SUMMARY 1. Briefly look the article over to get a general idea of its content A. What is the title? Subtitle? Headings? B. Skim the first and last few paragraphs C. Pay attention to keywords that are in bold or italics D. Graphs, pictures, diagrams 2. Read the article straight through A. Check or underline main points B. Look for important details C. Look for definitions, lists or examples that indicate key ideas 3. Go back and reread the areas you have identified as important. See if you missed anything important. 4. Take notes on the material. Write down key ideas and important quotes. 5. Write a brief summary. A. Include the main ideas of the article B. Don’t be overly detailed C. Limit your quotes. Only quote to illustrate points you can’t put in your own words

DIRECT QUOTES

• A direct quote must be written EXACTLY as it appears in the original work.

***Exceptions:

• If you don’t need all of the words you can remove some, so long as it doesn’t change the meaning of the quote

To do so, use brackets and ellipses […]

EXAMPLE:

We cannot guarantee that bad things will happen, but we can argue that good things are not happening. It is the contention of this report that increasing numbers of young people are left to their own devices at a critical time in their development.

“We cannot guarantee that bad things will happen, but we can argue that good things are not happening […] [I]ncreasing numbers of young people are left to their own devices at a critical time in their development” (Smith).

• Use the brackets [] to show that you changed something

PARAPHRASE:
Your own version of information expressed by someone else, presented in a new form.

• a legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to borrow from a source.

• a more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a single main idea.

• it helps you control the temptation to quote too much and helps you to grasp the full meaning of the original.

A bad paraphrase is when you:

• -simply substitute certain words with their synonyms

• -copy the sentence structure of the original quotation.

A good paraphrase is when you:

• Be sure to convey the quotation's central idea.

• Paraphrase in your own words. Avoid the original phrases and sentence structure

• If you need to use an particular word or phrase from the original text, use “quotation marks” to indicate that this is not your own.

• The words of the paraphrase are yours, but the idea is not. Cite the author to avoid plagiarism.

ORIGINAL QUOTE: “Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final research paper” (Adams).

BAD PARAPHRASE: Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the last research paper.

-bad paraphrase because it only uses the same sentence structure, only substitutes some words for synonyms, and doesn’t cite the author in a parenthetical reference at the end.

GOOD PARAPHRASE: In research papers, students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level (Adams).