It’s a bit of a paradox: You can’t copy other people’s writing, but you’re supposed to use their main points to back up your own. Rather than filling your paper with direct quotes, the best solutions are paraphrasing and summarizing, which let you preserve meaning from another source while using original words to avoid plagiarism.
Paraphrasing vs. summarizing: What’s the difference?
Paraphrasing and summarizing are both writing techniques used for restating another person’s points or opinions in your own words, without quoting them or plagiarizing their text. In fact, in academic writing, paraphrasing and summarizing are the standard, with accompanying citations so the reader knows the original source.
So what’s the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing? Paraphrasing is used for individual details and specific points, whereas summarizing is used for general ideas and broad overviews.
Think of it like this: You paraphrase a sentence or paragraph, but you summarize a paper, chapter, or book. The difference between paraphrasing and summarizing is the scope—are you rewriting a single point or a more complex idea?
In general, paraphrased passages are around the same length as the original, whereas summaries are always shorter and more concise than their source. Even though both paraphrasing and summarizing can be a single sentence or clause, only summarizing can reduce the main points from larger works down to a few words.
What is paraphrasing?
To paraphrase means to state another person’s ideas in your own words. It allows you to use someone else’s points or data as evidence for your own arguments, and as such is an essential part of how to write a research paper.
The key to paraphrasing is to preserve meaning from the original without copying their words. This allows you to cite information from other sources, such as data or logical conclusions, in your own writing. It is one of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism.
Paraphrasing is different from quoting, which copies the exact wording of the original and uses quotation marks to show it’s someone else’s words. In theory you could use quotations every time you state another person’s ideas. However, in reality, all those quotes would make your writing difficult to read. Paraphrasing works best as a way to put space between quotations so they don’t overwhelm the reader.
In practice, paraphrasing involves swapping out words and phrases from the original sentence or paragraph and replacing them with your own.
Typical paraphrasing strategies include:
- Using synonyms, different words with the same meaning (like small and little)
- Changing the word class or part of speech to rephrase the passage
- Rearranging the sentence structure, such as changing the subject of the sentence
- Adding new points or removing original points unnecessary for your writing
How do you know if you’ve changed enough of the original? You can use Grammarly’s free Plagiarism Checker to see if your text is original enough to stand on its own.
What is summarizing?
To summarize means to rewrite the main points of a longer text in a brief and concise way. Summaries are overviews that gloss over specific details in favor of the “big picture,” the general ideas, themes, and conclusions of longer works.
The point of summarizing is to quickly share the main points of a long text so that the reader understands the ideas without having to read the entire thing. Summaries come in handy not just for academic writing, but also business writing, such as summarizing progress on a project or summarizing a résumé in a cover letter. That makes knowing how to write a summary important for everyone.
To summarize something yourself, first identify the main points. Try to avoid listing specific details and individual pieces of data—rather, stick to general ideas, conclusions, and results. Remember that summaries are supposed to be brief and concise, so ignore less-important parts and prioritize the central ideas instead.
If you’re having trouble, you can always summarize with AI, but you still have to paraphrase the AI’s summary to avoid plagiarism.
Paraphrasing vs. summarizing: Comparing examples
To understand the differences between paraphrasing and summarizing, let’s look at some examples and compare them. For both, we’ll use a passage from Novum Organum by Francis Bacon, which outlines the early scientific method.
Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect. For nature is only subdued by submission, and that which in contemplative philosophy corresponds with the cause, in practical science becomes the rule.
Below, notice how the paraphrasing example covers most of the details of the original source, rewriting each point in new words. By contrast, the summarizing example skips over the specifics, restating only the core message and central idea.
Example of paraphrasing
Knowing about the world is power, and not knowing about the world limits what you can achieve. While knowledge in regards to philosophy helps us understand cause and effect, in science the same knowledge acts as a more definitive rule.
Example of summarizing
Bacon believes that knowledge gives humans power over nature, and that knowledge is stronger and more reliable when rooted in science instead of philosophy.
When to paraphrase and when to summarize
Deciding when to paraphrase and when to summarize depends on the source. If the passage you are restating is short and focuses on one main detail, you can paraphrase the passage to share its same message. If the passage is longer, with multiple points and details, you can summarize the passage, keeping only the most important parts and glossing over the rest.
Typically, summaries are usually shorter than paraphrased text. If you’re trying to conserve space and reduce your word count, summarizing would work better than paraphrasing.
Paraphrasing vs. summarizing FAQs
What is the main difference between summarizing and paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing is used for individual details and specific points, whereas summarizing is used for general ideas and broad overviews. You paraphrase a sentence or paragraph, but you summarize a paper, chapter, or book. The difference is the scope—are you restating a single point or a more complex idea?
Are paraphrasing and summarizing considered plagiarism?
No, paraphrasing and summarizing are not plagiarism. In fact, both are effective strategies to avoid plagiarism, as long as you use an accompanying citation.
When should I summarize versus paraphrase?
If the passage you are restating is short and focuses on one main detail, you can paraphrase the passage to share its same message. If the passage is longer, with multiple points and details, you can summarize the passage, keeping only the most important parts and glossing over the rest.
