Summarizing, Quotations and Paraphrasing

Nearly any time that you pick up the pad and pen to write you will do it. Almost every time you open your mouth you will say it. In fact sometime even in your thoughts you do it, but what is it you ask? Summarizing!!! With such a world wide topic there is still so much to about it, for example exactly how it should be done and how to not sound plagiaristic when you discuss different ideas and topics. The first lesson in summarizing is to get the difference of what they, the author of the original idea or quote, said and what it I that you are saying about that quote. This is important because before you can truly talk about somebody else’s work you must, MUST, make sure that you fully understand it yourself first, because if you don’t, then how can you expect anyone to take your ideas on the subject seriously if you preface your summery with, “Now I don’t fully understand the piece, but I think it means blah blah blah…” you can’t, so read it and know it first! Next you should try to capture all of the ideas and other points found in the reading because you want to give your reader the whole view of the subject, not just what you want them to see or what you had time to read. The other important reason to including everything is that is you don’t you leave the opportunity for many discrepancy errors to occur and that is where most problems happen in the creation of a successful summery. This is because if you don’t have everything down, in the order of its happening, there are usually going to be many other important items that get left out. Summarizing is a very important tool in your tool belt, so use it carefully!!