Summarizing Sources

A summary restates the main idea of a passage (or even of an entire book or article) in concise terms. Because a summary does not cover the examples or explanations in the source, and because it omits the original source’s rhetorical strategies and stylistic characteristics, it is always much shorter than the original. Usually, in fact, it consists of just a sentence or two.

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WHEN TO SUMMARIZE

Summarize when you want to give readers a general sense of a passage’s main idea or a source’s position on an issue.

When you summarize information, you do not include your own opinions, but you do use your own words and phrasing, not those of your source. If you want to use a particularly distinctive word or phrase from your source, you may do so—but you must always place such words in quotation marks and document them. If you do not, you will be committing plagiarism. (See Chapter 10 for information on documenting sources; see Chapter 11 for information on using sources responsibly.)

The following paragraph appeared in a newspaper opinion essay.

ORIGINAL SOURCE

When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page, or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cellphone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload video on YouTube, everyone is a filmmaker. When everyone is a publisher, paparazzo, or filmmaker, everyone else is a public figure. We’re all public figures now. The blogosphere has made the global discussion so much richer—and each of us so much more transparent. (“The Whole World Is Watching,” Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, June 27, 2007, p. 23)

The following effective summary conveys a general but accurate sense of the original paragraph without using the source’s phrasing or including the writer’s own opinions. (One distinctive and hard-to-reword phrase is placed in quotation marks.) Parenthetical documentation indicates the source of the material.

EFFECTIVE SUMMARY

The popularity of blogs, social-networking sites, cell phone cameras, and YouTube has enhanced the “global discussion” but made it very hard for people to remain anonymous (Friedman 23).

Notice that this one-sentence summary is much shorter than the original passage and that it does not include all the original’s examples. Still, it accurately communicates a general sense of the source’s main idea.

The following summary is not acceptable. Not only does it express the student writer’s opinion, but it also uses the source’s exact words without putting them in quotation marks or providing documentation. (This constitutes plagiarism.)

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UNACCEPTABLE SUMMARY

It seems to me that blogs, social-networking sites, cell phone cameras, and YouTube are everywhere, and what this means is that we’re all public figures now.

SUMMARIZING SOURCES

Do

  • Convey the main idea of the original passage.

  • Be concise.

  • Use your own original words and phrasing.

  • Place any words borrowed from your source in quotation marks.

  • Include documentation.

Do not

  • Include your own analysis or opinions.

  • Include digressions.

  • Argue with your source.

  • Use your source’s syntax or phrasing (unless you are quoting).

EXERCISE 9.1

Write a two-sentence summary of the following passage. Then, edit your summary so that it is only one sentence long. Be sure your summary conveys the main idea of the original passage and includes proper documentation.

We’re living at a time when attention is the new currency: with hundreds of TV channels, billions of Web sites, podcasts, radio shows, music downloads, and social networking, our attention is more fragmented than ever before.

Those who insert themselves into as many channels as possible look set to capture the most value. They’ll be the richest, the most successful, the most connected, capable, and influential among us. We’re all publishers now, and the more we publish, the more valuable connections we’ll make.

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Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, Fitbit, and the SenseCam give us a simple choice: participate or fade into a lonely obscurity. (Pete Cashmore, “Privacy Is Dead, and Social Media Hold Smoking Gun,” CNN.com, October 28, 2009)