Grade 7

Study Guide about paraphrase, summary

Paraphrasing, summarizing, and precis’ing are three different types of writing. All three are important skills for
your student to learn.

When you paraphrase, you retell the story in your own words in a passage that is about the same length as the
original.

When you summarize, you significantly shorten a piece, retell it in your own words, touching on the main points
of the passage.

When you write a précis, you use one or two concise sentences to give the essence of a passage.

Here are the Classical Writing procedures for each type of writing.

How to Write a Paraphrase

Procedure

When you paraphrase, you state—in your own words— the argument or point of a passage, line by line.

Step 1

Parse and/or diagram to identify the subject and verb in the sentence. Substitute synonyms for those terms.

Step 2

Identify adverbs and adjectives, and replace them with synonyms.

Step 3

Start some your sentences differently.

Step 4

Where the author uses a figure of speech, a cliché, or a phrase, replace with single words when possible. In
other cases replace single words with phrases.

Step 5

Read the original sentence; read your paraphrase to see if they both convey the same basic message. Correct
as needed.

Step 6

When you have finished your paraphrase, read your version, read the original again. Compare and correct.
You need to capture the sense of the whole passage at the same time that you follow the sense of each line.

How to Write a Summary

A summary restates the author’s main ideas. It omits all examples and evidence used to support and illustrate
the point of the passage. The function of a summary is to represent a large amount of material in a concise
form.

How to Write a Précis

Précis Writing Procedure

Step 1

Read the passage through many times. The first task of the précis writer is to understand the complete work
well enough to abstract the central idea of the poem. Underline important terms.

Step 2

Write an initial summary of the passage in which you write the ideas and concepts in sequence as presented
by the author in the original. In this initial summary, you are paring down the original text and may retain the
author’s words and phrases.

Step 3

Carefully consider the author’s argument/main idea. Did your abstract capture that idea in logical form?
Reduce your initial abstract further by omitting anything which is not absolutely necessary to the essential idea
of the passage.

Step 4

Replace words and phrases specifically used by the author with suitable synonyms.

Step 5

Read and reread your précis to ensure that you have the bare minimum of words necessary to express the
idea of the passage. Check to make sure the words and phrases used are your own and not those of the
author.

Paraphrasing Sentences

Sometimes you only need to paraphrase the information from one sentence. Here are some examples of
paraphrasing individual sentences:

Original: Her life spanned years of incredible change for women as they gained more rights than ever before.

Paraphrase: She lived through the exciting era of women's liberation.

Original: Giraffes like Acacia leaves and hay, and they can consume 75 pounds of food a day.

Paraphrase: A giraffe can eat up to 75 pounds of Acacia leaves and hay daily.

Original: Any trip to Italy should include a visit to Tuscany to sample the region's exquisite wines.

Paraphrase: Be sure to make time for a Tuscan wine-tasting experience when visiting Italy.

Original: Symptoms of influenza include fever and nasal congestion.

Paraphrase: A stuffy nose and elevated temperature are signs you may have the flu.

Original: The price of a resort vacation typically includes meals, tips and equipment rentals, which makes your
trip more cost-effective.

Paraphrase: All-inclusive resort vacations can make for an economical trip.

Paraphrase: He needs to get rid of a lot of junk.

Paraphrasing Paragraphs

Paraphrasing a longer passage can take a little more effort, as you have to ensure it is different enough from
the original to be classed as your own work.

Here is an example of paraphrasing a paragraph from "Family Values and Feudal Codes: The Social Politics of
America's Twenty-First Century Gangster." Journal of Popular Culture 37.4 (2004) by Ingrid Field Walker,
taken from Duke University Libraries.

Original passage:

In The Sopranos, the mob is besieged as much by inner infidelity as it is by the federal government. Early in
the series, the greatest threat to Tony's Family is his own biological family. One of his closest associates turns
witness for the FBI, his mother colludes with his uncle to contract a hit on Tony, and his kids click through Web
sites that track the federal crackdown in Tony's gangland.

Paraphrased passage:

In the first season of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano's mobster activities are more threatened by members of his
biological family than by agents of the federal government. This familial betrayal is multi-pronged. Tony's
closest friend and associate is an FBI informant, his mother and uncle are conspiring to have him killed, and
his children are surfing the Web for information about his activities.

The main point of this passage is that problems within the family are as bad as, if not worse than, problems
caused by the federal government. Details about this betrayal include someone close turning informant, a hit
being put out on Tony by family members, and Tony's kids tracking his activities. As you can see, the main
idea and important details are included in the paraphrased version, though the wording is quite different.

Here is a summary of some of the main changes made during the paraphrasing process:

Early in the series = first season

Greatest threat = more threatened

One of his closest associates = closest friend and associate

His mother colludes with his uncle = his mother and uncle are conspiring

His kids click through Web sites = his children are surfing the Web

Avoiding Plagiarism
There is a fine line between plagiarism and paraphrasing. If the wording, or even the sentence structure, of the
paraphrased text is too close to the wording of the original content, it will look like you are trying to pass off
someone else's words as your own. This is plagiarism, which is unethical and even illegal in some cases. The
main ideas need to come through, but the wording has to be your own.

If you don't think you can paraphrase a sentence or passage and have the meaning come across as clearly,
you can use the original author's exact words if you put them in quotation marks. You will also need to identify
the source of the material by giving the author's name. For example:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends."

In this example, Dr. King's exact words are quoted, and he is given credit for them in the sentence.

If you choose to paraphrase information and put it into your own words instead, you will still need to give credit
to the original author for ideas that are unique and not common knowledge. For example:

According to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, the economy is doing well based on GDP and falling
unemployment.

In this case, the writer put Paul Krugman's ideas into their own words, but still gave credit for them by naming
him as the source. This is required when the ideas aren't considered general knowledge available to all.
Because Krugman is an expert in economics, these ideas are his and should be cited as such.

On the other hand, common facts like historical dates and basic information do not need to be cited. For
example, you would not need to find an encyclopedia article to back you up if you wrote that the Battle of
Gettysburg ended on July 3, 1863, or that the earth revolves around the sun. These are well-known facts
accepted by all and do not require sources.

Be Clear and Concise

When writing a report or a research paper, you'll need to master paraphrasing to present relevant information
in a clear, concise way. Practice putting facts and figures into your own words, and be sure to cite sources in
the format required by your instructor, and you'll have no trouble getting your point across without worrying
about plagiarism.

Now you know how to successfully paraphrase, we can show you how to correctly cite your sources with some
bibliography examples.

A summary, also known as an abstract, precis, or synopsis, is a shortened version of a text that highlights its
key points. The word "summary" comes from the Latin, "sum."

Examples of Summaries

A Summary of the Short Story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield

"'Miss Brill' is the story of an old woman told brilliantly and realistically, balancing thoughts and emotions that
sustain her late solitary life amidst all the bustle of modern life. Miss Brill is a regular visitor on Sundays to the
Jardins Publiques (the Public Gardens) of a small French suburb where she sits and watches all sorts of
people come and go. She listens to the band playing, loves to watch people and guess what keeps them
going, and enjoys contemplating the world as a great stage upon which actors perform. She finds herself to be
another actor among the so many she sees, or at least herself as 'part of the performance after all.' One
Sunday Miss Brill puts on her fur and goes to the Public Gardens as usual. The evening ends with her sudden
realization that she is old and lonely, a realization brought to her by a conversation she overhears between a
boy and a girl, presumably lovers, who comment on her unwelcome presence in their vicinity.

Miss Brill is sad and depressed as she returns home, not stopping by as usual to buy her Sunday delicacy, a
slice of honey-cake. She retires to her dark room, puts the fur back into the box and imagines that she has
heard something cry." -K. Narayana Chandran.

A Summary of Shakespeare's "Hamlet"

"One way of discovering the overall pattern of a piece of writing is to summarize it in your own words. The act
of summarizing is much like stating the plot of a play. For instance, if you were asked to summarize the story of
Shakespeare's 'Hamlet,' you might say:

It's the story of a young prince of Denmark who discovers that his uncle and his mother have killed his father,
the former king. He plots to get revenge, but in his obsession with revenge he drives his sweetheart to
madness and suicide, kills her innocent father, and in the final scene poisons and is poisoned by her brother in
a duel, causes his mother's death, and kills the guilty king, his uncle.

This summary contains a number of dramatic elements: a cast of characters (the prince; his uncle, mother, and
father; his sweetheart; her father, and so on), a scene (Elsinore Castle in Denmark), instruments (poisons,
swords), and actions (discovery, dueling, killing)." -Richard E. Young, Alton L. Becker, and Kenneth L. Pike.

Steps in Composing a Summary

The primary purpose of a summary is to "give an accurate, objective representation of what the work says." As
a general rule, "you should not include your own ideas or interpretations." -Paul Clee and Violeta Clee

"Summarizing condenses in your own words the main points in a passage:

Reread the passage, jotting down a few keywords.

State the main point in your own words and be objective. Don't mix your reactions with the summary.

Check your summary against the original, making sure that you use quotation marks around any exact phrases
that you borrow." -Randall VanderMey, et al.

"Here...is a general procedure you can use [for composing a summary]:

Step 1: Read the text for its main points.

Step 2: Reread carefully and make a descriptive outline.

Step 3: Write out the text's thesis or main point.

Step 4: Identify the text's major divisions or chunks. Each division develops one of the stages needed to make
the whole main point.

Step 5: Try summarizing each part in one or two sentences.

Characteristics of a Summary

"The purpose of a summary is to give a reader a condensed and objective account of the main ideas and
features of a text. Usually, a summary has between one and three paragraphs or 100 to 300 words, depending
on the length and complexity of the original essay and the intended audience and purpose. Typically, a
summary will do the following:

Cite the author and title of the text. In some cases, the place of publication or the context for the essay may
also be included.

Indicate the main ideas of the text. Accurately representing the main ideas (while omitting the less important
details) is the major goal of the summary.

Use direct quotations of keywords, phrases, or sentences. Quote the text directly for a few key ideas;
paraphrase the other important ideas (that is, express the ideas in your own words).

Include author tags. ("According to Ehrenreich" or "as Ehrenreich explains") to remind the reader that you are
summarizing the author and the text, not giving your own ideas.

Avoid summarizing specific examples or data unless they help illustrate the thesis or main idea of the text.

Report the main ideas as objectively as possible. Do not include your reactions; save them for your response. -
(Stephen Reid, The Prentice Hall Guide for Writers, 2003)

A Checklist for Evaluating Summaries

"Good summaries must be fair, balanced, accurate, and complete. This checklist of questions will help you
evaluate drafts of a summary:

Is the summary economical and precise?

Is the summary neutral in its representation of the original author's ideas, omitting the writer's own opinions?

Does the summary reflect the proportionate coverage given various points in the original text?

Are the original author's ideas expressed in the summary writer's own words?

Does the summary use attributive tags (such as 'Weston argues') to remind readers whose ideas are being
presented?

Does the summary quote sparingly (usually only key ideas or phrases that cannot be said precisely except in
the original author's own words)?

Will the summary stand alone as a unified and coherent piece of writing?

Is the original source cited so that readers can locate it?" -John C. Bean

On the Summary App Summly

"Upon hearing, in March of [2013], reports that a 17-year-old schoolboy had sold a piece of software to Yahoo!
for $30 million, you might well have entertained a few preconceived notions about what sort of child this must
be...The app [that then 15-year-old Nick] D'Aloisio designed, Summly, compresses long pieces of text into a
few representative sentences. When he released an early iteration, tech observers realized that an app that
could deliver brief, accurate summaries would be hugely valuable in a world where we read everything—from
news stories to corporate reports—on our phones, on the go...There are two ways of doing natural language
processing: statistical or semantic,' D'Aloisio explains. A semantic system attempts to figure out the actual
meaning of a text and translate it succinctly. A statistical system—the type D'Aloisio used for Summly—doesn't
bother with that; it keeps phrases and sentences intact and figures out how to pick a few that best encapsulate
the entire work. 'It ranks and classifies each sentence, or phrase, as a candidate for inclusion in the summary.
It's very mathematical. It looks at frequencies and distributions, but not at what the words mean." -Seth
Stevenson.

The Lighter Side of Summaries

"Here are some...famous works of literature that could easily have been summarized in a few words:

'Moby-Dick:' Don't mess around with large whales, because they symbolize nature and will kill you.

'A Tale of Two Cities:' French people are crazy.

Every poem ever written: Poets are extremely sensitive.

Think of all the valuable hours we would save if authors got right to the point this way. We'd all have more time
for more important activities, such as reading newspaper columns." -Dave Barry.

"To summarize: It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those
least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made
President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people
are a problem." -Douglas Adams.

What is a Précis?

"What is a precis," students ask when they receive new homework assignment from their teacher. A précis is a
summary of a text which maintains the proportions, tone, and the meaning of the original work. It shouldn't
contain your opinion about the work - the summary must be objective, not subjective. Precis should be written
in your own words. Don't copy original phrases and sentences unless this is the best way to describe a certain
concept or idea. The length of a précis may vary. If you must write a précis as a school assignment, make sure
to double-check how long your writing should be.

Critical precis involves 800-1000 words. It may sound the following way:

"Write a precis, approximately 4 double-spaced pages, of the first half of "The Art of Listening to People," by
Robert Bryans. Your essay should cover Bryans' article through the bottom of page 6."

Precis is a challenge which requires several activities to be done. Consider there is no information on the
original text's name. To have an idea, start with the research to pick several good sources. A writer will also
read the article or essay from cover to cover to be able to analyze it, criticize, and develop a summary of the
main author's points.

If you want the best example of a precis, remember to observe this material.

Signs of Good Precis Essay

Let's discuss precis format and structure which look like most of the academic papers have.

How to Write a Critical Precis

Although an essay and a precis have a similar format, they serve different purposes, and both require specific
techniques. The characteristics of the good critical precis are everywhere the same.
Precis is always a summary of author's abstracts, but never a summary without analysis or simply
interpretation of the original text.

Writers try not to use the words or sentences from the original text.

Critical precis paper reflects a meaning of the original article and explains its significance to the target
audience/entire society.

Precis format includes thesis, methods, results (findings), and conclusion.

The writer must consider clarity through using simple language and accepted the structure of precis mentioned
in its outline.

Just like any other academic paper, critical precis requires double-checking for grammar, spelling, and
punctuation. Once you're done, launch a special checking software on your PC to scan the text for mistakes. It
is important to revise the paper no matter how confident you are.

Write objective points in your critical summary - avoid personal ideas and opinions on the issue.

Write coherently, which means providing a logical interconnection between the original text's ideas and trying
to keep the interest of your reading audience throughout the entire precis.

Conciseness is another thing a writer should consider. Write about points that really matter, avoiding
unnecessary details which will lead to wordiness, wateriness, and repetitiveness.

Review helpful online articles in order to write the best academic essays!

Best Introduction Precis Example

The first sentence of precis introduction aims to present the analyzed work. Make sure to include:

Author's full name.

Article' genre.

Title of publication.

Year of publication.

Rhetorically accurate verb ("assert," "argue," "prove," "disprove," and "explain).

Thesis statement in the last sentence.

An example of effective precis introduction is:

"Dawn Griffin's article, "Considering Factors That Impact Children from Single-Parent Families" (2015), names
the negative factors that push American teens to commit crimes."

Most of the time, a writer must specify only the author's name. If it is critical for the summary, more details on
publication may be included to explain why it has too conservative or radical positions regarding accustomed
things.

It is important to understand the genre of the analyzed work.

Essay novel

Critical article

Poem

Short story

Play

Fiction/non-fiction book
The next purpose is to explain how the writer/speaker supports his thesis statement. To do so, one must define
the purpose of the work clearly. That is why it is important to choose an original text which aims to teach the
reader instead of simply providing some information. The key phrase in this passage would be "in order to." A
precis example is:

"Griffin defends his ideas through presenting facts, statistics, and consequences of the youth crime taken from
the official US criminal reports."

Another precis example might be:

"Griffin makes his argument by involving supporting evidence taken from the official FBI reports, describing the
most recent criminal activity, and offering additional considerations regarding the form of child's mental
disorders."

The last thing a writer is encouraged to include in his critical precis opening is the description of the intended
audience. The target audience predetermines a lot of critical factors: the language of precis ( formal or
informal), purposes, and examples. Sometimes you may also explain how the author interacts with his readers.
Try to understand whether he is successful with accomplishing his goals.

"Considering the voice and language full of American slang words and phrases the author applies in his article,
Griffin primarily writes to achieve the US high school and college students."

Steps to Take to Write a Better Précis

If you have never written a précis before, you can find numerous examples and templates of nicely done précis
on the internet. Analysis of these works will help you better understand the concept of this task. In general,
there are several steps one should take to be ready for writing a precis.

How to Write a Precis: General Writing Hints

Choose a work which you can both summarize and analyze effectively, but remember that the best sources to
consider are journal articles, books, and newspaper articles. Whatever you decide, it must be related to the
subject you study/relevant to the specific research problem. Here are the keys to choosing the best research
paper topic.

Read the original text attentively to review all unclear points with the help of online sources or dictionaries. You
should re-read the original text many times as you need to comprehend it fully.

Write down key phrases and sentences that you think are especially important. These words may later serve
as the powerful keywords bloggers and SEO specialists use to attract attention to their online
essays/articles/blog posts.

Take notes and highlight the key moments of the original text to create a precis outline. An outline points out a
structure of any essay in a clear and organized manner.

Structure of Critical Precis Essay

Once the preparatory work is done, you can begin to write the précis itself:

In introduction section, mention what the thesis of your reading is and include information about the author,
reading, etc.

With the help of notes and prepared outline, compress each precis paragraph or a logically connected block of
text into one or two sentences to keep your summary very short.

Keep in mind your goal is to explain what the author's writing purpose is and how he achieves it. Make sure
you don't express your subjective point of view in the body of your critical precis.
Bind these sentences in a way which will mirror the original work. Add transition words/phrases ("moreover,"
"at the same time," "on the other hand," etc.)

The effective conclusion has two purposes: make a summary of the reading and explain why the original text is
important. In other words, motive people to continue research on the given problem.

Once the précis is written, make sure you proofread and edit it. All connections should be logical and the
original tone and meaning must be reflected in your writing.

Examples of Critical Precis Format

Precis essay example needs to be in front of you. Here is an example of how a precis of a long, expressive
sentence can look this way:

Original: The account the witness gave of the incident moved everyone who heard it to laughter.

Précis: The witness's story was absurd.

Original: Laura made a terrible, terrible mistake when she took David's letter from him, and Henry had to
despise her with all his heart because of all the problems she brought to his family; yet, his heart was still
pounding faster every time he saw her or even heard her name, which was the best evidence of his great
devotion and love.

Précis: Although Henry was angry with Laura, he was still in love with her.

Original: The biggest lie told by weight-loss gurus: You can cut calories without feeling hungry. You can't. (Lou
Schuler, How to Be Hungry);

Précis: You always feel hungry when you cut calories.

A sentence or a paragraph can contain several details; you goal is to decide whether they are new and
important for the plot or they have already been mentioned. You should only pay attention to those points that
are crucial. Metaphors, allusions, and other literary expressive means can be easily omitted because their
primary purpose is to add emotions to the story. All these tropes are not important for the plotline itself - their
mission is to make the scene bright and vivid and influence readers' imagination.

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