The terms paraphrasing and summarizing often confuse students of English. This is not surprising since both mean very similar things with just 100% free paraphrasing a slight difference. To start, what are paraphrasing and summarizing?
Paraphrasing and summarizing are generally indispensable writing tools. They are both techniques of incorporating other writers'works or ideas into your writing making use of your own words. Although an author must always use his/her own ideas when writing, sometimes it becomes necessary to make use of other writers'thoughts and concepts. This might be due to a number of of the next reasons:
o To provide support to your own personal ideas
o To give reasons of why you agree or disagree with something
o To give depth to your writing
o To reference something which led to your ideas
o To give a point of view which is distinctive from yours
These same reasons for paraphrasing and summarizing are the explanation for the confusion involving the two. So what is the difference then?
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 initial since the reason would be to rephrase without leaving out anything, and not to shorten. Summarizing, on one other hand, is putting down the main ideas of someone else's work in your own words. A summary is definitely shorter than the original since the concept is to include only the main points of the initial work and to leave out the irrelevant. A summary is generally about one-third how big the original.
Now when in case you paraphrase and when in case you summarize?
Paraphrase when:
o You intend to use another writer's words without plagiarizing
o You intend to use another writer's words without the use of quotes
o The ideas of one other writer tend to be more important than his/her style
o You believe the words of one other writer are too burdensome for your readers
Summarize when:
o You intend to identify only the main ideas of the writer
o You intend to give an overview of the topic (from several sources)
o You intend to simplify a complicated argument
o You intend to condense the matter to accommodate your requirement
Whether paraphrasing or summarizing, it is very important to always cite the initial work in order to give credit to the source.
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