Magdalena D’s Difference Between Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing.

It is really important to know the differences between quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing. Some people confuse paraphrasing and summarizing, and some people don’t know how to quote correctly. However, after reading this document, I guarantee that you will be able to distinguish between quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.

Quoting
Quoting is using other person’s exact words in your own work. Most people use quotes when they want to make sure that they present the concept correctly. For example, sometimes it is better to quote a very important definition from a textbook, than try to define it by yourself and miss out on something that is very important. Other people quote somebody else’s words because they like the way the person said something. However, it is really important to remember that you should not use too many quotes in your document. Your document should be written by you, and quotes should be only small part of it. Some people use long quotes to increase their word count, and doing that is completely wrong. You should not use quotes that are longer than three sentences. Moreover, it is really important that you put a quote in quotation marks and you give a credit to the author. When I was younger, whenever I wrote an essay, I would quote someone else’s work but never give credit to that person. Now I know that I was wrong, and you always have to give a credit to the author.

Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is writing other person’s work in your own words. When paraphrasing you have to be very careful because you need to say exactly what the other person wrote in your own words. Believe me that changing couple words in the sentence is not paraphrasing. I did it in the past but I learned my lesson, and now I know what paraphrasing really is. Moreover, you have to make sure that you give a credit to the author and you identify the source. In addition, you have to make sure that you include all of the important concepts, numbers, dates and statistics from the original document. This is what paraphrasing is all about, providing all of the details but in your own words.

Summarizing
Summarizing is very similar to paraphrasing, because it is also presenting other person’s work in your own words. However, when you are summarizing the document, you want to include only the most important concepts. Summaries are usually a lot shorter than original documents. Summary is just a brief, short version of the whole document. In my opinion, summarizing is easier than paraphrasing. You just need to read the document and write a paragraph about it, including all important concepts. When summarizing, you have to also make sure that you give a credit to the author of the original document.

By this time, you should know how to distinguish between quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing. I hope that my explanation was helpful. However, if you are still a little bit unclear, you are more than welcome to watch the following video:




Dobrin, Sidney, Christopher Killer, and Christian Weisser. Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008.