Quoting, Summarizing

and Paraphrasisng

Taking Notes

There are three ways to take notes on your note cards:QuotingSummarizingparaphrasing

Quoting:

What is it?Copying the

authors words, word for word

Must be surrounded by quotation marks and cited

Use few quotes

Why would I use it?When material is

especially well-stated or memorable

When material is of utmost importance

Quoting Example:

Original Passage:

What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the blocks that they had to carry to build the pyramids weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000 lbs.? What did they do... use cement? In fact, they used so much stone, that if you took all of the stone they used and cut it into 1 foot square blocks, it would extend 2/3 of the way around the earth!!!

http://www.netscientia.com/egypt.html

Quote Example:

Many questions surround the building of the pyramids. One such question raised by skeptics is “What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the blocks that they had to carry weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000 lbs?” (Egyptian).

Summarizing:

What is it?Taking longer

sections of text and shortening them to highlight the main points IN YOU OWN WORDS.

Summary should be much shorter than original text

Think of the gist: who, what, when, why, where, and how.

Why would I use it?To cut out the

unnecessary details and get to the point

To convey information quickly

You must cite summaries!!!!!!!!!

Summarizing Example:

Original Text:

What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the blocks that they had to carry to build the pyramids weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000 lbs.? What did they do... use cement? In fact, they used so much stone, that if you took all of the stone they used and cut it into 1 foot square blocks, it would extend 2/3 of the way around the earth!!!

http://www.netscientia.com/egypt.html

Summary:

Since the wheel had not been invented yet, Egyptians would have struggled to lift and move the large amounts of heavy, 2 ton blocks used to build the pyramids (Egyptians).

Paraphrasing:

What is it? Detailed restatement IN

YOUR OWN WORDS of a written passage.

Should be about the same length and contain the same message as the original passage.

The preferred form of note taking (most of your cards should be paraphrases)

Must cite

paraphrases!!!!

Why would I use it? Demonstrates your

grasp of the subject matter

Allows information to be conveyed in detail

How to Paraphrase:1. Read the original passage

to gain understanding

2. Once you understand the passage, place it to the side (so you can’t see it)

3. Write down as many details as you can remember

4. Rework these details into your own words and sentence structures

5. Compare your rewording to the original passage to make sure you have not plagiarized

You have plagiarized if: You have more than 4

words in a row that are the author’s.

Your sentence structures are the same as the authors

You only changed a few select words in the passage

You just rearranged the author’s words into a different order

Example Paraphrase:

Original Text:

What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the blocks that they had to carry to build the pyramids weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000 lbs.? What did they do... use cement? In fact, they used so much stone, that if you took all of the stone they used and cut it into 1 foot square blocks, it would extend 2/3 of the way around the earth!!

http://www.netscientia.com/egypt.html

Good Paraphrase:

One question that skeptics often ask is how the Egyptians managed to transport and lift the massive amounts of heavy, 2 ton blocks used to construct the pyramids. The amount of stone used could have rounded 2/3 of the Earth if it was cut into 1 foot square blocks, so the Egyptians had to have had some sort of assistance in transporting the materials.

Example Paraphrase:

Original Text:

What about the fact that the Egyptians had not even invented the wheel yet, but the blocks that they had to carry to build the pyramids weighed about 2 tons each? 4,000 lbs.? What did they do... use cement? In fact, they used so much stone, that if you took all of the stone they used and cut it into 1 foot square blocks, it would extend 2/3 of the way around the earth!!

http://www.netscientia.com/egypt.html

Bad Paraphrase:

One common question skeptics ask is how did the Egyptians move the blocks when they had not even invented the wheel yet? The blocks they had to carry weighed around 2 tons each. That is too heavy for the Egyptians to carry by themselves. In fact, if someone took all the stone they used and cut it down into 1 foot square blocks, it would stretch 2/3 of the way around our planet.

WHY IS THIS A BAD PARAPHRASE?

YOUR TURN TO TRY!!!!!!