Summarizing

A summary is a condensing of a work into a simpler and shorter version that is paraphrased into your own words. Summaries need to be paraphrased fully in order to not be plagiarism.

However, summarizing a reading for an essay is more than just creating a shorter version or putting a concept into your own words.

When you summarize, you also need to consider the argument that your own essay is presenting.

You should only summarize the information that is relevant to your argument and not simply list out all of the details of the reading.

The length of a summary depends upon the length of the essay that it is being used in. Summaries in your essays should only be a sentence or two. State all the necessary information (and no unnecessary information) as quickly and clearly as possible.

Summaries need to be introduced and explained. This means that you need to introduce the summary by describing what it is, where it is from, and who it is by before you summarize and also that you need to explain what the summary means, why the summary is relevant to your thesis/argument afterwards.

Quoting

Quoting is taking the exact words from another text and inserting them into your essay.

Quotes need to be set off with quotation marks and be properly cited in-text in order to avoid being plagiarism.

Only quote passages that are specifically relevant to your thesis. No matter how compelling an individual quote is, if it is not relevant to your thesis it does not belong in your essay.

Quotes also need to be fully introduced, explained, and integrated into your essay. Just like with a summary, this means that you need to introduce the quote by describing what it is, where it is from, and who it is by before the quote and also that you need to explain what the quote means, why it is relevant to your thesis/argument afterwards.