Social Sciences - Research Skills - Intermediate

In most cases, you have to use your own words to report what you have read. After all, you are writing your own story based upon existing literature. So it is logical that you do so in your own words. If you copy the existing text word for word, or almost, then you are unlikely to write a flowing passage. Moreover, reformulating things in your own way helps you to develop ideas which you can then support with facts and ideas drawn from the literature. In this respect we draw a distinction between paraphrasing, both of which are different again from the literal quoting of a source.

Paraphrasing: rewriting a short passage of text – usually no more than a sentence or paragraph – in your own words.

Summarizing: you summarise a section of text (e.g. a number of paragraphs, pages, a chapter or an entire book in your own words. When you summarise, you state in few words the main points or conclusions from the source that are important for your story.

Always when you paraphrase or summarise a source, you should render the content of the source correctly and in accordance with the intention of the original source. Note:

• You may omit information irrelevant to your story from a summary, as long as you do not distort the content of the original source.
• Make sure it is clear where the paraphrasing or summary begins and ends.
• For each paraphrasing or summary, clearly state which source it comes from.