Summarising and paraphrasing
How to report someone else's ideas in your own words for essays and coursework, with the reporting verbs, the steps that avoid plagiarism, and a worked example.
When you need it
At university almost every piece of writing is built on other people's work: essays, literature reviews, reports, dissertations. You are expected to show that you have read the sources, and to use them without copying them. That means two skills. To summarise is to reduce a text to its main ideas, much shorter than the original. To paraphrase is to restate one specific idea in your own words and structure, at roughly the same length. Both need a citation, because the idea still belongs to the author even when the words are yours.
In British universities, a text that follows its source too closely counts as plagiarism, whether or not you meant it to. Software compares your work with published texts and other students' essays, so close copying is found quickly.
Structure
The same five steps work for both summaries and paraphrases.
- Read the passage until you understand it fully. If you cannot explain it aloud, you are not ready to rewrite it.
- Note the key ideas in a few words each, as a list. Leave out examples, repetition and detail, unless an example is central to the argument.
- Put the original away and write from your notes. This is the step that turns copying into your own sentences.
- Compare your version with the original. Check that the meaning is the same, that nothing important is missing, and that no phrase of three or more words has survived unchanged unless it is a technical term.
- Add the citation and a reporting verb that shows the author's position accurately.
When rewriting, change more than individual words. Change the structure: turn a verb into a noun (the economy grew becomes economic growth), active into passive, one long sentence into two, or reverse the order of cause and result. Keep technical terms and names of theories as they are; replacing them with synonyms makes the text less precise, not more original.
Useful phrases
Introducing the source:
| Purpose | Phrase |
|---|---|
| neutral report | The author states / notes / explains that… |
| the author's main position | The author argues / maintains / contends that… |
| a position you may question | The author claims / asserts that… |
| a cautious idea | The author suggests / proposes that… |
| a concession | The author acknowledges / admits that… |
| the conclusion | The study concludes / finds / shows that… |
Framing a summary:
| Purpose | Phrase |
|---|---|
| general overview | The article examines… / The main argument is that… |
| attributing without a verb | According to the author, … / In the author's view, … |
| linking points | The author goes on to… / A further point is that… |
| closing | Overall, the author concludes that… |
Reporting verbs in academic English are usually in the present simple: the author argues, even for a text published long ago. Argue presents a reasoned position; claim signals that you are less sure the author is right. Quote exactly, with quotation marks, only when the wording itself matters, and cite the page number when your referencing style requires it.
Model text
Original: Remote working was once a privilege enjoyed by a small group of employees, but recent years have turned it into an ordinary arrangement for millions of office workers. Surveys suggest that most of them value the hours no longer spent commuting, yet many also report feeling isolated from colleagues and find it harder to keep work separate from private life.
Paraphrase: Working from home, previously available to only a few staff, is now normal for a very large number of people in office jobs. While the majority appreciate not having to travel to work, a considerable proportion say that they feel cut off from their co-workers and struggle to draw a line between their job and their home life (Surname, 2023).
Summary: Remote work has become common and saves commuting time, but it can lead to isolation and blur the boundary between work and home (Surname, 2023).
Common mistakes
- ✗ The author says that remote working was once a privilege enjoyed by a small group of employees.
✓ The author notes that working from home used to be available to only a few staff.
A school переказ / пересказ rewards staying close to the text; at university, a sentence copied with a reporting verb in front is still plagiarism. - ✗ Remote working was once a benefit experienced by a small number of workers.
✓ Only a few employees used to be able to work from home.
Swapping words one by one while keeping the original structure is called patchwriting, and it is treated like copying. Change the structure, not only the vocabulary. - ✗ The author discusses about the effects of remote work.
✓ The author discusses the effects of remote work.
Discuss, describe and mention take a direct object, although обговорювати / обсуждать and розповідати про / рассказывать о suggest a preposition. - ✗ According to the author's opinion, commuting is a waste of time.
✓ According to the author, commuting is a waste of time. / In the author's opinion, …
According to already contains the idea of opinion; на думку автора / по мнению автора is either according to the author or in the author's opinion, not both. - ✗ In summary, the author is right that offices are outdated.
✓ In summary, the author argues that offices are becoming less central to working life.
A summary reports the source, not your view of it. Your own evaluation belongs in a separate sentence, clearly marked as yours.
Try it
- Choose the verb for a position you doubt: The author ___ that social media improves mental health. (claims / shows)
- Correct: The article describes about the causes of inflation.
- Change the verb into a noun: The population grew rapidly. → The rapid ___ of the population…
- Which is shorter than the original and keeps only the main ideas: a summary or a paraphrase?
- Choose the usual tense: The author ___ (argue) that prices will rise.