Paraphrasing and summarizing

Martos Alfitri
10714000764
Paraphrasing and summarizing
There are two important skills that should be acquired by people who write a research paper. Something that makes paraphrasing and summarizing are difficult to do is the rule that writers must restate the others’ ideas by using different words and phrasing but keeping the same meaning. Actually, paraphrasing is different with summarizing. Paraphrasing is restatement of a text or passages by using other words, but summarizing is expression of the most important ideas only in a longer paragraph, a chapter of book. Although they are different each other, both paraphrasing and summarizing must be shown that the ideas is someone’s.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrase is expression someone else’s ideas in our own word in a sentences or paragraph. In paraphrasing, we must keep the same meaning but we may not use the same words, phrases and the sentences’ structure with the authors’ idea. As Reid (1988) says paraphrase is the restatement of the authors’ ideas by using other words in the same meaning.
We do not need to quote the sentences in paraphrase statement but we only need to write the authors’ name and the page number. So, we must acquire how to appreciate the authors’ ideas correctly and never say another’s’ idea is yours.
There are a lot of useful of paraphrasing, such as when reading reference sources of information, when dealing with exact materials and stylistically complex.
Some suggestions in paraphrasing:
1. Read the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
2. Reread the text and focus on the text meaning
3. Begin paraphrasing sentence by sentence.
4. You can paraphrase the original sentence by using the synonym or your own understanding.
5. You may look up a dictionary to know the meaning of the word.
6. You may add the additional information in your paraphrasing
7. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
Summarizing
Summarizing is putting down the main ideas of someone else’s work in our own words without giving the details of the sources that we summarize. A summary is always shorter than the original since the idea is to include only the main points of the original work.
Suggestions in summarizing
McWhorter (1992) says summary as a restatement of the most important points of someone ideas in a passage. A summary differs from a paraphrase in that a paraphrase is usually about the same length as the original while a summary is shorter than the original passage. In writing a summary, you shorten the original passage by picking out and restating the main points. A summary allows you to get down to the main ideas of the source, condensing them into a few important statements. Summarize is very useful especially for students in doing their assignments. In order to success in summarizing we can follow the following steps:
1. Read the sources text and try to see what the text tells you about before writing.
2. Focus on the points of the text
3. Recheck your underlining and make sure that no repetition.
4. Write the points of the text into some sentences.
5. Make sure you are restating the main ideas in your own words. Don’t use too many words directly from the original passage.
6. Recheck your summary.
Taken from Mister Syafi’i S, M.Pd