Examples of summarizing sources (p. 272)

As an alternative to close paraphrasing, you may wish to write a brief (three- or four-sentence) summary of a source. Again, use your own words when writing these summaries. If the material is particularly difficult, you may need to stop and summarize more frequently than after each section or chapter. If it is relatively simple to understand whether or not it's pertinent to your topic, take fewer notes and write shorter summaries. At any rate, be certain that you are internalizing what you read--the best gauge of your understanding of the material is your ability to put it into your own words in the form of paraphrases or short section-by-section summaries. Again, as with paraphrases or quotes, write down the page numbers on which the material was found. The following passages provide examples of both good and poor summaries.

Original Passage

Tyler demonstrates how the past is inextricably linked to the present and how family and community, as a natural extension of the family, are centers for the ironies of life—love and rejection, growth and entrapment, stability and conflict. Tyler resists the temptation to indict parents, particularly mothers, for the transgressions of the past and for the ultimate shaping of offspring. Maternal ambivalence is a not uncommon thread in the fabric of human experience. However, as Tyler knows, it is just one factor in the development of the individual. Family and community also exert important influences that shape, direct, and complicate human existence. Tyler portrays this process in the Tull family, and in the end she renders a contemporary and enduring message about the nature of family, one that speaks with some measure of truth about all of our lives. (Paula Gallant Eckard, “Family and Community in Anne Tyler’s Dinner at the Homesick Restauran.t” Southern Literary Journal 22.2 (Spring 1990): 33-34.)

Poor Summary

Eckard suggests that Tyler writes about how human experience is shaped by family experiences. She resists the temptation for how children turn into adults, and since everyone has a family, her novel speaks to everyone.

Note: This summary is too short and does not include much of the information in the original. Some of the information from the article is direct quotes, but there are no quotation marks, and so would be considered plagiarism. Furthermore, many of the ideas of the author have been left out, making the paraphrase incomplete. Finally, the student has neglected to acknowledge the source through a parenthetical citation.

Good Summary

Eckard asserts that while Tyler creates characters whose present lives are shaped by their past family experiences, she does not lay blame for human development on parents. Rather, she acknowledges that all families are not perfect, and that community and individuals also impact and “complicate human existence.” She also suggests that Tyler’s truthful depiction of the Tull family in her novel seems to claim truth about this universal and lasting condition of human experience and the “nature of families” (34).

Note: This summary is very complete and appropriate, it does not use the author’s own words, except briefly in two sentences, which are acknowledged by quotation marks. The student has included a parenthetical citation that indicates to the readers that the summary was taken from page 34 of Eckard’s work. The reader can find complete information on the work by turning to the Works Cited page at the end of the student’s paper.