Mrs.

Nemir 1 LMD Study Skills

Quoting and Summarizing

Quoting and summarizing are writing skills along with paraphrasing. These skills are used to
support claims in academic writing because they allow a writer to incorporate another writer's
work into his or her own work. The information, however; must be attributed back to original
source.

1. Summarizing:

A. What is it?

➢ It is an overview of the main ideas, concepts, or facts of a text. The main idea is given, but
details and examples are left out.
➢ A summary should be:

1. Complete - covering all of the main points from the original text.
2. Concise - avoiding repetition.
3. Coherent- in a logical sequence and making sense with the writing of clearly linked sentences,
not just in note form.
4. Written in your own words.
5. Referenced to the original source of the material.

Remember that summarizing isn’t paraphrasing!

Paraphrase
➢ Paraphrasing is re-writing another
writer’s words or ideas in your
own words without altering the meaning.
➢ The paraphrase is about the same
length as the original since the purpose is to
rephrase without leaving out anything, and not
to shorten.
➢ We paraphrase when:
• You want to use another writer’s words without
plagiarizing
• You want to use another writer’s words without
the use of quotes
Summary
➢ Summarizing, on the other hand, is
putting down the main ideas of someone else’s
work in your own words.
➢ A summary is always shorter than the
original since the idea is to include only
the main points of the original work and
to leave out the irrelevant. A summary
is usually about one-third the size of the original.
➢ We summarize when:
You want to identify only the main ideas of the
writer
• You want to give an overview of the topic (from
several sources)
• You want to simplify a complex argument
• You want to condense the matter to suit your
requirement

B. Techniques and strategies:

1. read the material several times.

2. Find out the main idea by: highlighting the topic sentences or sentence

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3. Take notes of the main points and ideas and rewrite them in your own words.
4. Avoid repetition. 5. Keep it neutral. 6. Avoid stating illustrations and examples.
7. Use quotation marks if ever you use parts from the original text.
8. A summary is ¼ the original text.
9. Give credit to the original source.
10. Do not interpret or add any information.
C. Example
“The Northern Lights”
There are times when the night sky glows with bands of color. The bands may begin as cloud shapes and
then spread into a great arc across the entire sky. They may fall in folds like a curtain drawn across the
heavens. The lights usually grow brighter, then suddenly dim. During this time the sky glows with pale
yellow, pink, green, violet, blue, and red. These lights are called the Aurora Borealis. Some people call them
the Northern Lights. Scientists have been watching them for hundreds of years. They are not quite sure
what causes them. In ancient times people were afraid of the Lights. They imagined that they saw fiery
dragons in the sky. Some even concluded that the heavens were on fire.

Summary

The Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, are bands of color in the night sky. Ancient people thought that
these lights were dragon on fire, and even modern scientists are not sure what they are.
2. Quoting:

1. What is it?

Quoting is word for word or verbatim, relevant and usually brief, introduced or framed by your
writing, in quotation marks, and needs attribution and citation. Quoting or using quotations is the
most common form of incorporating evidence into your writing. Although quoting seems less
complicated than paraphrasing and summarizing, it requires some important rules.

2. How to quote?

1. If a quote ends with an exclamation point or question mark, include it in the quotation and
include a period after the citation.
eg. Allbaugh encourages students with the motto, “Write like you mean it!” (167).
2. If you omit a sentence or more, use four periods (…).
3. Quotes always need to fit grammatically into the sentence. You can use brackets to keep a quote
grammatical by altering verb tense or adding or taking away capitalization.
4. Avoid drop quotes: introduce the quote with a signal phrase. Here are examples of signal
phrases introducing quotations and paraphrases:
As Shannon Simple explains, “Big earthquakes can be scary” (129).
5. Always capitalize the first word in a complete quotation, even midsentence.
Example: Lamarr said, "The case is far from over, and we will win."

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6. Do not capitalize quoted material that continues a sentence.
Example: Lamarr said that the case was "far from over" and that "we will win."
3. Examples:

“ …there are two ways to become wealthy: to create wealth or to take wealth away from others. The former
adds to society. The latter typically subtracts from it, for in the process of taking it away, wealth gets
destroyed. A monopolist who overcharges for his products takes away money from those whom he is
overcharging and at the same time destroys value. To get his monopoly price, he has to restrict production.”

Stiglitz,J. E. (2013). The Price of Inequality. London: Penguin.

Quote: Of the two ways to become wealthy creating wealth adds to society; whereas, taking wealth away
from others, “typically subtracts from it, for in the process of taking it away, wealth gets
destroyed” (Stiglitz, 2013).