When writing, you may often need to quote other people's opinions. Paraphrasing and summarizing are better than direct quotations. Sometimes, the teacher may ask you to paraphrase a paragraph. Do you know what the difference is between summarizing and paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing
The purpose of a summary is to distill key points and present core information in a concise form.
Its content covers only the essential parts of the original text, omits details, and uses succinct, generalized language.
It is suitable for condensing lengthy texts (e.g., academic papers, books).
A paraphrase aims to rephrase the original meaning using different vocabulary and sentence structures while fully preserving its content and intent.
It is ideal for explaining complex concepts or technical terms.
In practical applications, summarizing and paraphrasing are often combined.
For example, when writing a literature review, one might first summarize multiple sources to extract key information and then paraphrase that information to integrate it into their own analysis.
What Is Paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing refers to restating a piece of text in different words, sentence structures, and expressions without altering its core meaning.
Methods of paraphrasing:
- Understand the original text--Fully grasp the intended message of the original text to avoid deviating from its meaning during rephrasing.
- Synonym replacement--Substitute key terms in the original text with words of similar meaning to prevent direct plagiarism.
- Change the sentence structure--You can change a declarative sentence into an interrogative sentence, a passive sentence into an active sentence, or adjust the word order of the sentence, etc.
Example: "The book was written by him." → "He wrote the book."
- Merge or split sentences--Combine short sentences into longer ones or divide lengthy sentences into shorter ones, depending on clarity needs.
- Self-ontained restatement--Reorganize the content in your own words.
What Is Summarizing?
A summary is a condensed representation of a text’s core ideas, distilling its overall content into concise language.
Steps to summarize:
- Read the original text carefully and find out the key information, such as the central idea and main points of the article.
- Take notes on the key information (e.g., underline it), and then make a brief outline.
- Express the main idea and key information of the article in your own words.
- Reread your summary to ensure that it is concise, objective, accurate, and fluent, and there are no grammatical and spelling errors.
Why Use Paraphrasing and Summarizing
● To avoid content repetition. Paraphrasing and summarizing can help prevent excessive direct quotations in an article. Overusing direct quotes from sources can make an article appear lengthy and lead to high repetition rates.
By paraphrasing and summarizing, you can rephrase the original content in your own words, preserving the core ideas while making the article more fluid and diverse.
● To promote thinking and understanding. The process of paraphrasing and summarizing forces the author to deeply think about and comprehend the original text.
By reorganizing language and logic, the author can better understand the original text’s intent and structure, thereby deepening their grasp of the content.
● To enhance your credibility. By paraphrasing and summarizing authoritative and influential sources, you can increase the credibility of your article.
● To improve the flexibility of your article. These two methods allow you to avoid directly quoting the original text while consciously using techniques like synonym replacement and altering sentence structure. This enhances the richness of your article’s expression, making the article’s presentation more natural.
Examples of Contrast Between Paraphrase and Summary
This quote comes from the World Economic Forum：
"Climate change is not just an environmental issue; it is a fundamental threat to global economic stability. Rising sea levels and extreme weather events are projected to cost the world economy up to $23 trillion annually by 2050."
Paraphrase：
The World Economic Forum emphasizes that climate change extends beyond environmental concerns, directly endangering the global economy. Researchers estimate that by mid-century, economic losses from coastal flooding and severe weather could reach $23 trillion per year.
Summary：
Climate change poses severe economic risks, potentially costing $23 trillion yearly by 2050 due to environmental disasters.
This quote comes from McKinsey & Company:
"Companies adopting remote work models permanently could reduce operational costs by 30%, but may face challenges in maintaining corporate culture and employee engagement."
Paraphrase：
According to McKinsey's analysis, while shifting to fully remote work structures might lower business expenses by nearly one-third, organizations must address potential declines in workplace cohesion and staff motivation.
Summary：
Permanent remote work offers significant cost savings but risks weakening company culture.
When to Use Paraphrasing and Summarizing
Scenarios for Paraphrasing
- Retaining the original details while avoiding direct quotes.
- Explaining complex or technical concepts in simpler words.
- Avoiding repetitive phrasing to enhance textual diversity.
Scenarios for Summarizing
- Extracting the core ideas or key points from lengthy content.
- Organizing information and compiling concise reports.
- Comparing information across multiple articles or diverse sources.
Summarize and Paraphrase with Smallppt
Smallppt's AI Summarizer can intelligently summarize text content for you, allowing you to quickly capture the key information of the article.
Whether it is a student organizing learning materials or a professional processing work documents, it can greatly improve the efficiency of information processing, making knowledge absorption and content sorting easy and efficient.
✔️ You can not only copy and paste text into the text box of AI Summarizer, but also upload file/audio/URL directly without complicated operations.
✔️ It supports multiple languages, and you can adjust the language of the output content.
✔️ Modify your instructions at any time until the AI’s summaries and paraphrased results fully satisfy you.
Now that you know what is the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing,it’s time to practice with an article. Mastering these skills will greatly benefit your writing, but they require consistent effort and practice.
You can use Smallppt’s AI assistant to guide your practice and make continuous progress in practice.
