Paraphrasing and Summarising

1. Paraphrasing and Summarising

2. Paraphrasing • In academic writing it is often necessary to refer to other people’s research • Direct quotations and paraphrasing • Paraphrasing means using your own words to report someone else’ writing, but maintaining academic style

3. References References must always be given to the sourcesof the text you are making use of

4. Examples • By changing the vocabulary • By changing the verb form • By changing the word class • By synthesis

5. Vocabulary • She examined the difficulties that… • She investigated the problems that… • Rewrite the following: • Smith and Jones (1991) found that the circumstances had…

6. Verb form • Johns (1991) analysed the students’ difficulties and… • The students’ difficulties were analysed by Johns (1991) and… • Rewrite the following: • Brown (1994) observed the problems caused by seminars…

7. Word class • The reports were completed in April… • The completion of the reports in April ensured that… • Rewrite the following: • James (2004) concluded that there was a need for note-taking practice.

8. Synthesis • Combining two or more viewpoints or pieces of information from other writers • References may support one another, but there may be opposing views as well

9. Summarising • giving a brief account of the main points of some writing • An effective summary should be complete, concise, clear and creative (4 Cs)

10. 4 Cs • Complete: it includes all the main ideas, but not supporting details or examples • Concise: it is as brief as possible, and shorter than the original text • Clear: it is easy to understand • Creative: it uses some key terms from the text, but mainly uses the summary writer’s own language

11. Writing a summary • Topic sentence(s) • Keywords (the main information points) • References to the sources of the text

12. Suggestions for writing summaries • At the beginnning write the title, the author and article, publisher and date • Quickly skim the text to get an overall idea of it • Make brief notes of the main points • Underline important sentences or phrases • Remove examples and details

13. Checking summaries • Ensure that your summary is neutral and accurate (do not add your ideas) • As far as possible condense the points into straightforward statements • Rewrite statements in your own words where possible • Write clearly, concisely and logically

14. Structure • Introduction (topic) • Development (presentation, analysis and discussion) – main idea • Conclusion

15. Exercise • Read the text Class and status and write a summary!

18. Paragraph 2 Weber identified three distinct ____________ of __________ in societies 1. 2. 3.

19. Answer Weber identified three distinct aspects of power in societies: 1. economic power – class relations 2. communal power – status relations 3. authoritarian power – authority relations

20. Suggested summary • In their text on class and status, Fulcher and Scott (2011, p. 746) report the work of Weber. They state that Weber’s theory of social stratification is brief but highly influential, with his disctinction of class, status, and partly being widely accepted. Weber proposed three key aspects of power in society: economic, communal, and authoritarian. Evaluate this summary using the ‘4Cs’ criteria!

21. Evaluation • Complete: functions as an independent text, includes all the main ideas • Concise: short(er tha the original text) • Clear: understandable • Creative: it uses key terms from the text, but mainly uses the summery writer’s own language

22. Clues for summaries • What is the best introductory sentence? • What are the main points? • What is the conclusion?

23. Exercise • Write a summary of the text The Struggles in the Role of a Social Worker (handout)!

24. Thank you for your attention!