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I'm new to teaching, and after doing some research over summarizing and paraphrasing, I think I confused myself! I want to make sure I can explain and use the two terms correctly as I begin a student teaching activity.

If I have my students read a journal article for class, should I have them summarize it for me or paraphrase it? I'm looking for a one paragraph response, so I know they understand only the main points of the long (three-four page) article.

Looking through definitions of the two terms, I'm not sure about the difference. I always thought paraphrasing meant keeping true to the length of the original text, but putting it entirely in your words. Therefore, you would paraphrase a paragraph, but not an entire article. Summarizing means you put it in your own words, but only note the main points, leaving out the details. A summary should be a condensed version of the text.

Some of the resources I've looked through provide differing viewpoints on th...See More
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Lit Teacher On 1/28/14, Lola E. wrote:

Sorry - I forgot to add - you should not call it a paraphase. It's an entire article you're giving them - it's not possible to paraphase an entire article. The task you're assigning them is a summary.

Just because you want it to be a short summary doesn't mean it isn't a summary. What kind of an article...See More
Jan 28, 2014
Kathy M On 1/28/14, Lit Teacher wrote: One of the things I was taught was that summarizing is a skill that is not perfected until a student is beyond the high school level. Take a look at a child's description of a Disney film: they tell you everything! Compare that to how you answer someone when you're mad: "I'm fine." They need to find something in betwe...See More
Jan 28, 2014
Lola Thank you for your perfect response! I had it right; I guess I just got confused after looking through different definitions of the terms on the Internet. It's a simple idea that I didn't feel comfortable asking my mentor teacher about (for fear she'd look down on me). On 1/28/14, Lit Teacher wrote: > On 1/28/14, Lola E. wrote: > > You can...See More
Jan 29, 2014
Lola Thanks for the great ideas! I like the forest example; I'm definitely going to use that. On 1/28/14, Kathy M wrote: > On 1/28/14, Lit Teacher wrote: > One of the things I was taught > was that summarizing is a skill > that is not perfected until a > student is beyond the high school > level. > > Take a look at a > child's...See More
Jan 29, 2014
another idea for Lola I don't know where you checked online but the OWL (online Writing Lab) at Purdue is a widely used go-to source for all writing questions. Just google OWL at Purdue. On 1/29/14, Lola wrote: > Thanks for the great ideas! I like the forest example; I'm > definitely going to use that. > > On 1/28/14, Kathy M wrote: > >> On 1/28/14,...See More
Feb 5, 2014


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