Many walk out their front doors and see nothing but fast-food outlets and convenience stores selling high-fat, high-sugar processed foods others see no food vendors of any kind. In America today, millions of people leave their homes in a protracted and often futile search for healthy food for their families. The note-taker then reads the passage, bolding the important information and ideas he or she wishes to capture for the paper, and then pauses to jot down notes. The note-taker has decided to paraphrase the passage as it has lots of detailed information relevant to the paper being written. The first stage in the note-taking process is illustrated below. Either way, taking notes is an acquired skill and takes practice. For a summary, the notes will focus on the main points of a reading.

Step Two: Take Point-Form Notesįor a paraphrase, the notes will be more detailed and extensive. This decision will help you decide how detailed your notes about this source should be. Identify exactly what information you want to go into your paper. Skim a source to determine what you need from it: its argument, a specific supporting point, and/or particular evidence. You will remain too close to the source’s organization, sentence structure and phrasing. You just can’t cut and paste a chunk of text into your essay draft and then change a few words here and there. Whether you decide to summarize or paraphrase a source, the process is similar. (Don’t try to paraphrase an entire source.) When you want all the details from a particular passage or section of a source, paraphrase. Or, you may summarize a section or part of a source, by identifying the section’s main point or idea. When you need the source’s main argument and/or supporting points, summarize. The choice between summarizing and paraphrasing depends on how much detail from the source you need for your paper. You may choose to paraphrase details or particular evidence and/or examples. Paraphrasing – means rewriting something in your own words, giving the same level of detail as the source and at roughly the same length as the original. A summary can be just one sentence or it can be much longer, depending on whether you are presenting a broad overview or a more thorough outline. Summarizing – means rewriting something in your own words but shortening it by stating only the main idea and the supporting points you need for your purposes. It is important to be able to summarize and paraphrase correctly in order to effectively integrate your research into your essay without relying on direct quotation or committing plagiarism. This task may seem simple how often have we heard a teacher or instructor tell us to put what we have read “into our own words”? Yet, while easy to say, it is not so easy to do. Occasionally, it is appropriate to quote, but, usually, it is better to either paraphrase or summarize what you have learned. When writing a research paper, you, the writer, must incorporate into the paper the information and ideas you have learned in the course of your research that come from primary and secondary sources.

Step Six: Make Any Necessary Corrections.Step Five: Test What You Have Written to Ensure You Have Avoided Plagiarism.Step Four: Turn Your Point-Form Notes into Sentences.Step Three: Close or Put Away the Source.

Summarize paragraph in one sentence