A Summary of Unit One
Tim Yarbrough
Post University

A Summary of Unit One As writers sometimes you will need to summarize someone else’s thoughts or ideas. In order to do this properly you must, briefly restate, someone else’s content, in your own word’s (Behrens & Rosen, 2013, p. 3). When writing requires paraphrasing instead of quotations the writer needs to understand the work then put it to his/her own words. Quotation are only used when you need to use the exact language of someone else, these should be used scarcely. When writing, knowing how to write a summary, paraphrase, and quote a source is key conveying your ideas without plagiarizing someone else’s. While developing a summary there are some key things to remember. When you are summarizing someone else work you must read and understand the authors work. Without understanding the context and main points of someone’s work you will not be able to put it into your own words. Although it is unreasonable to think that while writing a summary someone can be completely objective, that is the goal. While writing a summary just like writing anything else a key in the process is preparation. As stated before understanding the work you are summarizing if crucial to the writing process. Reading, writing summary’s as you read the work, developing your thesis, writing your summary, checking it against the original and then final revision are the steps that should be taken to effectively write summaries. One of the keys to an effective paper is determining the length of your summary, by knowing your audience and what you are summarizing. Although the rule of thumb for the length is one forth the length of what you are summarizing keep in mind its intended use, it may need to be shorter or longer to convey your intent. Although graphs, charts and tables are