Going back to my middle school days when I was first introduced to paraphrasing and summarizing, I have thought that the two were the same or synonyms of one another. I've come to realize that they are similiar, but in fact different! 
Paraphrasing usually deals with a smaller amount of outside material, but doesn’t mean it requires any less work than summarizing. A good paraphrase needs to keep the intent and information of the original authors work, while changing up the style and wording of the original authors work. Guidelines of paraphrasing include: - Understand the original work (you need to accurately capture the information of the original)
- Include all ideas and concepts from original and do not compress the information by leaving out critical details, this could misrepresent the original information
- Give credit to the original author (identify the source)
Although summarizing and paraphrasing are similar in the fact that they both represent an original authors work in someone else’s words, I see now they are different. When summarizing someone else’s work you’re going to abbreviate the original information without compromising it, meaning do not throw out any relevant or important information. I always remember to thoroughly read the outside material and then distill the main statement in my own words. Guidelines for summarizing include:
- Not omitting any of the central information in the original authors word
- Be sure the summary identifies all key ideas of the original authors work
- Identify what you are summarizing, meaning give full credit to the original writer.
In addition, summaries also tend to be shorter than the source they were borrowed from.
This blog should have cleared up the confusion between paraphrasing and summarizing. If not, here is a video. I think it repeats a lot of the material I have already mentioned, but you are more than welcome to watch it. Start it at 2:42!
Reference:
Dobrin, S.I., Keller C.J., & Weisser C.R. (2002).. Technical Communications in the Twenty First Century Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Custom Publishing. pg. 160
Jason,
ReplyDeleteThis blog was very well written and contained a lot of valuable information. I like how you walk us through the three pieces of information that we need to make sure we have when we are summarizing and paraphrasing. I also like how you incorporated a youtube video, and pictures into your post. If there was a suggestion I could give you it would be to possibly give some examples of summarizing and paraphrasing. Overall, you did a fantastic job and it has been a pleasure working with you on this project. Best of luck and keep up the great work.
Jason,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog this week again. I feel like I can take much of this and apply it to my writing in the future. I like how you tied the pictures into your post and the only suggestion I have for you is try to incorporate the video into the blog better. It seems like it was added onto the end and it basically reiterates everything in your blog. Overall, just like the previous four weeks, I want to say that you did an awesome job!
Sean h.
One again, good blog! Summarizing and Paraphrasing are two very importance concepts that are used frequently. I liked how you found an example of a paraphrase. My only suggestion would be that you should have tried to find an example of summarizing as well. Good job on your final post, they all turned out amazing! Happy Holidays!
ReplyDeleteThis is your best post yet, Mr. K. Love the video and the voice. You got it!!
ReplyDeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely voice in your blog post this week. You did a great job explaining and breaking down the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing. I also like how you incorporated two different types of visuals into the blog. I agree with Brian that you should have added a few more examples, but overall you did a great job on all of your posts.