Writing a Summary,

Precis & Paraphrase

Today YOU can…

Get information from a given source

Write the gathered information into a
summary, precis, and paraphrase
Consider newspaper and other
print/nonprint medias as sources of
information.
Let’s think about these questions…

What do summary, precis, and paraphrase

allow writers to do?
What are the differences among summary,
precis, and paraphrase?
Let’s start with
PARAPHRASE
What is
paraphrasing?
The paraphrase changes the wording of the passage
without changing its meaning. It retains the basic logic of
the argument, its sequence of ideas, and even the
examples used in the passage. Most importantly, it
accurately conveys the author’s meaning and opinion.
What do we When you
paraphrase, you
do in retell the story in
paraphrasing? your own words in
a passage that is
about the same
length as the
original.
How do we paraphrase?
When you paraphrase, you state—in your own words— the argument or
point of a passage, line by line

To paraphrase, read the passage carefully to understand

its meaning.
Confirm meaning of any terms you do not understand,
and substitute synonyms for the passage’s more
challenging terms.
Re-state the passage sentence by sentence in your own
words.
Fine tune the sentence construction to make it read
smoothly.
What is
summarizing?
A summary represents the scope and emphasis of a
relatively large amount of material in a well-organized and
short form. It is less lengthy than the original. It restates
only the author’s main ideas, omitting unimportant
examples and evidence.
 When you
summarize, you
What is significantly
shorten a piece,
summarizing? retell it in your
own words,
touching on the
main points of
the passage.
How do we summarize?
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.

 Read the passage carefully, noting the main arguments and

conclusion.
 Write the main idea in your own words.
 Cluster paragraphs by argument, and label each with a single
sentence. Add these sentences in order to the thesis.
 Write the conclusion in your own words. Add that to the
thesis/cluster sentences.
 Fine tune the sentence construction to smooth out the flow.
 Edit to confirm that each sentence contributes to the whole of
the document.
 In long summaries, you may want to include carefully chosen quotations from the original.
 NOTE: While we need to be true to the message of the original when we summarize, we
also have to make choices about what must be included, what needs special emphasis,
and so on. When writing for public purposes, though, we make those choices based on
the use we will make of the summary in our larger project. We would summarize the
Gettysburg address very differently, for example, if we were using the summary in an
article about Lincoln’s presidency, on the one hand, or in a critique of Obama’s election
night speech (where he references Lincoln). It is useful, then, to develop skills not only in
writing comprehensive summaries but ones that address particular agendas.
What is a
precis?
The précis (pronounced pray-see) is a type of summary that
insists on an exact reproduction of the logic, organization,
and emphasis of the original texts. It is a precisely crafted
miniature of the whole document.
 When you write
a précis, you
What is writing use one or two
concise
a précis? sentences to
give the
essence of a
passage.
How do we write a precis?
When you paraphrase, you state—in your own words— the argument or
point of a passage, by line

 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.
 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.
 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.
How do we write a precis?
When you paraphrase, you state—in your own words— the argument or
point of a passage, by line

Replace words and phrases specifically used by the

author with suitable synonyms.
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.