• Utility Menu

University Logo

fa3d988da6f218669ec27d6b6019a0cd

A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

  • The Honor Code

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

Depending on the conventions of your discipline, you may have to decide whether to summarize a source, paraphrase a source, or quote from a source.

Scholars in the humanities tend to summarize, paraphrase, and quote texts; social scientists and natural scientists rely primarily on summary and paraphrase.

When and how to summarize

When you summarize, you provide your readers with a condensed version of an author's key points. A summary can be as short as a few sentences or much longer, depending on the complexity of the text and the level of detail you wish to provide to your readers. You will need to summarize a source in your paper when you are going to refer to that source and you want your readers to understand the source's argument, main ideas, or plot (if the source is a novel, film, or play) before you lay out your own argument about it, analysis of it, or response to it.

Before you summarize a source in your paper, you should decide what your reader needs to know about that source in order to understand your argument. For example, if you are making an argument about a novel, you should avoid filling pages of your paper with details from the book that will distract or confuse your reader. Instead, you should add details sparingly, going only into the depth that is necessary for your reader to understand and appreciate your argument. Similarly, if you are writing a paper about a journal article, you will need to highlight the most relevant parts of the argument for your reader, but you should not include all of the background information and examples. When you have to decide how much summary to put in a paper, it's a good idea to consult your instructor about whether you are supposed to assume your reader's knowledge of the sources.

Guidelines for summarizing a source in your paper

  • Identify the author and the source.
  • Represent the original source accurately.
  • Present the source’s central claim clearly.
  • Don’t summarize each point in the same order as the original source; focus on giving your reader the most important parts of the source
  • Use your own words. Don’t provide a long quotation in the summary unless the actual language from the source is going to be important for your reader to see.

Stanley Milgram (1974) reports that ordinarily compassionate people will be cruel to each other if they are commanded to be by an authority figure. In his experiment, a group of participants were asked to administer electric shocks to people who made errors on a simple test. In spite of signs that those receiving shock were experiencing great physical pain, 25 of 40 subjects continued to administer electric shocks. These results held up for each group of people tested, no matter the demographic. The transcripts of conversations from the experiment reveal that although many of the participants felt increasingly uncomfortable, they continued to obey the experimenter, often showing great deference for the experimenter. Milgram suggests that when people feel responsible for carrying out the wishes of an authority figure, they do not feel responsible for the actual actions they are performing. He concludes that the increasing division of labor in society encourages people to focus on a small task and eschew responsibility for anything they do not directly control.

This summary of Stanley Milgram's 1974 essay, "The Perils of Obedience," provides a brief overview of Milgram's 12-page essay, along with an APA style parenthetical citation. You would write this type of summary if you were discussing Milgram's experiment in a paper in which you were not supposed to assume your reader's knowledge of the sources. Depending on your assignment, your summary might be even shorter.

When you include a summary of a paper in your essay, you must cite the source. If you were using APA style in your paper, you would include a parenthetical citation in the summary, and you would also include a full citation in your reference list at the end of your paper. For the essay by Stanley Milgram, your citation in your references list would include the following information:

Milgram, S. (1974). The perils of obedience. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), The Blair reader (pp.725-737).

When and how to paraphrase

When you paraphrase from a source, you restate the source's ideas in your own words. Whereas a summary provides your readers with a condensed overview of a source (or part of a source), a paraphrase of a source offers your readers the same level of detail provided in the original source. Therefore, while a summary will be shorter than the original source material, a paraphrase will generally be about the same length as the original source material.

When you use any part of a source in your paper—as background information, as evidence, as a counterargument to which you plan to respond, or in any other form—you will always need to decide whether to quote directly from the source or to paraphrase it. Unless you have a good reason to quote directly from the source , you should paraphrase the source. Any time you paraphrase an author's words and ideas in your paper, you should make it clear to your reader why you are presenting this particular material from a source at this point in your paper. You should also make sure you have represented the author accurately, that you have used your own words consistently, and that you have cited the source.

This paraphrase below restates one of Milgram's points in the author's own words. When you paraphrase, you should always cite the source. This paraphrase uses the APA in-text citation style. Every source you paraphrase should also be included in your list of references at the end of your paper. For citation format information go to the Citing Sources section of this guide.

Source material

The problem of obedience is not wholly psychological. The form and shape of society and the way it is developing have much to do with it. There was a time, perhaps, when people were able to give a fully human response to any situation because they were fully absorbed in it as human beings. But as soon as there was a division of labor things changed.

--Stanley Milgram, "The Perils of Obedience," p.737.

Milgram, S. (1974). The perils of obedience. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), The Blair reader (pp.725-737). Prentice Hall.

Milgram (1974) claims that people's willingness to obey authority figures cannot be explained by psychological factors alone. In an earlier era, people may have had the ability to invest in social situations to a greater extent. However, as society has become increasingly structured by a division of labor, people have become more alienated from situations over which they do not have control (p.737).

When and how much to quote

The basic rule in all disciplines is that you should only quote directly from a text when it's important for your reader to see the actual language used by the author of the source. While paraphrase and summary are effective ways to introduce your reader to someone's ideas, quoting directly from a text allows you to introduce your reader to the way those ideas are expressed by showing such details as language, syntax, and cadence.

So, for example, it may be important for a reader to see a passage of text quoted directly from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried if you plan to analyze the language of that passage in order to support your thesis about the book. On the other hand, if you're writing a paper in which you're making a claim about the reading habits of American elementary school students or reviewing the current research on Wilson's disease, the information you’re providing from sources will often be more important than the exact words. In those cases, you should paraphrase rather than quoting directly. Whether you quote from your source or paraphrase it, be sure to provide a citation for your source, using the correct format. (see Citing Sources section)

You should use quotations in the following situations:

  • When you plan to discuss the actual language of a text.
  • When you are discussing an author's position or theory, and you plan to discuss the wording of a core assertion or kernel of the argument in your paper.
  • When you risk losing the essence of the author's ideas in the translation from their words to your own.
  • When you want to appeal to the authority of the author and using their words will emphasize that authority.

Once you have decided to quote part of a text, you'll need to decide whether you are going to quote a long passage (a block quotation) or a short passage (a sentence or two within the text of your essay). Unless you are planning to do something substantive with a long quotation—to analyze the language in detail or otherwise break it down—you should not use block quotations in your essay. While long quotations will stretch your page limit, they don't add anything to your argument unless you also spend time discussing them in a way that illuminates a point you're making. Unless you are giving your readers something they need to appreciate your argument, you should use quotations sparingly.

When you quote from a source, you should make sure to cite the source either with an in-text citation or a note, depending on which citation style you are using.  The passage below, drawn from O’Brien’s  The Things They Carried , uses an MLA-style citation.

On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. Then he burned the two photographs. There was a steady rain falling, which made it difficult, but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it with his body holding the photographs over the tight blue flame with the tip of his fingers.

He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too, but mostly just stupid. (23)

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried . New York: Broadway Books, 1990.

Even as Jimmy Cross burns Martha's letters, he realizes that "it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental too, but mostly just stupid" (23).

If you were writing a paper about O'Brien's The Things They Carried in which you analyzed Cross's decision to burn Martha's letters and stop thinking about her, you might want your reader to see the language O'Brien uses to illustrate Cross's inner conflict. If you were planning to analyze the passage in which O'Brien calls Cross's realization stupid, sentimental, and then stupid again, you would want your reader to see the original language.

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

OWL logo

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

These resources provide lesson plans and handouts for teachers interested in teaching students how to avoid plagiarism. The resources ask students to practice summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. The resources with titles that include "Handout" provide handouts that are free to print for your students by using the print option in your web browser. The "Handout" resources correspond with the resource listed above it.

Time Estimate

Activate students’ schemata regarding the similarities and differences among summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting.

Chalkboard/whiteboard

Computer Lab Option Materials

Digital projector

Write the words Summarizing , Paraphrasing and Quoting along the top of the whiteboard.

Elicit from students the rules they know related to each writing strategy.

Add additional information as needed. The board may appear as follows:

Computer Lab Option

Rather than using the whiteboard, one may choose to open up and project the above table in a word processing program, like Microsoft Word, completing the table as answers are elicited from students.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Citation Basics / Quoting vs. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing

Quoting vs. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing

If you’ve ever written a research essay, you know the struggle is real. Should you use a direct quote? Should you put it in your own words? And how is summarizing different from paraphrasing—aren’t they kind of the same thing?

Knowing how you should include your source takes some finesse, and knowing when to quote directly, paraphrase, or summarize can make or break your argument. Let’s take a look at the nuances among these three ways  of using an outside source in an essay.

What is quoting?

The concept of quoting is pretty straightforward. If you use quotation marks, you must use precisely the same words as the original , even if the language is vulgar or the grammar is incorrect. In fact, when scholars quote writers with bad grammar, they may correct it by using typographical notes [like this] to show readers they have made a change.

“I never like[d] peas as a child.”

Conversely, if a passage with odd or incorrect language is quoted as is, the note [sic] may be used to show that no changes were made to the original language despite any errors.

“I never like [sic] peas as a child.”

The professional world looks very seriously on quotations. You cannot change a single comma or letter without documentation when you quote a source. Not only that, but the quote must be accompanied by an attribution, commonly called a citation. A misquote or failure to cite can be considered plagiarism.

When writing an academic paper, scholars must use in-text citations in parentheses followed by a complete entry on a references page. When you quote someone using MLA format , for example, it might look like this:

“The orphan is above all a character out of place, forced to make his or her own home in the world. The novel itself grew up as a genre representing the efforts of an ordinary individual to navigate his or her way through the trials of life. The orphan is therefore an essentially novelistic character, set loose from established conventions to face a world of endless possibilities (and dangers)” (Mullan).

This quote is from www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/orphans-in-fiction , which discusses the portrayal of orphans in Victorian English literature. The citation as it would look on the references page (called Works Cited in MLA) is available at the end of this guide.

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing means taking a quote and putting it in your own words.

You translate what another writer has said into terms both you and your reader can more easily understand. Unlike summarizing, which focuses on the big picture, paraphrasing is involved with single lines or passages. Paraphrasing means you should focus only on segments of a text.

Paraphrasing is a way for you to start processing the information from your source . When you take a quote and put it into your own words, you are already working to better understand, and better explain, the information.

The more you can change the quote without changing the original meaning , the better. How can you make significant changes to a text without changing the meaning?

Here are a few paraphrasing techniques:

  • Use synonyms of words
  • Change the order of words
  • Change the order of clauses in the sentences
  • Move sentences around in a section
  • Active – passive
  • Positive – negative
  • Statement-question

Let’s look at an example. Here is a direct quote from the article on orphans in Victorian literature:

“It is no accident that the most famous character in recent fiction – Harry Potter – is an orphan. The child wizard’s adventures are premised on the death of his parents and the responsibilities that he must therefore assume. If we look to classic children’s fiction we find a host of orphans” (Mullan).

Here is a possible paraphrase:

It’s not a mistake that a well-known protagonist in current fiction is an orphan: Harry Potter. His quests are due to his parents dying and tasks that he is now obligated to complete. You will see that orphans are common protagonists if you look at other classic fiction (Mullan).

What differences do you spot? There are synonyms. A few words were moved around. A few clauses were moved around. But do you see that the basic structure is very similar?

This kind of paraphrase might be flagged by a plagiarism checker. Don’t paraphrase like that.

Here is a better example:

What is the most well-known fact about beloved character, Harry Potter? That he’s an orphan – “the boy who lived”. In fact, it is only because his parents died that he was thrust into his hero’s journey. Throughout classic children’s literature, you’ll find many orphans as protagonists (Mullan).

Do you see that this paraphrase has more differences? The basic information is there, but the structure is quite different.

When you paraphrase, you are making choices: of how to restructure information, of how to organize and prioritize it.  These choices reflect your voice in a way a direct quote cannot, since a direct quote is, by definition, someone else’s voice.

Which is better: Quoting or paraphrasing?

Although the purpose of both quoting and paraphrasing is to introduce the ideas of an external source, they are used for different reasons. It’s not that one is better than the other, but rather that quoting suits some purposes better, while paraphrasing is more suitable for others.

A direct quote is better when you feel the writer made the point perfectly and there is no reason to change a thing. If the writer has a strong voice and you want to preserve that, use a direct quote.

For example, no one should ever try to paraphrase John. F. Kenney’s famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

However, think of direct quotes like a hot pepper: go ahead and sprinkle them around to add some spice to your paper, but… you might not want to overdo it.

Conversely, paraphrasing is useful when you want to bring in a longer section of a source into your piece, but you don’t have room for the full passage . A paraphrase doesn’t simplify the passage to an extreme level, like a summary would. Rather, it condenses the section of text into something more useful for your essay. It’s also appropriate to paraphrase when there are sentences within a passage that you want to leave out.

If you were to paraphrase the section of the article about Victorian orphans mentioned earlier, you might write something like this:

Considering the development of the novel, which portrayed everyday people making their way through life, using an orphan as a protagonist was effective. Orphans are characters that, by definition, need to find their way alone. The author can let the protagonist venture out into the world where the anything, good or bad, might happen (Mullan).

You’ll notice a couple of things here. One, there are no quotation marks, but there is still an in-text citation (the name in parentheses). A paraphrase lacks quotation marks because you aren’t directly quoting, but it still needs a citation because you are using a specific segment of the text. It is still someone else’s original idea and must be cited.

Secondly, if you look at the original quote, you’ll see that five lines of text are condensed into four and a half lines. Everything the author used has been changed.

A single paragraph of text has been explained in different words—which is the heart of paraphrasing.

What is summarizing?

Next, we come to summarizing. Summarizing is on a much larger scale than quoting or paraphrasing. While similar to paraphrasing in that you use your own words, a summary’s primary focus is on translating the main idea of an entire document or long section.

Summaries are useful because they allow you to mention entire chapters or articles—or longer works—in only a few sentences. However, summaries can be longer and more in-depth. They can actually include quotes and paraphrases. Keep in mind, though, that since a summary condenses information, look for the main points. Don’t include a lot of details in a summary.

In literary analysis essays, it is useful to include one body paragraph that summarizes the work you’re writing about. It might be helpful to quote or paraphrase specific lines that contribute to the main themes of such a work. Here is an example summarizing the article on orphans in Victorian literature:

In John Mullan’s article “Orphans in Fiction” on bl.uk.com, he reviews the use of orphans as protagonists in 19 th century Victorian literature. Mullan argues that orphans, without family attachments, are effective characters that can be “unleashed to discover the world.” This discovery process often leads orphans to expose dangerous aspects of society, while maintaining their innocence. As an example, Mullan examines how many female orphans wind up as governesses, demonstrating the usefulness of a main character that is obligated to find their own way.

This summary includes the main ideas of the article, one paraphrase, and one direct quote. A ten-paragraph article is summarized into one single paragraph.

As for giving source credit, since the author’s name and title of the source are stated at the beginning of the summary paragraph, you don’t need an in-text citation.

How do I know which one to use?

The fact is that writers use these three reference types (quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing) interchangeably. The key is to pay attention to your argument development. At some points, you will want concrete, firm evidence. Quotes are perfect for this.

At other times, you will want general support for an argument, but the text that includes such support is long-winded. A paraphrase is appropriate in this case.

Finally, sometimes you may need to mention an entire book or article because it is so full of evidence to support your points. In these cases, it is wise to take a few sentences or even a full paragraph to summarize the source.

No matter which type you use, you always need to cite your source on a References or Works Cited page at the end of the document. The MLA works cited entry for the text we’ve been using today looks like this:

Mullan, John. Orphans in Fiction” www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/orphans-in-fiction.  Accessed 20. Oct. 2020

————–

See our related lesson with video:  How to Quote and Paraphrase Evidence

Citation Guides

  • Annotated Bibliography
  • Block Quotes
  • Citation Examples
  • et al Usage
  • In-text Citations
  • Page Numbers
  • Reference Page
  • Sample Paper
  • APA 7 Updates
  • View APA Guide
  • Bibliography
  • Works Cited
  • MLA 8 Updates
  • View MLA Guide

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Citation Basics

Harvard Referencing

Plagiarism Basics

Plagiarism Checker

Upload a paper to check for plagiarism against billions of sources and get advanced writing suggestions for clarity and style.

Get Started

Quoting and Paraphrasing

Download this Handout PDF

College writing often involves integrating information from published sources into your own writing in order to add credibility and authority–this process is essential to research and the production of new knowledge.

However, when building on the work of others, you need to be careful not to plagiarize : “to steal and pass off (the ideas and words of another) as one’s own” or to “present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.”1 The University of Wisconsin–Madison takes this act of “intellectual burglary” very seriously and considers it to be a breach of academic integrity . Penalties are severe.

These materials will help you avoid plagiarism by teaching you how to properly integrate information from published sources into your own writing.

1. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 888.

How to avoid plagiarism

When using sources in your papers, you can avoid plagiarism by knowing what must be documented.

Specific words and phrases

If you use an author’s specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source.

Information and Ideas

Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source.

Information : If a piece of information isn’t common knowledge (see below), you need to provide a source.

Ideas : An author’s ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition. If a source provided any of these, you need to acknowledge the source.

Common Knowledge?

You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge:

General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain.

Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. For instance, you may not need to cite a reference to Piaget’s developmental stages in a paper for an education class or give a source for your description of a commonly used method in a biology report—but you must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers.

If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source.

Paraphrasing vs. Quoting — Explanation

Should i paraphrase or quote.

In general, use direct quotations only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words. Also, it’s often conventional to quote more extensively from sources when you’re writing a humanities paper, and to summarize from sources when you’re writing in the social or natural sciences–but there are always exceptions.

In a literary analysis paper , for example, you”ll want to quote from the literary text rather than summarize, because part of your task in this kind of paper is to analyze the specific words and phrases an author uses.

In research papers , you should quote from a source

  • to show that an authority supports your point
  • to present a position or argument to critique or comment on
  • to include especially moving or historically significant language
  • to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized

You should summarize or paraphrase when

  • what you want from the source is the idea expressed, and not the specific language used to express it
  • you can express in fewer words what the key point of a source is

How to paraphrase a source

General advice.

  • When reading a passage, try first to understand it as a whole, rather than pausing to write down specific ideas or phrases.
  • Be selective. Unless your assignment is to do a formal or “literal” paraphrase, you usually don?t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper.
  • Think of what “your own words” would be if you were telling someone who’s unfamiliar with your subject (your mother, your brother, a friend) what the original source said.
  • Remember that you can use direct quotations of phrases from the original within your paraphrase, and that you don’t need to change or put quotation marks around shared language.

Methods of Paraphrasing

  • Look away from the source then write. Read the text you want to paraphrase several times until you feel that you understand it and can use your own words to restate it to someone else. Then, look away from the original and rewrite the text in your own words.
  • Take notes. Take abbreviated notes; set the notes aside; then paraphrase from the notes a day or so later, or when you draft.

If you find that you can’t do A or B, this may mean that you don’t understand the passage completely or that you need to use a more structured process until you have more experience in paraphrasing.

The method below is not only a way to create a paraphrase but also a way to understand a difficult text.

Paraphrasing difficult texts

Consider the following passage from Love and Toil (a book on motherhood in London from 1870 to 1918), in which the author, Ellen Ross, puts forth one of her major arguments:

  • Love and Toil maintains that family survival was the mother’s main charge among the large majority of London?s population who were poor or working class; the emotional and intellectual nurture of her child or children and even their actual comfort were forced into the background. To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence. (p. 9)
Children of the poor at the turn of the century received little if any emotional or intellectual nurturing from their mothers, whose main charge was family survival. Working for and organizing household subsistence were what defined mothering. Next to this, even the children’s basic comfort was forced into the background (Ross, 1995).
According to Ross (1993), poor children at the turn of the century received little mothering in our sense of the term. Mothering was defined by economic status, and among the poor, a mother’s foremost responsibility was not to stimulate her children’s minds or foster their emotional growth but to provide food and shelter to meet the basic requirements for physical survival. Given the magnitude of this task, children were deprived of even the “actual comfort” (p. 9) we expect mothers to provide today.

You may need to go through this process several times to create a satisfactory paraphrase.

Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases

Paraphrasing is often defined as putting a passage from an author into “your own words.” But what are your own words? How different must your paraphrase be from the original?

The paragraphs below provide an example by showing a passage as it appears in the source, two paraphrases that follow the source too closely, and a legitimate paraphrase.

The student’s intention was to incorporate the material in the original passage into a section of a paper on the concept of “experts” that compared the functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

The Passage as It Appears in the Source

Critical care nurses function in a hierarchy of roles. In this open heart surgery unit, the nurse manager hires and fires the nursing personnel. The nurse manager does not directly care for patients but follows the progress of unusual or long-term patients. On each shift a nurse assumes the role of resource nurse. This person oversees the hour-by-hour functioning of the unit as a whole, such as considering expected admissions and discharges of patients, ascertaining that beds are available for patients in the operating room, and covering sick calls. Resource nurses also take a patient assignment. They are the most experienced of all the staff nurses. The nurse clinician has a separate job description and provides for quality of care by orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and providing direct support where needed, such as assisting in emergency situations. The clinical nurse specialist in this unit is mostly involved with formal teaching in orienting new staff. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist are the designated experts. They do not take patient assignments. The resource nurse is seen as both a caregiver and a resource to other caregivers. . . . Staff nurses have a hierarchy of seniority. . . . Staff nurses are assigned to patients to provide all their nursing care. (Chase, 1995, p. 156)

Word-for-Word Plagiarism

Critical care nurses have a hierarchy of roles. The nurse manager hires and fires nurses. S/he does not directly care for patients but does follow unusual or long-term cases. On each shift a resource nurse attends to the functioning of the unit as a whole, such as making sure beds are available in the operating room , and also has a patient assignment . The nurse clinician orients new staff, develops policies, and provides support where needed . The clinical nurse specialist also orients new staff, mostly by formal teaching. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist , as the designated experts, do not take patient assignments . The resource nurse is not only a caregiver but a resource to the other caregivers . Within the staff nurses there is also a hierarchy of seniority . Their job is to give assigned patients all their nursing care .

Why this is plagiarism

Notice that the writer has not only “borrowed” Chase’s material (the results of her research) with no acknowledgment, but has also largely maintained the author’s method of expression and sentence structure. The phrases in red are directly copied from the source or changed only slightly in form.

Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Chase as the source of the content, the language of the passage would be considered plagiarized because no quotation marks indicate the phrases that come directly from Chase. And if quotation marks did appear around all these phrases, this paragraph would be so cluttered that it would be unreadable.

A Patchwork Paraphrase

Chase (1995) describes how nurses in a critical care unit function in a hierarchy that places designated experts at the top and the least senior staff nurses at the bottom. The experts — the nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist — are not involved directly in patient care. The staff nurses, in contrast, are assigned to patients and provide all their nursing care . Within the staff nurses is a hierarchy of seniority in which the most senior can become resource nurses: they are assigned a patient but also serve as a resource to other caregivers. The experts have administrative and teaching tasks such as selecting and orienting new staff, developing unit policies , and giving hands-on support where needed.

This paraphrase is a patchwork composed of pieces in the original author’s language (in red) and pieces in the student-writer’s words, all rearranged into a new pattern, but with none of the borrowed pieces in quotation marks. Thus, even though the writer acknowledges the source of the material, the underlined phrases are falsely presented as the student’s own.

A Legitimate Paraphrase

In her study of the roles of nurses in a critical care unit, Chase (1995) also found a hierarchy that distinguished the roles of experts and others. Just as the educational experts described above do not directly teach students, the experts in this unit do not directly attend to patients. That is the role of the staff nurses, who, like teachers, have their own “hierarchy of seniority” (p. 156). The roles of the experts include employing unit nurses and overseeing the care of special patients (nurse manager), teaching and otherwise integrating new personnel into the unit (clinical nurse specialist and nurse clinician), and policy-making (nurse clinician). In an intermediate position in the hierarchy is the resource nurse, a staff nurse with more experience than the others, who assumes direct care of patients as the other staff nurses do, but also takes on tasks to ensure the smooth operation of the entire facility.

Why this is a good paraphrase

The writer has documented Chase’s material and specific language (by direct reference to the author and by quotation marks around language taken directly from the source). Notice too that the writer has modified Chase’s language and structure and has added material to fit the new context and purpose — to present the distinctive functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

Shared Language

Perhaps you’ve noticed that a number of phrases from the original passage appear in the legitimate paraphrase: critical care, staff nurses, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, nurse clinician, resource nurse.

If all these phrases were in red, the paraphrase would look much like the “patchwork” example. The difference is that the phrases in the legitimate paraphrase are all precise, economical, and conventional designations that are part of the shared language within the nursing discipline (in the too-close paraphrases, they’re red only when used within a longer borrowed phrase).

In every discipline and in certain genres (such as the empirical research report), some phrases are so specialized or conventional that you can’t paraphrase them except by wordy and awkward circumlocutions that would be less familiar (and thus less readable) to the audience.

When you repeat such phrases, you’re not stealing the unique phrasing of an individual writer but using a common vocabulary shared by a community of scholars.

Some Examples of Shared Language You Don’t Need to Put in Quotation Marks

  • Conventional designations: e.g., physician’s assistant, chronic low-back pain
  • Preferred bias-free language: e.g., persons with disabilities
  • Technical terms and phrases of a discipline or genre : e.g., reduplication, cognitive domain, material culture, sexual harassment
Chase, S. K. (1995). The social context of critical care clinical judgment. Heart and Lung, 24, 154-162.

How to Quote a Source

Introducing a quotation.

One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Don’t simply drop quotations into your paper and leave it to the reader to make connections.

Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements:

  • A signal that a quotation is coming–generally the author’s name and/or a reference to the work
  • An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text

Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement.

Ross (1993), in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], “To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence” (p. 9).

The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase:

Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As [connection] Ross observes [signal], “Maternal thinking about children’s health revolved around the possibility of a child’s maiming or death” (p. 166).

Formatting Quotations

Short direct prose.

Incorporate short direct prose quotations into the text of your paper and enclose them in double quotation marks:

According to Jonathan Clarke, “Professional diplomats often say that trying to think diplomatically about foreign policy is a waste of time.”

Longer prose quotations

Begin longer quotations (for instance, in the APA system, 40 words or more) on a new line and indent the entire quotation (i.e., put in block form), with no quotation marks at beginning or end, as in the quoted passage from our Successful vs. Unsucessful Paraphrases page.

Rules about the minimum length of block quotations, how many spaces to indent, and whether to single- or double-space extended quotations vary with different documentation systems; check the guidelines for the system you’re using.

Quotation of Up to 3 Lines of Poetry

Quotations of up to 3 lines of poetry should be integrated into your sentence. For example:

In Julius Caesar, Antony begins his famous speech with “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.75-76).

Notice that a slash (/) with a space on either side is used to separate lines.

Quotation of More than 3 Lines of Poetry

More than 3 lines of poetry should be indented. As with any extended (indented) quotation, do not use quotation marks unless you need to indicate a quotation within your quotation.

Punctuating with Quotation Marks

Parenthetical citations.

With short quotations, place citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark, comma, semi-colon, colon):

Menand (2002) characterizes language as “a social weapon” (p. 115).

With block quotations, check the guidelines for the documentation system you are using.

Commas and periods

Place inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows:

Hertzberg (2002) notes that “treating the Constitution as imperfect is not new,” but because of Dahl’s credentials, his “apostasy merits attention” (p. 85).

Semicolons and colons

Place outside of closing quotation marks (or after a parenthetical citation).

Question marks and exclamation points

Place inside closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question/exclamation:

Menand (2001) acknowledges that H. W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage is “a classic of the language,” but he asks, “Is it a dead classic?” (p. 114).

[Note that a period still follows the closing parenthesis.]

Place outside of closing quotation marks if the entire sentence containing the quotation is a question or exclamation:

How many students actually read the guide to find out what is meant by “academic misconduct”?

Quotation within a quotation

Use single quotation marks for the embedded quotation:

According to Hertzberg (2002), Dahl gives the U. S. Constitution “bad marks in ‘democratic fairness’ and ‘encouraging consensus'” (p. 90).

[The phrases “democratic fairness” and “encouraging consensus” are already in quotation marks in Dahl’s sentence.]

Indicating Changes in Quotations

Quoting only a portion of the whole.

Use ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate an omission within a quotation–but not at the beginning or end unless it’s not obvious that you’re quoting only a portion of the whole.

Adding Clarification, Comment, or Correction

Within quotations, use square brackets [ ] (not parentheses) to add your own clarification, comment, or correction.

Use [sic] (meaning “so” or “thus”) to indicate that a mistake is in the source you’re quoting and is not your own.

Additional information

Information on summarizing and paraphrasing sources.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). (2000). Retrieved January 7, 2002, from http://www.bartleby.com/61/ Bazerman, C. (1995). The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines (5th ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Leki, I. (1995). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 185-211.

Leki describes the basic method presented in C, pp. 4-5.

Spatt, B. (1999). Writing from sources (5th ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 98-119; 364-371.

Information about specific documentation systems

The Writing Center has handouts explaining how to use many of the standard documentation systems. You may look at our general Web page on Documentation Systems, or you may check out any of the following specific Web pages.

If you’re not sure which documentation system to use, ask the course instructor who assigned your paper.

  • American Psychological Assoicaion (APA)
  • Modern Language Association (MLA)
  • Chicago/Turabian (A Footnote or Endnote System)
  • American Political Science Association (APSA)
  • Council of Science Editors (CBE)
  • Numbered References

You may also consult the following guides:

  • American Medical Association, Manual for Authors and Editors
  • Council of Science Editors, CBE style Manual
  • The Chicago Manual of Style
  • MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Academic and Professional Writing

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Analysis Papers

Reading Poetry

A Short Guide to Close Reading for Literary Analysis

Using Literary Quotations

Play Reviews

Writing a Rhetorical Précis to Analyze Nonfiction Texts

Incorporating Interview Data

Grant Proposals

Planning and Writing a Grant Proposal: The Basics

Additional Resources for Grants and Proposal Writing

Job Materials and Application Essays

Writing Personal Statements for Ph.D. Programs

  • Before you begin: useful tips for writing your essay
  • Guided brainstorming exercises
  • Get more help with your essay
  • Frequently Asked Questions

Resume Writing Tips

CV Writing Tips

Cover Letters

Business Letters

Proposals and Dissertations

Resources for Proposal Writers

Resources for Dissertators

Research Papers

Planning and Writing Research Papers

Writing Annotated Bibliographies

Creating Poster Presentations

Writing an Abstract for Your Research Paper

Thank-You Notes

Advice for Students Writing Thank-You Notes to Donors

Reading for a Review

Critical Reviews

Writing a Review of Literature

Scientific Reports

Scientific Report Format

Sample Lab Assignment

Writing for the Web

Writing an Effective Blog Post

Writing for Social Media: A Guide for Academics

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

67 Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

Integrating evidence is a vital step to take when composing effective essays, presentations, and productions. How smoothly you integrate evidence impacts your credibility as a researcher and writer. There are three primary ways to integrate evidence: quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. For all of these, particularly quoting, there is a “formula” to follow: 1) introduce, 2) insert, and 3) explain. The introduce step entails preparing the reader for the new information that’s to come. You can do this by mentioning the source, author, or using signal phrases, such as “according to” or “statistics show that” before bringing in a quotation, paraphrase or summary. The insert step happens when you enter in a quotation, paraphrasing of a fact, or summarize a point made by another source. Lastly, the explain step is oftentimes the most important step to be taken. When explaining your evidence, you’ll demonstrate why the evidence or the source of the evidence is important and how it connects to your overall argument, specific claims, or other important information. By doing so, you’re providing in-depth insight and analysis that keeps your readers engaged and invested in what you have to say.

Quoting is when one uses the exact wording of the source material. Direct quotations should be used sparingly, and should be used to strengthen your own arguments and ideas.

When should one use a quotation? Ideally, you want a balance of quotations, paraphrased or summarized content in your writing. Some reasons to use a quotation instead of paraphrasing or summarizing might include:

  • When not using the author’s exact wording would change the original meaning
  • To lend authority to the point you are trying to make
  • When the language of the quote is significant

Quotations should always be introduced and incorporated into your argument, rather than dropped into your paper without context. Consider this first example of how not to incorporate a quotation:

There are many positive effects for advertising prescription drugs on television. “African-American physicians regard direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines as one way to educate minority patients about needed treatment and healthcare options” (Wechsler).

This is a potentially good piece of information to support a research writer’s claim, but the researcher hasn’t done any of the necessary work to explain where this quotation comes from nor explain why it is important for supporting her point. Rather, she has simply “dropped in” the quotation, leaving the interpretation of its significance up to the reader. Now consider this revised example of how this quotation might be better introduced into the essay:

In her Pharmaceutical Executive article available through the Wilson Select Internet database, Jill Wechsler writes about one of the positive effects of advertising prescription drugs on television. “African-American physicians regard direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines as one way to educate minority patients about needed treatment and healthcare options.”

In this revision, it’s much clearer what point the writer is trying to make with this evidence and where this evidence comes from.

Paraphrasing

While there are numerous skills you will develop as writers and communicators throughout your composition experience, one that builds the foundation to effective source usage and understanding is paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is a restatement of the information or point of the original source in your own words. You’ve probably heard of paraphrasing before and may have even attempted to paraphrase (or had trouble paraphrasing because it seemed as though no one could say it better than the author already did). However, you may not always have enough space or time to integrate a specific quotation, especially if it’s a lengthy one and covers multiple concepts or conveys complex details.

Further, we want to make sure, as effective writers, that we’re not distracting readers from our own perspectives or sources of information by including lengthy quotations from other sources. To put it another way, we don’t want to make our readers work for the point and information because they could lose interest or get lost and miss the important points we’re presenting to them by using the source(s). So, paraphrasing helps us avoid these mishaps and helps our organization and “flow” better.

Two Paraphrasing Tips:

If you’re trying to paraphrase but unsure as to where to begin, try:

a) explaining the author’s point to your peer who’s not familiar with that text or maybe even the concept being addressed there, or

b) writing down the specific thing(s) you want to emphasize from the other author’s point.

Summarizing

Summarizing is a skill similar to paraphrasing. However, it serves a different purpose, especially when writing. Summarizing usually comes into play when there are multiple steps or details to be conveyed. One of the ways summarizing differs from paraphrasing is in the language associated with them. Typically, you summarize a process, an event, or a story but you paraphrase a theory, concept, or claim. In the next paragraphs, author Stephen D. Krause offers us some helpful guidance on how to summarize and why it’s important.

Summaries of different lengths are useful in research writing because you often need to provide your readers with an explanation of the text you are discussing. This is especially true when you are going to quote or paraphrase from a source.

Of course, the first step in writing a good summary is to do a thorough reading of the text you are going to summarize in the first place. Beyond that important start, there are a few basic guidelines you should follow when you write summary material:

  • Stay “neutral” in your summarizing .  Summaries provide “just the facts” and are not the place where you offer your opinions about the text you are summarizing. Save your opinions and evaluation of the evidence you are summarizing for other parts of your writing.
  • Don’t quote from what you are summarizing .  Summaries will be more useful to you and your colleagues if you write them in your own words.
  • Don’t “cut and paste” from database abstracts .  Many of the periodical indexes that are available as part of your library’s computer system include abstracts of articles. Do not “cut” this abstract material and then “paste” it into your own annotated bibliography. For one thing, this is plagiarism. Second, “cutting and pasting” from the abstract defeats one of the purposes of writing summaries and creating an annotated bibliography in the first place, which is to help you understand and explain your research.

It’s important to learn how to create quotations, to paraphrase, and to summarize properly because we don’t want to plagiarize. But beyond our goal of not plagiarizing, we want to give proper attribution to those who’ve worked hard on their research and studies to share this information with the rest of the world. Learning to quote, paraphrase, and summarize properly will help you avoid plagiarism, especially accidental plagiarism, add more dynamism to your writing, and build your credibility and skills as an ethical writer and researcher.

Attributions

“How to Summarize—An Overview,” authored, remixed, and/or curated by Steven D. Krause,  CC BY-NC-SA, https://human.libretexts.org/@go/page/6482 .

“How to Quote and Paraphrase- An Overview,” authored, remixed, and/or curated by Steven D. Krause, CC BY-NC-SA, https://human.libretexts.org/@go/page/6483 .

Reading and Writing in College Copyright © 2021 by Jackie Hoermann-Elliott and TWU FYC Team is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

  • Knowledge Base
  • Working with sources
  • How to Paraphrase | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

How to Paraphrase | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

Published on April 8, 2022 by Courtney Gahan and Jack Caulfield. Revised on June 1, 2023.

Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas into your own words. Paraphrasing a source involves changing the wording while preserving the original meaning.

Paraphrasing is an alternative to  quoting (copying someone’s exact words and putting them in quotation marks ). In academic writing, it’s usually better to integrate sources by paraphrasing instead of quoting. It shows that you have understood the source, reads more smoothly, and keeps your own voice front and center.

Every time you paraphrase, it’s important to cite the source . Also take care not to use wording that is too similar to the original. Otherwise, you could be at risk of committing plagiarism .

What is your plagiarism score?

Compare your paper with 99.3 billion webpages and 8 million publications.

  • Best plagiarism checker of 2021
  • Plagiarism report & percentage
  • Largest plagiarism database

Scribbr Plagiarism Checker

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Table of contents

How to paraphrase in five easy steps, how to paraphrase correctly, examples of paraphrasing, how to cite a paraphrase, paraphrasing vs. quoting, paraphrasing vs. summarizing, avoiding plagiarism when you paraphrase, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about paraphrasing.

If you’re struggling to get to grips with the process of paraphrasing, check out our easy step-by-step guide in the video below.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

  • Missing commas and periods
  • Incorrect usage of “et al.”
  • Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
  • Missing reference entries

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Putting an idea into your own words can be easier said than done. Let’s say you want to paraphrase the text below, about population decline in a particular species of sea snails.

Incorrect paraphrasing

You might make a first attempt to paraphrase it by swapping out a few words for  synonyms .

Like other sea creatures inhabiting the vicinity of highly populated coasts, horse conchs have lost substantial territory to advancement and contamination , including preferred breeding grounds along mud flats and seagrass beds. Their Gulf home is also heating up due to global warming , which scientists think further puts pressure on the creatures , predicated upon the harmful effects extra warmth has on other large mollusks (Barnett, 2022).

This attempt at paraphrasing doesn’t change the sentence structure or order of information, only some of the word choices. And the synonyms chosen are poor:

  • “Advancement and contamination” doesn’t really convey the same meaning as “development and pollution.”
  • Sometimes the changes make the tone less academic: “home” for “habitat” and “sea creatures” for “marine animals.”
  • Adding phrases like “inhabiting the vicinity of” and “puts pressure on” makes the text needlessly long-winded.
  • Global warming is related to climate change, but they don’t mean exactly the same thing.

Because of this, the text reads awkwardly, is longer than it needs to be, and remains too close to the original phrasing. This means you risk being accused of plagiarism .

Correct paraphrasing

Let’s look at a more effective way of paraphrasing the same text.

Here, we’ve:

  • Only included the information that’s relevant to our argument (note that the paraphrase is shorter than the original)
  • Introduced the information with the signal phrase “Scientists believe that …”
  • Retained key terms like “development and pollution,” since changing them could alter the meaning
  • Structured sentences in our own way instead of copying the structure of the original
  • Started from a different point, presenting information in a different order

Because of this, we’re able to clearly convey the relevant information from the source without sticking too close to the original phrasing.

Explore the tabs below to see examples of paraphrasing in action.

  • Journal article
  • Newspaper article
  • Magazine article

Once you have your perfectly paraphrased text, you need to ensure you credit the original author. You’ll always paraphrase sources in the same way, but you’ll have to use a different type of in-text citation depending on what citation style you follow.

Generate accurate citations with Scribbr

Prevent plagiarism. run a free check..

It’s a good idea to paraphrase instead of quoting in most cases because:

  • Paraphrasing shows that you fully understand the meaning of a text
  • Your own voice remains dominant throughout your paper
  • Quotes reduce the readability of your text

But that doesn’t mean you should never quote. Quotes are appropriate when:

  • Giving a precise definition
  • Saying something about the author’s language or style (e.g., in a literary analysis paper)
  • Providing evidence in support of an argument
  • Critiquing or analyzing a specific claim

A paraphrase puts a specific passage into your own words. It’s typically a similar length to the original text, or slightly shorter.

When you boil a longer piece of writing down to the key points, so that the result is a lot shorter than the original, this is called summarizing .

Paraphrasing and quoting are important tools for presenting specific information from sources. But if the information you want to include is more general (e.g., the overarching argument of a whole article), summarizing is more appropriate.

When paraphrasing, you have to be careful to avoid accidental plagiarism .

This can happen if the paraphrase is too similar to the original quote, with phrases or whole sentences that are identical (and should therefore be in quotation marks). It can also happen if you fail to properly cite the source.

Paraphrasing tools are widely used by students, and can be especially useful for non-native speakers who may find academic writing particularly challenging. While these can be helpful for a bit of extra inspiration, use these tools sparingly, keeping academic integrity in mind.

To make sure you’ve properly paraphrased and cited all your sources, you could elect to run a plagiarism check before submitting your paper. And of course, always be sure to read your source material yourself and take the first stab at paraphrasing on your own.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

  • ChatGPT vs human editor
  • ChatGPT citations
  • Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
  • Using ChatGPT for your studies
  • What is ChatGPT?
  • Chicago style
  • Critical thinking

 Plagiarism

  • Types of plagiarism
  • Self-plagiarism
  • Avoiding plagiarism
  • Academic integrity
  • Consequences of plagiarism
  • Common knowledge

To paraphrase effectively, don’t just take the original sentence and swap out some of the words for synonyms. Instead, try:

  • Reformulating the sentence (e.g., change active to passive , or start from a different point)
  • Combining information from multiple sentences into one
  • Leaving out information from the original that isn’t relevant to your point
  • Using synonyms where they don’t distort the meaning

The main point is to ensure you don’t just copy the structure of the original text, but instead reformulate the idea in your own words.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas in your own words.

So when does paraphrasing count as plagiarism?

  • Paraphrasing is plagiarism if you don’t properly credit the original author.
  • Paraphrasing is plagiarism if your text is too close to the original wording (even if you cite the source). If you directly copy a sentence or phrase, you should quote it instead.
  • Paraphrasing  is not plagiarism if you put the author’s ideas completely in your own words and properly cite the source .

To present information from other sources in academic writing , it’s best to paraphrase in most cases. This shows that you’ve understood the ideas you’re discussing and incorporates them into your text smoothly.

It’s appropriate to quote when:

  • Changing the phrasing would distort the meaning of the original text
  • You want to discuss the author’s language choices (e.g., in literary analysis )
  • You’re presenting a precise definition
  • You’re looking in depth at a specific claim

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Gahan, C. & Caulfield, J. (2023, June 01). How to Paraphrase | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved February 19, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-paraphrase/

Is this article helpful?

Courtney Gahan

Courtney Gahan

Other students also liked, how to write a summary | guide & examples, how to quote | citing quotes in apa, mla & chicago, how to avoid plagiarism | tips on citing sources.

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

The intent of this guide is to help you understand when and how to incorporate quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing into your assignments. Moreover, you may find the included information on how to cite sources using the most common citation styles such as APA and MLA useful. The guide contains APA and MLA citation basics to help you properly format your in-text citations and list of sources.

What Are Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing?

The difference between these three terms depends on how close your writing is to the source.

  • Should reflect the original source writing
  • Should be properly cited
  • May involve copying short sentences or passages
  • Must be put in “quotation marks”

You may use quotations if you believe there is a need to directly quote some information, especially facts and numbers. In addition, you may use quotations to support your argument with an author’s words.

Example : According to Cox, “the global nursing shortage affects health policy.”

Paraphrasing

  • Involves putting a passage of the original text into your own words
  • Should restate the meaning of a text
  • Should also change the structure of a passage

Paraphrasing is not enclosed in quotation marks. This technique is usually used to explain ideas from an original source in a short form. Use paraphrasing to avoid overusing quotations and to clarify a passage from a text.

Example : Brown claims that small countries have stabilized their currencies in relation to the US dollar.

Summarizing

  • Involves stating the main points of a single text or several texts into your own words
  • Is used to establish background or present a broad overview of the topic

Here are some summarizing tools to save your time.

How to Cite Sources

Now you know that if you use quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing, you must cite the original source of information. Otherwise, your work may be considered to be plagiarized as the ideas and thoughts in your paper are not your own. Several different citation styles are used in different fields of research. If you are unsure as to which style to choose, ask your instructor or supervisor. The given guidelines will demonstrate how to cite sources using APA and MLA citation styles as examples.

  • When quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing someone’s ideas, you must use in-text citations. There are several types of in-text citations, such as parenthetical citation, endnote, and footnote.
  • For every in-text citation, there should be a full citation at the end of your paper on the works cited or references page.
  • Identify the Author and the Title of Your Source
  • If there are two or more authors, be sure to write them in the exact order that they appear in the original source.
  • If you cite a website or a web page that has no author, write down the name of the website or web page.
  • Other Important Information to Include
  • Publication date, the publisher, and the city of publication (for books)
  • Publication date, the title of the periodical, volume number, issue number, and pages on which an article appears (for articles in periodicals)
  • Publication date, the publisher, the name of the website, the URL, and the date of access (for online sources)

Placing In-Text Citation

In-text citations should be placed at the end of a sentence in which you quote or paraphrase.

Citing Sources in MLA: In-Text Citation

  • A parenthetical citation in MLA should include a page number, provided that the author’s name is given in the sentence. Example : According to Cox, “the global nursing shortage affects health policy” (12).
  • When paraphrasing, include the last author’s name and page number in parentheses. Example : Small countries have stabilized their currencies in relation to the US dollar (Brown 20).
  • When citing a website or online sources, use the number of a paragraph instead of a page number. Example : (Danhof par. 10)
  • If the source has no author, use the name of the source in the parenthetical citation.
  • If you cite a work written by two authors, list their names in the text or include them in the parenthetical citation. Example : (Koontz and Yates 67). Example of citing a work written by three or more authors: (White et al. 76).

Citing Source in APA: In-Text Citation

  • If you paraphrase or summarize, mention the author and the year when the source was published in the parenthetical citation. Example : (Butler, 2018). When quoting directly, do not forget to mention the page number. Example : (Butler, 2018, p. 110).
  • If the source has 3–5 authors, write the names of all the authors in the first mention. Example : (Hussain, Rivers, Stewart, & Munchus, 2015). Then, use the following format: (Last Name et al., Year). Example : (Hussain et al., 2015).
  • When citing online sources, use the number of a paragraph instead of a page number. Example : (Green, 2012, para. 12).
  • If you cite a source with no author, cite the source by its title. Remember that titles of books should be italicized, whereas titles of web pages and articles should be put in quotation marks. Example : (“Exchange Rate Regimes,” n.d.).

MLA Works Cited Page

  • Each source you cite in the text should be mentioned in the Works Cited page.
  • Use the following format to cite books: Last Name, First Name. Title of Book . City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

Example of citing a book with two authors:

Antonakis, John, and David V. Day. The Nature of Leadershi . SAGE Publications, 2017.

  • If the book has three or more authors, write only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” instead of the subsequent authors’ names.
  • Use this basic format for an article in a scholarly journal: Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal , Volume, Issue, Year, pages.

Astor, Philipp J., et al. “Integrating Biosignals into Information Systems: A NeuroIS Tool for Improving Emotion Regulation.” Journal of Management Information Systems , vol. 30, no. 3, 2013, pp. 247–277.

APA Reference List

  • Each source you cite in the text should be mentioned in the References page
  • Use this basic format for books: Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of work: Subtitle . Location: Publisher. If a source has several authors, use the ampersand instead of “and.”

Englebardt, S. P., & Nelson, R. (2005). Health care informatics: An interdisciplinary approach . St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

  • Use this basic format for an article in a scholarly journal: Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Journal’s Title, volume number (issue number), pages.

Reisman, M. (2017). EHRs: The challenge of making electronic data usable and interoperable. P&T, 42 (9), 572–575.

In summary, quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are used for sharing authors’ ideas and supporting the argument of the paper without plagiarism. These guidelines present simplified rules illustrating the differences between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing and their usage, along with basic rules for formatting sources according to MLA and APA. It is important that every student properly cite sources both within the body of the paper and at the end of it.

Unfortunately, your browser is too old to work on this site.

For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript.

Quetext

What’s the Difference? Summarizing, Paraphrasing, & Quoting

  • Posted on November 29, 2023 November 29, 2023

What’s the Difference? Summarizing , Paraphrasing , & Quoting

Quoting, paraphrasing , and summarizing are three methods for including the ideas or research of other writers in your own work. In academic writing , such as essay writing or research papers , it is often necessary to utilize other people’s writing.

Outside sources are helpful in providing evidence or support written claims when arguing a point or persuading an audience. Being able to link the content of a piece to similar points made by other authors illustrates that one’s writing is not based entirely off personal thoughts or opinions and has support found from other credible individuals. In scientific work such as reports or experiment related writing, being able to point to another published or peer-reviewed writer can strengthen your personal research and even aid in explaining surprising or unusual findings. In all situations, referencing outside sources also elevates the integrity and quality of your work.

When pulling information from an outside source it is critical to properly use quotations, paraphrasing , or summarizing to avoid plagiarizing from the original passage . Plagiarism is portraying another’s work, ideas, and research as one’s own, and is an extremely serious disciplinary offense. Without using proper quotations, paraphrasing and summarizing , it can be easy to unintentionally plagiarize from the original source . Including citations that reference the author also helps ensure proper credit is given, and no accidental plagiarism occurs. Regardless of if APA , MLA or Chicago style are used, a citation must accompany the work of another author.

This article will compare these three concepts, to help users become more comfortable with each of them and the differing scenarios to utilize each. The article will also provide examples and give pointers to further increase familiarity with these essential techniques and prevent the happening of plagiarism .

What is Quoting?

Quoting is the restatement of a phrase, sentence, thought, or fact that was previously written by another author. A proper direct quotation includes the identical text without any words or punctuation adjusted.

One might use a quotation when they want to use the exact words from the original author , or when the author has introduced a new concept or idea that was of their conception. Oftentimes, the author already used concise, well-thought-out wording for an idea and it may be difficult to restate without using a direct quote .

However when repeating content from someone else’s work, one must use quotation marks with a corresponding citation or it will be considered plagiarism . The proper citation may also vary based on the citation style being used.

Examples of Quoting

In order to further the understanding of how to utilize quotes, some examples of incorrect and correct quotation are provided below.

Original Text: As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short and slow steps

Incorrect Quotation Example: “Because natural selection acts only by accumulating slight, successive favorable variations. It can produce no greater or sudden modification and can only act by very short and slow steps

Correct Quotation Example: “As natural selection acts solely by accumulating slight, successive, favorable variations, it can produce no great or sudden modification; it can act only by very short and slow steps,” (Darwin 510).

The bad example provided does not include the identical text or identical grammar and punctuation to that of the original source . The quote is also lacking one quotation mark and a citation to attribute the initial author. Meanwhile, the good example i s completely identical to the original text and features a correct citation, making it a great example of a quote in use.

What is Paraphrasing ?

Paraphrasing is taking the written work, thoughts, or research of another author and putting it in one’s own words . Correct paraphrasing is done through the restatement of key ideas from another person’s work, but utilizing different words to avoid copying them. Oftentimes, finding synonyms to the words used by the original author helps to paraphrase .

One would use paraphrasing when they hope to capture the key points of a written work in their own writing . Paraphrasing should also be employed when the content of the original source is more important than the wording used. This writing technique is a good strategy to maintain one’s personal writing style throughout a written work.

Similar to quoting, even paraphrased material should be accompanied by the proper citation to avoid plagiarizing the initial author.

Examples of Paraphrasing

Original Content: The Statue of Liberty, one of the most recognizable symbols of freedom and democracy across the world, was a gift of friendship to America from France. Inaugurated in 1886, the statue is 305 feet tall and represents Libertas, the Roman liberty goddess, bearing a torch in her right hand and a tablet in her left hand with the date of the US Declaration of Independence. Broken shackles lay underneath the statue’s drapery, to symbolize the end of all types of servitude and oppression.

Incorrect Paraphrasing Example: The Statue of Liberty is an evident display of freedom and democracy for the whole world, and was created by France for America to represent their friendship. The 305 foot statue of the Roman liberty goddess Libertas was installed in 1886. The Statue of Liberty has a tablet with the US Declaration of Independence date in one hand and a torch in her other. She also has broken shackles on the ground to represent an end to enslavement and oppression.

Correct Paraphrasing Example: France presented the United States with the Statue of Liberty in 1886 to commemorate the two countries friendship. The Roman goddess of liberty, Libertas, stands 305 feet tall as a well-known tribute to freedom and democracy. The statue commemorates the US Declaration of Independence though the tablet in her left hand that accompanies a torch in her right. The Statue of Liberty also celebrates an end to oppression and servitude, indicated by broken chains by her feet ( Diaz, 2019 ).

The incorrect example provided featured a sentence structure that followed too closely to that of the original text. Additionally, the writer only swapped out a few words for very common synonyms  so the paraphrased content is ultimately too similar to the original text. An academic work that used this  paraphrase  would be cited for  plagiarism .

On the other hand, the correct example featured paraphrased content that is properly cited, with variety to the sentence structure and text that includes words beyond just synonyms to words in the original content. This example also contains the main ideas, but is ultimately slightly condensed from the original text.

What Is Summarizing ?

Summarizing is providing a brief description of the key ideas from a written work. This description should be in one’s own writing , and is typically significantly shorter than the source material because it only touches on the main points .

Summaries are commonly used when a writer hopes to capture the central idea of a work, without relying on the specific wording that the original author used to explain the idea. They also can provide a background or overview of content needed to understand a topic being discussed. This strategy still captures the meaning of the original text without straying from one’s personal tone and writing style.

Unlike paraphrasing and quoting, a summary does not require an in- text citation and only occasionally needs accreditation to the original writer’s work .

Examples of Summarizing

In order to further the understanding of how to summarize content in your writing, some examples of incorrect and correct summaries for the short children’s story Goldilocks and The Three Bears are provided below.

Incorrect Summary Example: Once upon a time, Goldilocks went for a walk on the beach when she saw a house and went in it. In the house she found three bowls of soup and decided to try them all, but one was too hot, one was too cold and one was just right. Next, Goldilocks tried to sit in three different chairs but only found one that fit her perfectly. Lastly, she went to the back of the house and found three beds. Just like the soup and chairs she tested all of them before picking one that she liked the best and taking a nice long nap. The End.

Correct Summary Example: In Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robert Southy, a young girl wanders into the house of three bears where she tastes three different porridges; sits in three different chairs; and naps in three different beds before finding one of each that fits her. Goldilocks is eventually found by the bears who are upset about her intrusion and usage of their personal belongings.

The incorrect example provided would not be considered a good summary for a few reasons. Primarily, this summary does not summarize well, as provides too much unnecessary detail and an individual would still be able to comprehend the main point of the story without it. The summary also ends without touching on the most important point , which is the lesson of the story. This summary also provides inaccurate information, and lacks a citation.

Meanwhile, the correct example is a good summary because it does not spend too much time on any certain aspect of the story. The reader is still able to understand exactly what happens to Goldilocks without consuming any non-essential details. This summary also provides completely accurate information and touches on the main point or lesson from the story.

Differences and Similarities

There are a few major differences and similarities between the three writing techniques discussed.

Quoting, paraphrasing , and summarizing are similar in that they are all writing techniques that can be used to include the work of other authors in one’s own writing . It is common for writers to use these strategies collectively in one piece to provide variety in their references and across their work. These three strategies also share the similarity of helping to prevent plagiarizing the content from the original source . All three of these methods require some form of citation and attribution to the original author to completely avoid plagiarizing.

Oppositely, the main difference between quoting, paraphrasing , and summarizing is that quoting is done word for word from the original work . Both paraphrasing and summarizing only touch on the key points and are written with some variation from the initial author’s work , usually in the style and tone of the new author. When comparing just the latter two, paraphrased material tends to be closer in length to the actual material, because it only slightly condenses the original passage . On the other hand, a summary is most likely significantly shorter than the original author’s work since this method only pulls from the most important points .

Final Thoughts

It is extremely common to utilize the previous writing of others, especially in academic writing . These original works enhance the quality and honesty of one’s work while also providing backing and emphasis to the points made.

Quoting, paraphrasing , and summarizing are all strategies for incorporating the thoughts, ideas, research, and writing from another author in one’s own work. The three methods explained are also safe strategies to employ to avoid accidental plagiarism of the original passage .

Another strategy to ensure one’s writing is properly quoted, paraphrased, and summarized is by using a plagiarism checker. Quetext provides an easy-to-use plagiarism checker that verifies the originality of work and can create citations for any sources cited throughout the paper.

Sign Up for Quetext Today!

Click below to find a pricing plan that fits your needs.

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

You May Also Like

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Revolutionizing Education: The Role of AI Detection in Academic Integrity

  • Posted on February 15, 2024

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

How Reliable are AI Content Detectors? Which is Most Reliable?

  • Posted on February 8, 2024 February 8, 2024

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

What Is an Article Spinner?

  • Posted on February 2, 2024 February 2, 2024

Woman writing in her notebook near computer

Recognizing & Avoiding Plagiarism in Your Research Paper

  • Posted on January 26, 2024 January 26, 2024

Close up of a person's hand writing a letter with an ink pen.

How to Cite a Letter: APA, MLA, and Chicago Style

  • Posted on January 18, 2024 January 18, 2024

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Is Using AI Content Plagiarism?

  • Posted on January 10, 2024 January 10, 2024

Image of CD resting on top of a stack of newspapers.

Famous Plagiarism Cases (And How They Could’ve Been Avoided)

  • Posted on January 5, 2024 January 5, 2024

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

How to Write a Thesis Statement & Essay Outline

  • Posted on December 28, 2023 January 3, 2024

Input your search keywords and press Enter.

Know the Difference: Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing 

Know the difference: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

An important part of any academic discussion is citations. It highlights the existing works on a particular topic, enabling readers to track relevant research 1 to develop their arguments. Though the function of citation is simple, the learning process of correctly citing other articles can be challenging. There is an increased possibility of plagiarism if you incorporate others’ work or ideas without full or correct acknowledgment. As a research student or early researcher, you will come across rules for paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting in your research articles. These are essential strategies for citing existing research work to support or challenge your writings or arguments. You’ll use a combination of these in your assignments, dissertation, or research papers, so understanding their differences is important.  

In simple terms, the difference between these three terms lies in the proximity of your writing to the source writing, but their use could be hindered for the following reasons. 2   

  • Low linguistic ability: limit the power to define, summarize, evaluate, and contrast existing literature.  
  • Unfamiliarity with the language of citations: repeat citation patterns, integrate references incorrectly, or misplace reporting verbs. 
  • Lack of awareness of the importance of referencing: Under referencing 

This article compares and discusses paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting to help you become more comfortable with their usage. 

Quoting involves using a direct quotation , where you quote the author verbatim to define or describe specific concepts. Use double quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quote, and use the exact words from the original text. It is important to cite the original source and name the author, or else your work could be considered plagiarized as there is software that easily detects this. Also, it is better to avoid long passages as direct quotes; limit them to one or two sentences. Another point to remember is to limit their instances in your paper. Use words/phrases such as stated , in the words of , etc., to indicate that you are using the author’s exact words. Discuss its meaning or add more information as needed so that the quotes fit logically in your writing.  

Paraphrasing

Unlike quoting, paraphrasing involves rewriting the text; the aim is to explain the original and relevant idea in one’s own words as a basis to build an argument. You can avoid words such as mentioned or stated for paraphrased text, but cite the source to ensure the reader knows that you are borrowing ideas. Paraphrasing can be challenging to most ESL students as it requires a good command of paraphrasing and considerable time and effort in choosing the right active or passive verbs to introduce a paraphrase. 3 A common mistake to avoid is swapping words in the original sentence with their synonyms.  

In academic writing, the preference is towards paraphrasing because it shows your understanding of the literature and allows you to present relevant evidence to your readers. Also, as it incorporates your own academic voice, you can avoid getting flagged by plagiarism detection tools, such as Turnitin. 

Tips for effective paraphrasing

  • Reformulate the sentence by changing the voice from active to passive or starting from a different point. 
  • Use quality sources to support your ideas.  
  • Remove irrelevant information from the source text. 
  • Combine information from multiple sentences. 
  • Use synonyms where they don’t distort the meaning. 

Summarizing

When summarizing, you describe the original text without analyzing it. Your aim is to give your readers a broad overview of a subject. It involves placing the main ideas or points in your own words. Since your focus is on providing a general overview of the topic, summaries are often provided in the introductory paragraph. But remember to cite the summarized ideas. 

How to use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries

  • Place all exact source words in quotation marks immediately. 
  • When summarizing or paraphrasing, the following strategies can be adopted to avoid looking at the source material and reduce the influence of the source text in your version: 
  • Read the text multiple times. This will help you understand the author’s main ideas and explain them to others. 
  • Write down the main phrases and ideas. This should be done without looking at the original sentence. 
  • Write in sentence form. Develop the summary or paraphrase based on your understanding of the source text. 
  • Compare with the original work. Rewrite your work if words/phrases are the same as in the original work or if the structure is very similar. 

The following is an example of a good paraphrase. It has the same ideas as the source text (quoted on the left) but with different wording and sentence structure. 

Ways to avoid accidental plagiarism

  • Use citations: Give credit where it is due.  
  • Organize and develop your own idea: Work out a balance between the ideas from other sources and your original ideas. Your writing should have originality and be concise. 
  • Use plagiarism checkers: There are a number of good plagiarism checker tools available online. Many online check tools also correct grammar errors, sentence structures, word choices, and subject-specific phrasing.  

Developing your paraphrasing and summarizing skills will take time. So, it is important that you set aside a lot of time to practice these skills to perfect your writing. 

  • Hunter, J. (2006). The importance of citation.  URL: http://web grinnell edu/Dean/Tutorial/EUS/IC pdf (1204 2007) . 
  • Elizalde Esain, A. (2017). English for Academic Purposes: The Challenge of Paraphrasing. 
  • McKeown, K. (1983). Paraphrasing questions using given and new information.  American Journal of Computational Linguistics ,  9 (1), 1-10. 
  • Bachman, L. F. (1990).  Fundamental considerations in language testing . Oxford University Press. 

Related Reads:

  • How and When to Use Active or Passive Voice in Research Papers
  • What Does et al. Mean and How to Use et al. in a Research Paper

3 Easy Ways for Researchers to Improve Their Academic Vocabulary

  • 7 Common Writing Mistakes to Avoid in Your Research Paper 

A Comparative Analysis of 5 AI Editing Tools for Researchers

You may also like, self-plagiarism in research: what it is and how..., 6 tips for post-doc researchers to take their..., 8 most effective ways to increase motivation for..., how to make your thesis supervision work for..., how to paraphrase research papers effectively, 4 types of transition words for research papers , paraphrasing in academic writing: answering top author queries, how to write a conclusion for research papers..., ethical research practices for research with human subjects, 5 reasons for rejection after peer review.

Enago Academy

Summarizing and Paraphrasing in Academic Writing

' src=

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” – Ernest Hemingway

Plato considers art (and therefore writing) as being mimetic in nature. Writing in all forms and for all kinds of audience involves thorough research. Often, there is a grim possibility that an idea you considered novel has already been adequately explored; however, this also means there are multiple perspectives to explore now and thereby to learn from.

Being inspired by another’s idea opens up a world of possibilities and thus several ways to incorporate and assimilate them in writing, namely, paraphrasing , summarizing, and quoting . However, mere incorporation does not bring writing alive and make it appealing to readers . The incorporation of various ideas must reflect the writer’s understanding and interpretation of them as well.

What is Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing in Academic Writing?

Purdue OWL defines these devices of representation quite succinctly:

Summarizing

Therefore, paraphrasing and summarizing consider broader segments of the main text, while quotations are brief segments of a source. Further, paraphrasing involves expressing the ideas presented from a particular part of a source (mostly a passage) in a condensed manner, while summarizing involves selecting a broader part of a source (for example, a chapter in a book or an entire play) and stating the key points. In spite of subtle variations in representation, all three devices when employed must be attributed to the source to avoid plagiarism .

Related: Finished drafting your manuscript? Check these resources to avoid plagiarism now!

Why is it Important to Quote, Paraphrase, and Summarize?

Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries serve the purpose of providing evidence to sources of your manuscript. It is important to quote, paraphrase, and summarize for the following reasons:

  • It adds credibility to your writing
  • It helps in tracking the original source of your research
  • Delivers several perspectives on your research subject

Quotations/Quoting

Quotations are exact representations of a source, which can either be a written one or spoken words. Quotes imbue writing with an authoritative tone and can provide reliable and strong evidence. However, quoting should be employed sparingly to support and not replace one’s writing.

How Do You Quote?

  • Ensure that direct quotes are provided within quotation marks and properly cited
  • A Long quote of three or more lines can be set-off as a blockquote (this often has more impact)
  • Short quotes usually flow better when integrated within a sentence

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the manner of presenting a text by altering certain words and phrases of a source while ensuring that the paraphrase reflects proper understanding of the source. It can be useful for personal understanding of complex concepts and explaining information present in charts, figures , and tables .

How Do You Paraphrase?

  • While aligning the representation with your own style (that is, using synonyms of certain words and phrases), ensure that the author’s intention is not changed as this may express an incorrect interpretation of the source ideas
  • Use quotation marks if you intend to retain key concepts or phrases to effectively paraphrase
  • Use paraphrasing as an alternative to the abundant usage of direct quotes in your writing

Summarizing

Summarizing involves presenting an overview of a source by omitting superfluous details and retaining only the key essence of the ideas conveyed.

How Do You Summarize?

  • Note key points while going through a source text
  • Provide a consolidated view without digressions for a concrete and comprehensive summary of a source
  • Provide relevant examples from a source to substantiate the argument being presented
“Nature creates similarities. One need only think of mimicry. The highest capacity for producing similarities, however, is man’s. His gift of seeing resemblances is nothing other than a rudiment of the powerful compulsion in former times to become and behave like something else.” –Walter Benjamin

Quoting vs Paraphrasing vs Summarizing

Research thrives as a result of inspiration from and assimilation of novel concepts. However, do ensure that when developing and enriching your own research, proper credit is provided to the origin . This can be achieved by using plagiarism checker tool and giving due credit in case you have missed it earlier.

Source: https://student.unsw.edu.au/paraphrasing-summarising-and-quoting

' src=

Amazing blog actually! a lot of information is contained and i have really learnt a lot. Thank you for sharing such educative article.

hi, I enjoyed the article. It’s very informative so that I could use it in my writings! thanks a lot.

hi You are really doing a good job keep up the good work

Great job! Keep on.

nice work and useful advises… thank you for being with students

Rate this article Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published.

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Enago Academy's Most Popular

best plagiarism checker

  • Language & Grammar
  • Reporting Research

Best Plagiarism Checker Tool for Researchers — Top 4 to choose from!

While common writing issues like language enhancement, punctuation errors, grammatical errors, etc. can be dealt…

Use synonyms

How to Use Synonyms Effectively in a Sentence? — A way to avoid plagiarism!

Do you remember those school days when memorizing synonyms and antonyms played a major role…

plagiarism detector

  • Manuscripts & Grants

Reliable and Affordable Plagiarism Detector for Students in 2022

Did you know? Our senior has received a rejection from a reputed journal! The journal…

Similarity Report

  • Publishing Research
  • Submitting Manuscripts

3 Effective Tips to Make the Most Out of Your iThenticate Similarity Report

This guest post is drafted by an expert from iThenticate, a plagiarism checker trusted by the world’s…

originality

How Can Researchers Avoid Plagiarism While Ensuring the Originality of Their Manuscript?

Ten Reasons Why Elsevier Journals Reject Your Article

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Sign-up to read more

Subscribe for free to get unrestricted access to all our resources on research writing and academic publishing including:

  • 2000+ blog articles
  • 50+ Webinars
  • 10+ Expert podcasts
  • 50+ Infographics
  • 10+ Checklists
  • Research Guides

We hate spam too. We promise to protect your privacy and never spam you.

I am looking for Editing/ Proofreading services for my manuscript Tentative date of next journal submission:

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

When should AI tools be used in university labs?

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

  • Nashville State Community College
  • Research Guides

Online Library Workshops

Quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.

  • Get Started
  • Word 2016 for Beginners
  • PowerPoint 2016 for Beginners
  • Writing Effective Thesis Statements
  • One-on-One Help
  • Quick Guide
  • Workshop PowerPoint

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

When Do I Give Credit to a Source?

Give credit to your source in all of the following situations:

  • You directly quote a source. 
  • You borrow an idea from a source.
  • You paraphrase or summarize a source.
  • If you gain information from interviewing a person or from a class lecture.
  • When you use diagrams, illustrations, or other images that you did not create yourself.
  • Radio broadcasts, movies, podcasts.
  • Things that are not common knowledge. Always err on the safe side                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Is there anything I don't need to cite?

You do not need to cite any of the following types of information:

  • Your own ideas and experiences.
  • Common knowledge. Be careful here. If you're in doubt, cite it.
  • Results of lab experiments that you gathered yourself.
  • Your own artwork, illustrations, diagrams, etc.
  • Generally accepted facts: eating too much will make you gain weight, sugar causes cavities

Adapted from Purdue OWL    https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

"null"

from EasyBib (http://content.easybib.com/students/research-guide/what-is-plagiarism/)

© Copyright 2014. Scholar Space is a division of  Imagine Easy Solutions.

Take a look at how each form might be used to include information from an original passage:

Oppression in the lives of mothers who are homeless with mental illness perpetuates barriers to health, and serves as a source of emotional distress and social exclusion.  from Benbow S and C. Forchuk (2011) Mothers with Mental Illness Experiencing Homelessness: a Critical Analysis. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 18, 687– 695

Quotation with proper citation:

Researcher S. Benbow says, “Oppression in the lives of mothers who are homeless with mental illness perpetuates barriers to health, and serves as a source of emotional distress and social exclusion,” (689).

Using a Thesaurus?

Selecting a key word and substituting a word from the thesaurus does not mean you haven’t plagiarized.   Using a thesaurus effectively comes down to how well you know the nuance of language and how well you really understand the original quote.  

Without proper attribution, the example below is still plagiarism and unclear plagiarism at that…

Oppression in the lives of mothers who are homeless with insanity continues barriers to health, and serves as a source of emotional pain and social segregation.

Paraphrase with proper citation:

A cycle of “emotional distress”, isolation and a lack of access to health services is too often the result for mentally ill mothers who are also homeless, according to researchers Benbow and Forchuk (689).

Summary with proper citation:

Mothers who are both homeless and mentally ill often face a multitude of oppressive consequences according to researchers Benbow and Forchuk. (689).

  • Workshop PowerPoint PowerPoint slides covering the what's and how's of incorporating secondary source material into your essays
  • << Previous: PowerPoint 2016 for Beginners
  • Next: MLA Style >>
  • Last Updated: Dec 15, 2023 8:43 AM
  • URL: https://nscc.libguides.com/Onlineworkshops

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

Exploring the gray area: Understanding paraphrasing as a potential path to plagiarism

Nora Mawla

Five reasons that paraphrasing skills are the superheroes of strong literacy curriculum.

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

The Paraphrasing Pack consists of resources that are ready to be implemented in the 6th - 12th-grade classroom.

A resource to guide educators in reviewing/revising existing academic integrity policies to address threats from AI.

By completing this form, you agree to Turnitin's Privacy Policy . Turnitin uses the information you provide to contact you with relevant information. You may unsubscribe from these communications at any time.

In the labyrinthine world of academic writing, paraphrasing walks a thin line between being a useful tool and a potential pitfall, leading to plagiarism.

Often referred to as "patchwriting" or " mosaic plagiarism," the act of paraphrasing raises a fundamental question: What makes writing truly original in an era saturated with accessible information? Mark Twain's assertion that all ideas are merely reconfigurations of existing ones challenges us to consider the essence of originality. This blog ventures into the complex dynamics of paraphrasing, disentangling its legitimate use from its problematic misuse. We'll delve into what constitutes effective paraphrasing that respects academic integrity and when it veers into the territory of plagiarism.

Unpacking the art of paraphrasing

Paraphrasing serves as a bridge, translating complex or specialized topics into accessible and simplified language. It is also a way for a student or researcher to synthesize what they have read, putting text into their own words to A) better understand the topic at hand and B) support their writing with a sound, meaningfully reworded example from an outside source. The Office of Research Integrity within the US Department of Health & Human Services offers a compelling example, transforming a dense scientific explanation into a concise, digestible format. Below is the original content: “Because the intracellular concentration of potassium ions is relatively high, potassium ions tend to diffuse out of the cell. This movement is driven by the concentration gradient for potassium ions. Similarly, the concentration gradient for sodium ions tends to promote their movement into the cell. However, the cell membrane is significantly more permeable to potassium ions than to sodium ions. As a result, potassium ions diffuse out of the cell faster than sodium ions enter the cytoplasm. The cell therefore experiences a net loss of positive charges, and as a result the interior of the cell membrane contains an excess of negative charges, primarily from negatively charged proteins” (Martini & Bartholomew, 1997, p. 204).

Here is an appropriate paraphrase of the above material:

“A textbook of anatomy and physiology (Martini & Bartholomew, 1997, p. 204) reports that the concentration of potassium ions inside of the cell is relatively high and, consequently, some potassium tends to escape out of the cell. Just the opposite occurs with sodium ions.”

The Office of Research Integrity also gives an example of an inappropriate version of paraphrasing from the original text: “...This movement is triggered by the concentration gradient for potassium ions. Similarly, the concentration gradient for sodium ions tends to promote their movement into the cell. However, the cell membrane is much more permeable to potassium ions than it is to sodium ions. As a result, potassium ions diffuse out of the cell more rapidly than sodium ions enter the cytoplasm…” (Martini & Bartholomew, 1997, p. 204). You’ll note that the above “rewritten” example is basically a copy of the original, save for a few superficial alterations, including word deletions, synonym swaps, and additions.

Because most of the words and structure of the original paragraph remain the same, this paragraph would technically be considered plagiarism, despite the writer crediting the original authors. As the Office of Research Integrity puts it: “[M]aking only cosmetic modifications to others’ writing misleads the reader as to who the true author of the original writing really is." In this scenario, a student could instead ask for support in learning how to more accurately paraphrase the information or alternatively, use a direct quote with a correctly cited source to make it clear that this is not their content. Effective paraphrasing isn't just about avoiding plagiarism; it's about enhancing comprehension and adding value to the discourse.

The original thought conundrum

In the realm of academic discourse, Bloom's Taxonomy emerges as a crucial framework, offering a layered understanding of cognitive development. This taxonomy, a hierarchy starting from basic knowledge recall to the creation of new ideas, challenges us to consider the concept of 'original thought' in education. As we go from 'Remembering' and 'Understanding' through to 'Applying', 'Analyzing', and 'Evaluating', we reach the peak - 'Creating'. This final stage is where originality is presumed to flourish. However, this presents a conundrum: in an age where information is ubiquitous and influences are numerous, can any thought claim absolute originality? This paradox is especially relevant in a digital era saturated with ideas, where the difference between inspiration and replication becomes increasingly blurred. Bloom’s Taxonomy, therefore, not only maps out cognitive skills but also invites a deeper reflection on the nature and possibility of truly original thought in our modern knowledge ecosystem.

What’s the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing?

Plagiarism and paraphrasing, while seemingly similar, diverge significantly in intent and execution. Plagiarism is the act of passing off someone else's work or ideas as one's own while paraphrasing, in contrast, aims to rearticulate ideas for clarity while maintaining the essence of the original work. Paraphrasing becomes problematic when it strays into the realm of plagiarism, often manifested in the failure to properly attribute sources, bring new insights to the table, or to uphold academic integrity. To wholly uphold academic integrity is to commit to honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. It is a holistic concept that must be backed up by institutional policies, curriculum, teaching interventions, assessment design, and feedback loops that strengthen a student’s bond to learning. In an earlier post, we explored the ways in which paraphrasing may become problematic. The following three examples are situations that may cause challenges around paraphrasing expectations:

  • When a student does not understand the purpose behind paraphrasing, they may not see the importance of attributing what they've paraphrased and therefore overlook doing so . Educators must take great care in building a culture of academic integrity and explaining to students how cited, well-paraphrased passages not only enhance their writing (and also provide variety in an essay that would otherwise be all quotations), they uphold integrity by recognizing an author’s original work.
  • When a student does not have the foundational literacy skills to paraphrase, it may lead them to unintentionally plagiarize. In a suspected case of academic misconduct, an educator must ascertain if it is a skill deficit or deliberate plagiarism. From there, strengthening a student’s literary comprehension skills and basic academic writing skills can help bolster their confidence and ability to paraphrase. Turnitin’s Draft Coach can also be used to help students write accurate citations in Microsoft® Word for the web and Google Docs™.
  • When a student knowingly and purposely uses short-cut solutions in place of their own skills, it’s a sign that action must be taken. Paraphrasing tools, also known as word spinners, alter existing text with the purpose of evading plagiarism detection software. This deeply impacts learning because they prevent students from understanding how to truly paraphrase.

Steering clear of paraphrasing pitfalls

Avoiding paraphrasing plagiarism is a nuanced skill, requiring a blend of accurate citation, original sentence structuring, and a deep understanding of the source material. There are many ways to avoid paraphrasing plagiarism while still paraphrasing to summarize work and communicate topics more clearly and holistically. Ways to avoid plagiarizing include:

  • Correct citation of sources
  • Quoting and summarizing texts accurately
  • Writing with your own sentence structures
  • Understanding text and content clearly before paraphrasing

There is also a helpful paraphrasing strategy called the 4R’s: Read, Restate, Recheck, and Repair.

  • Read: Did you understand the passage?
  • Restate: Did you restate important points in your own words?
  • Recheck: Did you include all of the important details?
  • Repair: Did you correct any misinformation?

In addition to the above, the following sections delve into key elements to keep in mind and practical strategies to master this skill, ensuring that paraphrasing enriches, rather than diminishes, academic integrity.

The role of text spinners in paraphrasing plagiarism

Text spinners, or article spinners, present a new hurdle in the realm of paraphrasing plagiarism. These tools, designed to disguise copied content as original, exacerbate the issue by blurring the lines between legitimate paraphrasing and deceptive rewriting. “Simply put,” says Christine Lee, “when students use word spinners, they aren’t producing their own original work. Original work means that even when paraphrasing, students regenerate the ideas of another person into their own words and voice to express their own understanding of concepts.” Educators need to understand the emerging trends in misconduct and academic integrity so that they can build awareness around them, educate students on their misuse, and mitigate any threats to an institution's reputation to ensure authentic student learning.

How to effectively teach paraphrasing

Educators bear the responsibility of guiding students through the maze of paraphrasing. This entails instilling respect for academic integrity, teaching proper citation techniques, and encouraging the development of independent thought. To start, it is imperative to highlight examples of accurate paraphrasing and how it differs from quotations and summarizing. As quoted in an earlier Turnitin post, according to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL):

  • 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 rewording a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source because there is no creation of new ideas. 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 because no new ideas have been introduced. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

And while there are myriad ways for educators to approach and teach this highly important skill, the following are a few resources that can support thoughtful plagiarism education and practice:

  • Explain the course’s or institution’s policy on academic integrity clearly and early in the semester. Outline course and assignment expectations explicitly, including appropriate use and misuse of AI tools. By building a culture of integrity that is clearly defined, students can more deeply understand the value of accurate paraphrasing and citations, as well as understand the consequences of misconduct.
  • Dive into Turnitin’s Paraphrasing Pack , eleven out-of-the-box resources developed by veteran educators that are ready to be implemented in the classroom. It features everything from research strategies and student checklists for paraphrasing to lesson presentations and printable graphic organizers.
  • Explore all of the resources that support academic integrity in the age of AI , including valuable assets that help students to better understand how and when to use AI tools ethically.
  • Conduct a candid conversation with a student if their work appears to have similarities to other texts without proper paraphrasing or citation, or if inappropriate usage of AI tools is suspected. These dialogues often transform a moment of misconduct into an opportunity for learning by determining if there is a skill deficit that can be readily addressed. The data housed in the Similarity Report, including instances of synonym swapping, as well as Turnitin’s AI writing detection tool, can both serve as jumping off points for these essential conversations.

Maintaining academic integrity while paraphrasing

While building that culture of academic integrity and teaching skills is the first step, educators know that oftentimes it’s necessary to take another step, one that will confirm or refute that the student’s work is solely their own. It may be as simple as a remarkably sophisticated sentence structure or vocabulary choice, but educators tend to recognize when a student misrepresents something that is not their work, as their own. That next step is as simple as reviewing Turnitin’s newly enhanced Similarity Report, which has a streamlined workflow to show both the Similarity Score and the AI writing score. While AI continues to evolve, so too does the students’ use of AI tools. Turnitin’s AI writing score may indicate the use of AI paraphrasing tools to modify AI-generated content. Educators have no “extra clicks” as AI paraphrasing detection is built seamlessly into the existing workflow that educators already use and trust. As before, this score is to inform the educator of the likelihood that the student tried to use AI paraphrasing tools as a shortcut; whether intentional plagiarism or not is determined by the educator and the student during formative discussions surrounding their work. Then, next steps to help a student to revise can be taken. Check out this infographic that defines the key differences between human- powered paraphrasing and AI paraphrasing tools, as well as the role an AI paraphrasing detector can play in this process.

importance of paraphrasing summarizing and quoting

In sum: How to skillfully paraphrase and avoid plagiarism

The skill of paraphrasing is foundational in academic writing, serving as a safeguard against the pitfalls of plagiarism and academic misconduct. When a student fails to master this skill, they risk inadvertently crossing the line from legitimate use of sources to plagiarism, a serious breach of academic integrity. Effective paraphrasing involves more than just altering a few words; it requires a deep understanding of the original text and the ability to express its essence in a new, original form while maintaining the core message. This process must be coupled with accurate citations and the appropriate use of quotes to credit the original authors. Without these critical components, a student's work can easily fall into the realm of academic dishonesty. Thus, learning to paraphrase correctly is not just about avoiding plagiarism; it's about respecting the intellectual labor of others, upholding the values of academic integrity, and contributing genuinely to the scholarly conversation.

VIDEO

  1. Research Vocabulary: Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting,and Citing

  2. Academic Integrity Digest (Episode 3, PART 1): Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Quoting

  3. Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

  4. Review: Paraphrasing, Summarizing, & Quoting

  5. Types of misconduct

  6. Common Problems with Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

COMMENTS

  1. Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

    Using paper checkers responsibly 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.

  2. Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Summarizing

    Citing the source of any quote, paraphrase, or summary is an important step to avoid plagiarism. Should I quote, paraphrase, or summarize? Quoting is common in lower levels of academic writing, but at the college level, quoting directly should be done sparingly and only when paraphrasing will not justify the meaning of the original author.

  3. Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

    Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Depending on the conventions of your discipline, you may have to decide whether to summarize a source, paraphrase a source, or quote from a source. Scholars in the humanities tend to summarize, paraphrase, and quote texts; social scientists and natural scientists rely primarily on summary and paraphrase.

  4. Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

    Add additional information as needed. The board may appear as follows: Summarizing. Paraphrasing. Quoting. Must reference the original source. The text is much shorter than the original text. (For example, one may write a single page to summarize a four-page article.) Must use your own words, usually with a very limited use of quotations.

  5. PDF Quoting, Summarizing & Paraphrasing

    Quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing are all ways of integrating source material into your writing. Understanding the diferences between these approaches may be helpful for deciding how to integrate a source in a way that makes sense for your specific context and goals.

  6. Quoting vs. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing

    Paraphrasing means taking a quote and putting it in your own words. You translate what another writer has said into terms both you and your reader can more easily understand. Unlike summarizing, which focuses on the big picture, paraphrasing is involved with single lines or passages. Paraphrasing means you should focus only on segments of a text.

  7. The Writing Center

    Paraphrasing is stating an idea or passage in your own words. You must significantly change the wording, phrasing, and sentence structure (not just a few words here and there) of the source. These also must be noted with in-text citations and the reference page. Paraphrase when: You want to clarify a short passage from a text

  8. PDF Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing Sources

    Paraphrasing and summarizing instead allows you to incorporate the ideas into your own argument, providing context and interpretation to help your reader understand your point. Quoting directly Some common reasons for a direct quote include:

  9. The Writing Center

    Paraphrase, summary, and analysis are important for accomplishing different jobs in the essay: Quotation allows the writer to fully use the original author's words using quotation marks in order to make a point or to provide support for an idea. Example: The professor said, "The sun is shining.". Paraphrase enables the writer to ...

  10. Quoting and Paraphrasing

    Quoting and Paraphrasing. College writing often involves integrating information from published sources into your own writing in order to add credibility and authority-this process is essential to research and the production of new knowledge. However, when building on the work of others, you need to be careful not to plagiarize: "to steal ...

  11. Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing

    Quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing are similar in that they allow a writer to incorporate another writer's work into his or her own work. However, they are different in the methods of application. Quotation s are identical in every way to the original. To quote a source, write out the exact words in the original document and put those words ...

  12. Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

    When should one use a quotation? Ideally, you want a balance of quotations, paraphrased or summarized content in your writing. Some reasons to use a quotation instead of paraphrasing or summarizing might include: When not using the author's exact wording would change the original meaning To lend authority to the point you are trying to make

  13. PDF QUOTING,SUMMARIZING, & PARAPHRASING

    DIRECT QUOTING PARAPHRASE SUMMARIZE Quoting a source means that you use a source's exact words to convey their point. Quotations are most useful in situations when the author's exact wording is important, or when you feel that the author's wording is clear and concise. Paraphrasing a source means that you use your own words to discuss

  14. How to Paraphrase

    Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check. Try for free How to paraphrase correctly Putting an idea into your own words can be easier said than done. Let's say you want to paraphrase the text below, about population decline in a particular species of sea snails.

  15. Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing [2020 Updated]

    When quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing someone's ideas, you must use in-text citations. There are several types of in-text citations, such as parenthetical citation, endnote, and footnote. For every in-text citation, there should be a full citation at the end of your paper on the works cited or references page.

  16. Paraphrasing, Summarising and Quoting

    Quoting, paraphrasing and summarising are all different ways of including the works of others in your assignments. Paraphrasing and summarising allow you to develop and demonstrate your understanding and interpretation of the major ideas/concepts of your discipline, and to avoid plagiarism. Paraphrasing and summarising require analytical and ...

  17. Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing: what's the difference?

    Paraphrasing allows you to confirm that you fully understand a quote's meaning and to explain that content in your own words. There may be several reasons why you would choose to paraphrase a passage, rather than quote it. You might use paraphrase if: the material is relatively easy to describe

  18. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing vs. Quoting

    Paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting are all related actions in the writing and research world. Learn the difference between them with our examples.

  19. Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting: What's the Difference?

    Paraphrasing, Summarizing and Quoting Paraphrasing is when you take someone else's ideas or words and rephrase them as your own. Summarizing is to give the reader an overview of the key points of a text. Quoting is when you write exactly what someone else has said, word for word.

  20. What's the Difference? Summarizing, Paraphrasing, & Quoting

    Quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing are three methods for including the ideas or research of other writers in your own work. In academic writing, such as essay writing or research papers, it is often necessary to utilize other people's writing.

  21. Know the Difference: Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing

    Unlike quoting, paraphrasing involves rewriting the text; the aim is to explain the original and relevant idea in one's own words as a basis to build an argument. You can avoid words such as mentioned or stated for paraphrased text, but cite the source to ensure the reader knows that you are borrowing ideas.

  22. Summarizing and Paraphrasing in Academic Writing

    Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries serve the purpose of providing evidence to sources of your manuscript. It is important to quote, paraphrase, and summarize for the following reasons: It adds credibility to your writing It helps in tracking the original source of your research Delivers several perspectives on your research subject

  23. Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing

    Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing. 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 ...

  24. Exploring the gray area: Understanding paraphrasing as a ...

    Avoiding paraphrasing plagiarism is a nuanced skill, requiring a blend of accurate citation, original sentence structuring, and a deep understanding of the source material. There are many ways to avoid paraphrasing plagiarism while still paraphrasing to summarize work and communicate topics more clearly and holistically.