is to go only partway towards paraphrasing by substituting major words (nouns, verbs, and adjectives) here and there while leaving the source passage’s basic sentence structure intact. This inevitably leaves strings of words from the original untouched in the “paraphrased” version, which is considered plagiarism. Consider, for instance, the following botched attempt at a paraphrase of the Lester (1976) passage that substitutes words selectively (lazily):
Students often overuse quotations when taking notes, and thus overuse them in research reports. About 10% of your final paper should be a direct quotation. You should thus attempt to reduce the exact copying of source materials while note-taking (pp. 46-47).
Let’s look at the same attempt, but colour the unchanged words red to see how unsuccessful the paraphraser was in rephrasing the original in their own words (given in black):
Students often overuse quotations when taking notes, and thus overuse them in research reports. About 10% of your final paper should be direct quotation. You should thus attempt to reduce the exact copying of source materials while note taking (pp. 46-47).
As you can see, several strings of words from the original are left untouched because the writer didn’t change the sentence structure of the original. The Originality Report from plagiarism-catching software such as Turnitin would indicate that the passage is 64% plagiarized because it retains 25 of the original words (out of 39 in this “paraphrase”) but without quotation marks around them. Correcting this by simply adding quotation marks around passages like “when taking notes, and” would be unacceptable because those words aren’t important enough on their own to warrant direct quotation. The fix would just be to paraphrase more thoroughly by altering the words and the sentence structure, as shown in the paraphrase a few paragraphs above. But how do you go about doing this?
Paraphrase easily by breaking down the task into these seven steps:
- Read and re-read the source-text passage so that you thoroughly understand each point it makes. If it’s a long passage, you might want to break it up into digestible chunks. If you’re unsure of the meaning of any of the words, look them up in a dictionary; you can even just type the word into the Google search bar, hit Enter , and a definition will appear, along with results of other online dictionary pages that define the same word.
- Look away and get your mind off the target passage.
- Without looking back at the source text, repeat its main points as you understood them—not from memorizing the exact words, but as you would explain the same ideas in different words out loud to a friend.
- Still, without looking back at the source text, jot down that spoken wording and tailor the language so that it’s stylistically appropriate for your audience; edit and proofread your written version to make it grammatically correct in a way that perhaps your spoken-word version wasn’t.
- Now compare your written paraphrase version to the original to ensure that:
- Deleting any of the original points
- Adding any points of your own
- Distorting any of the ideas so they mean something substantially different from those in the original, or even take on a different character because you use words that, say, put a positive spin on something neutral or negative in the original
- You haven’t repeated any two identical words from the original in a row
- If any two words from the original remain, go further in changing those expressions by using a thesaurus in combination with a dictionary. When you enter a word into a thesaurus, it gives you a list of synonyms, which are different words that mean the same thing as the word you enter into it.
- For instance, the noun party can mean a group that is involved in something serious (e.g., a third-party software company in a data-collection process), but the verb party means something you do on a wild Saturday night out with friends; it can also function as an adjective related to the verb (e.g., party trick , meaning a trick performed at a party).
- Whenever you see synonymous words listed in a thesaurus and they look like something you want to use but you don’t know what they mean exactly, always look them up to ensure that they mean what you hope they mean; if not, move on to the next synonym until you find one that captures the meaning you intend. Doing this can save your reader the confusion and you the embarrassment of obvious thesaurus-driven diction problems (poor word choices).
- Cite your source. Just because you didn’t put quotation marks around the words doesn’t mean that you don’t have to cite your source.
More on Paraphrasing
NSCC Writing Centre Guide: Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing
Purdue OWL Paraphrasing learning module (Cimasko, 2013) and Exercise .
Summarizing Sources

Summarizing is one of the most important skills in communications because professionals of every kind must explain to non-expert customers, managers, and even co-workers complex concepts in a way non-experts can understand. Adapting the message to such audiences requires brevity and the ability to translate jargon-heavy technical details into plain, accessible language.
Summarizing is thus paraphrasing only the highlights of the original source. Like paraphrasing, a summary re-casts the original information in your own words and must be introduced ; unlike a paraphrase, a summary is significantly shorter than the original text. A summary can reduce a whole novel, article, or film to a single-sentence.
The procedure for summarizing is much like that of paraphrasing except that it involves the extra step of pulling out highlights from the source. Altogether, this can be done in six steps, one of which includes the seven steps of paraphrasing, making this a twelve-step procedure:
- Determine how big your summary should be (according to your audience’s needs) so that you have a sense of how much material you should collect from the source.
- Read and re-read the source text so that you thoroughly understand it.
- Disregard detail such as supporting evidence and examples.
- If you have an electronic copy of the source, copy and paste the main points into your notes; for a print source that you can mark up, use a highlighter then transcribe those main points into your electronic notes.
- How many points you collect depends on how big your summary should be (according to audience needs).
- Paraphrase those main points following the seven-step procedure for paraphrasing outlined in paraphrasing sources above.
- Edit your draft to make it coherent, clear, and especially concise.
- Ensure that your summary meets the needs of your audience and that your source is cited. Again, not having quotation marks around words doesn’t mean that you are off the hook for documenting your source(s).
Once you have a stable of summarized, paraphrased, and quoted passages from research sources, building your document around them requires good organizational skills. We’ll focus more on this next step of the drafting process in the following chapter , but basically, it involves arranging your integrated research material in a coherent fashion, with main points upfront and supporting points below proceeding in a logical sequence towards a convincing conclusion. Throughout this chapter, however, we’ve frequently encountered the requirement to document sources by citing and referencing, as in the last steps of both summarizing and paraphrasing indicated above. After reinforcing our quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing skills, we can turn our focus on how to document sources.
Key Takeaway

- If you’ve already pulled out the main points as part of the previous exercise, practice including them as properly punctuated quotations in your document with smooth signal phrases introducing them.
- Paraphrase those same main-point sentences following the seven-step procedure outlined in paraphrasing sources above. In other words, if Exercise 1 above was a direct quotation, now try indirect quotation for each passage.
- Following the six-step procedure outlined in summarizing sources above, summarize the entire source article, webpage, or whatever document you chose by reducing it to a single coherent paragraph of no more than 10 lines on your page.
Cimasko, T. (2013, March 22). Paraphrasing. Purdue OWL . Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/976/02/
Conrey, S. M., Pepper, M., & Brizee, A. (2013, April 3). Quotation mark exercise and answers . Purdue OWL. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/05/
Conrey, S. M., Pepper, M., & Brizee, A. (2017, July 25). How to use quotation marks . Purdue OWL. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/01/
Fairfieldulib. (2015). How to paraphrase [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ9DOE91oiw.
Hacker, Diana. (2006). The Bedford handbook (7th ed.) . New York: St. Martin’s. Retrieved from https://department.monm.edu/english/mew/signal_phrases.htm
Lester, J. D. (1976). Writing research papers: A complete guide (2nd ed.) . Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman.
PPCC Writing Center elearning Series. (2016). Part 2 Quoting [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do921cAEL6o&t=51s
- Hacker, Diana. (2006). The Bedford handbook (7th ed.) P.603 . New York: St. Martin’s. Retrieved from https://department.monm.edu/english/mew/signal_phrases.htm ↵
Communication: Fundamentals for the Workplace by Jordan Smith is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
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Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing helps older students acquire the fundamental skills they need to be able to identify and paraphrase main ideas
One way that good readers make sure they understand and remember what they read is to paraphrase it or summarize it. In order to put information into their
One way that good readers make sure they understand and remember what they read is to paraphrase it or summarize it. In order to put information into their
Description: The Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing Strategy Workshop is designed to systematically teach the fundamental skills students need to
Fundamentals of Paraphrasing and Summarizing helps older students acquire the fundamental skills they need to be able to identify and paraphrase main ideas and
Characteristics of a Good Paraphrase A paraphrase must be CORRECT. A paraphrase must include ONE'S OWN WORDS. A paraphrase must MAKE SENSE. (Cue Card 2)
45 Lesson 12 PRACTICE PARAPHRASING PASSAGES WHEN MAIN IDEAS ARE NOT CLEAR In Lesson 12, you will: Conduct the Learn-by-Practicing Activity Students
How to use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries · Read the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas. · Summarize in your own words what the single main
FUNDAMENTALS OF PARAPHRASING & SUMMARIZING: STUDENT MANUAL on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. FUNDAMENTALS OF PARAPHRASING & SUMMARIZING:
Paraphrase: Friedman says the fundamentals for creating strong schools are: a deep commitment to faculty training, teacher-to-teacher learning and professional
Remember, a paraphrase is as much a fact as a direct quotation. Therefore, your paraphrase must accurately reflect the information in the original text. As a