Paraphrasing:

 

·       Go sentence by sentence

·       Restate author’s ideas in your own words

·       Use your own sentence structure; you may combine two of the author’s sentences into a single sentence

·       If you borrow language, put it in quotes! (3+ rule)

·       Do not include your thoughts

·       Give author or first word of WC and page in parentheses

 

Example:

Comarow, Avery. “Dark side of the moon landing.” 

        U.S. News and World Report. 26 August-2 September        2002: 78.

Paraphrase of paragraph 1: 

        In Avery Comarow’s article “Dark side of the moon landing,” he notes the four things that people who challenge the validity of the moon landing usually cite as reasons for their disbelief:  1) There are no stars in any of the photographs taken by the astronauts; 2) The flag is shown to be waving, but there is no air on the surface of the moon; 3) There is no evidence of a crater left by the space module, even though common sense dictates that there would have been one; and finally, 4) the lunar excursion module’s legs are depicted to be casting shadows in many directions, even though light was only coming from one direction—the sun (Comarow 78).

Summarizing:

 

·       Boil down to main idea(s)

·       State in your own words

·       Present material in the order the author did

·       Do not include your thoughts

·       Give author or first word of WC and page in parentheses

 

Comarow, Avery. “Dark side of the moon landing.” 

        U.S. News and World Report. 26 August-2 September        2002: 78.

Summary of paragraph 1: 

        In David Comarow’s article entitled “Dark side of the moon landing,” he identifies the four pieces of evidence usually cited by those who believe that the moon landing was a hoax (Comarow 78). (Reduced to the main idea)