In your own words
Essentially, note-taking in your own words involves summarising and paraphrasing.
This section is concerned with how to summarise and paraphrase the ideas of another
author in your own words.
It is perhaps worth noting at this point that whenever we decide to use the
words of another author, we must be sure to quote, to cite sources, and to reference
their work appropriately. In other words, we need to be very careful that we do
not plagiarise (that is, take and use as our own the thoughts or writings of another
author). The consequences of plagiarism are serious. We will, therefore, outline
the important conventions that we are expected to follow whenever we quote, cite,
or reference the work of other authors in the next section.
Summarising and paraphrasing
Whenever you are asked to prepare a written assignment, you must be able to
make sense of the important issues and the major concepts and arguments in the
written texts that you use as your sources. You must also be able to communicate
that understanding. If you are to communicate your own understanding, it is not
enough to simply copy from the sources that you read. You must be able to summarise
your reading, or provide a condensed version that succinctly or concisely captures
the main points. Alternatively, you need to be able to paraphrase your
reading, that is, to present the writer’s ideas in your own words. Let us
consider the purpose of summarising in writing, and what it involves.
1. The purpose of summarising is
- to present a writer’s ideas in a briefer form
- to provide the most important points from a writer’s
text
- to capture the essence of a longer piece of writing
- to resist quoting directly
- to be sure to avoid plagiarism
2. In essence, summarising in writing involves
- a written account of a text, or section of a text
- providing the main idea (or ideas)
- omitting the details and specific examples
- a significant reduction in the length of the text
- a focus on, or capturing of the most important points in a text
- a condensed version of a writer’s communication
To be a little more specific, when you want to prepare a summary of another
writer’s text, the following are some simple steps to follow that will make
your task easier.
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First, and most importantly, identify the main purpose of the writer’s
text
by looking at the title, headings, subheadings, and diagrams or tables
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Second, get a sense of the overall structure of the writer’s text
by skim reading the whole text
The writer’s objective in writing the text and the structure that has
been used both influence the way your summary will be prepared. So, having identified
purpose and structure, your next tasks are:
1. To identify the most important points
- note the verbs that are in the present tense (for example, "students
perform well at university when they use their time efficiently";
"we know that reinforcement increases the likelihood
of a behaviour occurring on a future occasion")
- note the use of the verb "to be" (for example,
"it is clear that…"; "extraverts are
individuals who enjoy meeting new people")
- note the use of generic nouns (for example, "people generally
find that they prefer to tell secrets to those who are close to them"; "pets
provide good company, especially for people who live alone")
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2. Highlight the main points in each paragraph by
- scanning each paragraph
- pinpointing the key sentence(s) in each paragraph
- marking them off in some way (to separate them from the detail)
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3. Re-write the highlighted main points
- at first, keeping reasonably closely to the marked text
- then, by re-writing them in a briefer form
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4. Write a summary that consists of
- an introductory sentence that states the writer’s purpose in writing
the text and
- the essence of the text
- the main points, captured succinctly in your words, and
- a concluding sentence that re-confirms the purpose and
main issue
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5. Re-read your summary
- making it briefer, wherever appropriate
- being sure you are happy with its structure
- correcting any errors
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So, summarising is an important tool for communicating the ideas of another
writer (or writers), doing so in your own words. Another useful tool is paraphrasing.
Let us now consider the purpose of paraphrasing in writing, and what it involves.
1. The purpose of paraphrasing is
- to present a writer’s ideas, keeping as close as possible to their
original meaning
- to repeat much of the original material, but without
quoting directly
- to re-present a relatively short piece of written work
- to be sure to avoid plagiarism
2. In essence, paraphrasing in writing involves
- putting another writer’s text into our own words
- adhering as closely as possible to the original
- keeping the same meaning
- making use of different words or phrases to capture the
same idea
- re-phrasing a shorter text, and
- sometimes producing a longer, rather than a shorter version
of the original text
Having identified the purpose and essence of paraphrasing, we now need to consider
how paraphrasing is actually done.
The most useful tools for paraphrasing the text of another author are synonyms,
changes in voice, or perhaps in word form, and the packing or
unpacking of word groups. These strategies enable us to acknowledge that the
intellectual content of a text is someone else’s, but the information is
in our own words. Let’s therefore consider what each of those involves.
1. Synonyms are
words or expressions that have similar meaning in a particular context
- For example,
"to expect" is a synonym for "to anticipate", and
"variable" is a synonym for "inconstant"
Note, however, that it is important to consider the context in which the word
(for which you require a synonym) is being used. This is because many words in
the English language have multiple meanings and the specific meaning of a word
is often determined largely by examining the context in which it is being used.
- For example,
"substantiate" and "document the evidence" are synonyms for
"demonstrate"
and
"strike" and "riot" are synonyms for "demonstrate"
but the contexts in which they are appropriate synonyms are very different.
One of the most useful sources of synonyms is a thesaurus, although you need
to be sure to be mindful of the context because a thesaurus generally gives us
many (and sometimes all of the possible) alternative synonyms for our word of
interest.
- We have provided you with a link to a thesaurus,
so that you can look up some synonyms.
2. The voice of a sentence can be active or passive.
Active sentences
allow the focus to be on who or what is making things happen
- For example,
"The lecturers expect students in their assignments to demonstrate a professional
approach" is a sentence in an active voice. Here the focus is on the lecturers
(the subject).
Passive sentences
allow the focus to be on whom or what is affected by the event or process
- For example,
"Students are expected by their lecturers to demonstrate a professional approach
in their assignments" is a sentence expressed in the passive voice. The focus
is on the students (the objects of the lecturers’ expectations).
3. The word form used in any sentence
can also be changed
- For example,
"expect" as a verb becomes "expectation" as a noun and "expectantly"
as an adverb.
Changing the word form is not as simple as it might first appear. This is essentially
because by selecting a different form of a word, it is generally necessary to
make other changes in the sentence in order that it remains grammatically correct.
Also, it is always a good idea to check the words in a dictionary to be sure that
you have the correct spelling.
4. Packing and unpacking word groups.
Sometimes one word is inadequate to express an idea, process, or circumstance.
In English, it is often possible to combine words into groups so that one idea
is more precisely expressed.
- For example,
"(By demonstrating a professional approach in assignments), (students) (will
meet) (their lecturers expectations)" is a different way of combining the
ideas expressed in the sentence above.
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