This document provides guidance on summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting sources for academic assignments. It explains that summarizing involves concisely representing the key points of a text in your own words, paraphrasing means expressing the ideas of the author in your own words, and quoting directly copies word-for-word from the source. The document advises reading actively, taking notes, avoiding copying text directly, and properly attributing sources. Examples of summaries, paraphrases and quotes are provided and evaluated.

1. Summarising, Paraphrasing and Quoting
for PG assignments
• Explain the difference between quoting, paraphrasing and
summarising and when to use them
• Evaluate examples of each
• Create your own paraphrases, summaries and select quotes.
Rhian Wyn-Williams, Skills@ljmu.ac.uk
Happy Maha Shivratri!

2. What is the
difference
between quoting,
paraphrasing and
summarising?
Summarising: Using your own words to draw out and
represent the key points of the text.
Provides a brief overview of an idea.
Paraphrasing: Putting the ideas of the author into your
own words. Use when you need to refer
to a fuller amount of information than a
summary would allow. For example, you
may need to discuss in some depth a
particular research paper and its
findings.
Quotations: Copying directly word for word from an
author. Carefully selected and kept to a
minimum.

3. Why should you
summarise or paraphrase?
• Academic integrity: avoiding plagiarism.
• Demonstrates your understanding of what you
have read.
• Provides support for your own claims: credibility.
• Enables you to develop your own academic
voice.

4. Summarising and
paraphrasing require you to
Read actively:
talk to
yourself.
Think about
what the text
means.
Write down
the key words
from the text.
Make notes in
your own
words.
Avoid writing
as you are
reading.
Step away
from the
words.
Reference the
source of the
information.

5. Summarising
We summarise all the time. Think about some of
the ways in which you summarise information in
your academic and your daily life.
• Read through the original text, maybe a
number of times.
• Keep notes to a minimum: try using keywords
and concentrate on the essentials at the centre
of the information.
• Write the summary directly from these
key words without re-reading the passage.
You have three possible summaries of an extract
of text on your worksheets. Can you choose
which one is the best summary?

6. Have a go….
• February is LGBT+ History Month. Using
the extract from Steven Dryden's (2017)
article on LGBT+ histories from the British
Library, write a brief summary of it.
• Compare it with the person next to you:
• Which key words did you use? Were they
same as your partners? Have your
summaries expressed the same point?

7. Here’s a possible way you could
have done it. Notice the lack of
detail but emphasis on the main
point.
A significant rise in arrests and prosecutions of homosexual men were
made after World War II. Many were from high rank and held positions
within government and national institutions, such as Alan Turing, the
cryptographer whose work played a decisive role in the breaking of the
Enigma code. The Sexual Offences Act, 1967, partially legalised same-sex
acts in the UK between men over the age of 21 conducted in private.
Scotland and Northern Ireland followed suit over a decade later, in 1980
and 1981 respectively. The Sexual Offences Act represented a stepping-
stone towards equality. The fight for sexual equality, however, was far
from over. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, introduced by
the Conservative Government under Margaret Thatcher, banned local
authorities from ‘promoting homosexuality’ or ‘pretended family
relationships’, and prohibited councils from funding educational materials
and projects perceived to 'promote homosexuality'. The legislation
prevented the discussion of LGBT issues and stopped pupils getting the
support they needed. Section 28 was repealed in 2003, and Prime
Minister David Cameron apologised for the legislation in 2009. In 2004
another milestone was reached with the Civil Partnership Act 2004, which
allowed same-sex couples to legally enter into binding partnerships,
similar to marriage. The subsequent Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act
2013 then went further, allowing same-sex couples in England and Wales
to marry; Scotland followed suit with the Marriage and Civil Partnership
(Scotland) Act 2014. Northern Ireland is the only country in the UK which
does not have marriage equality in law. The Gender Recognition Act 2004,
which came into effect on 4 April 2005, gave transgender people full legal
recognition of their gender, allowing them to acquire a new birth
certificate – although gender options are still limited to ‘male’ or ‘female’.
The LGBT community continues to fight for equality and social
acceptance.
From S.Dryden (2017), 'A Short History of LGBT Rights in the UK'. Available
at: https://www.bl.uk/lgbtq-histories/articles/a-short-history-of-lgbt-
rights-in-the-uk
Since 1967, when same-sex acts
in the UK were first partially
legalised after two decades of
increased prosecution, numerous
laws have been passed to
promote equality for the LGBT
community, despite Section 28
(1988-2003) preventing
homosexuality’s ‘promotion’.
However, the struggle against
prejudice is not over (Dryden,
2017).

8. Paraphrasing
• Rephrase a text extensively. Just
rearranging the structure or using synonyms
is not enough, although that can help.
• As you read, focus on the meaning but you
will also want to note down more detailed
information than if you were summarising.
What key evidence is being presented?
• Use the same technqiue as summarising
but then go back and highlight the key
information that helps to explain the main
points.
• Write your summary from these notes.

9. Paraphrasing
• Read through the
original paragraph
provided on your
handout.
• Then read through the
two paraphrases.
• In pairs, decide which
paraphrase you think is
the better one and why.

10. Have a go...
Using the same extract from the
article on LGBT+ history that you
summarised before, write a
paraphrase of it.
What are they main differences?

11. Quotations
Keep quotations down to a minimum.
Remember your own voice. When your words
can make the same point as effectively, use
them.
When to quote:
• A new phrase is being coined
• New meaning is being given to an established
phrase
• The words are particularly engaging and
interesting as an expression
• When it is the only way to clarify an
ambiguous meaning

12. Quotations
1. On your handouts, look at
the examples of students’ work
using quotations. Should these
be quotes?​
2. Go back to the article by
Dryden and select a phrase you
think would be an appropriate
one for quoting.
"Education is the key to unlock
the golden door of freedom"
George Washington Carver

13. Integrating
quotes,
summaries and
paraphrases in
your writing
Reporting verbs are a very useful way of referring to the original author and
can sign-post where you are using another’s ideas.

14. Reflection…..
• What particular area of
quoting, summarising and
paraphrasing will you focus
on improving?
• How will you make those
improvements?

15. Next steps
Next week -
• Academic Writing: reflections
• Academic Writing: case studies
• Academic Writing: using your reading
(Summarising and paraphrasing is key!)