paraphrasing reflecting summarising

The Science and Art of Reflecting, Summarising and Paraphrasing

Reflecting, summarising and paraphrasing in a coaching conversation is an important skill that a coach needs to learn. It’s not just the skill itself that is important, it can often be more about when to do it, and indeed ‘if’ to do it (the art) than what and how to do ‘it’ (the science). What I notice in early day coaches is that this skill is often overused in terms of what is reflected, summarised or paraphrased and is perhaps not always truly in service of the client, as it being used as a learned behaviour to demonstrate ‘hearing’.

In this blog I will look at all three of these coaching interventions and explore when the times are that they might be most useful for our clients. In addition, the main competency these three are found in, is CC6 Listens Actively. The definition of which is that the coach: ‘ Focuses on what the client is and is not saying to fully understand what is being communicated in the context of the client systems and to support client self-expression.’

Let’s take each in turn…

Reflecting in coaching, as the word implies, is the equivalent of holding up a mirror to the client. This allows the client to hear back what they said, and sometimes how they said it. ‘Reflecting back’, could be a whole sentence, some of the words used or even a single word.

What therefore might the purpose of reflecting? It could be simply to ensure clarity and understanding of what is being said, it could also be used as a form of challenge– again to check for understanding, rather than use a question.

For example, suppose the client says:

“My teammate and manager are fighting. I’m really angry with him”.

’ For the coach to be in their client’s frame of reference, they may need to know whether ‘him’ refers to the manager or the teammate.  The coach might simply reflect back the word  ‘ him ’  with an expression of inquiry.

The client might then respond:

“Yeah, my colleague. It puts me in an awkward position that I don’t know how to handle.”

It might also be that a coach reflects words they have heard that seem to have more of an important meaning for the client. The client may repeat a certain word a number of times or place emphasis and it may be useful to enquire, simply by restating the words as a reflection.

The coach gets clarity and remains in the client’s context and frame of reference without getting too much into, possibly irrelevant, data. The client also gets to hear what they are saying and even how they are saying it, which may give rise to a new insight.

Summarising

Summarising is the art of playing back to the client what you have specifically heard, in the clients’ words but in a shortened form.

It’s important to summarise only what you’ve heard, without interpretation, addition or judgement which is why using the client words becomes vital. At the end of a summary, it can be helpful to ask the client if you have heard them correctly. This provides the coach with clarity and the client to be sure they have said what they intended.

Summarising can be very useful when working with clients to discover and uncover what the work is that needs to be explored in the coaching session. We know clients have sometimes not yet synthesised what they want to work on and playing back in a summary can be helpful, especially when it seems there might be several pieces to look at. Having gained that clarity, it then is helpful to ask a forward-thinking question to initiate the exploration.

Summarising, using the client’s own words, may also support them to gain an insight which is why a forward-thinking question to follow can be really helpful at this point.

What I notice with newer coaches, is that they may play back a summary every time the client pauses and start with ‘what I am hearing is…”. The question that comes to me here is: ‘who is this summary in service of?’ Sometimes, summarising like this is used as a way for the coach to create a pause to think about what to ask next. With clients who are very talkative, this can just mean the client will tell even more of the story, unless a forward-thinking question follows the summary. It is not always necessary to use words like: ‘what I am hearing’. It can simply be a summary.

While summarising is a useful skill, when overused it can mean that the coach is doing the work for the client, as opposed to the client doing the work. I would offer that, as the coaching session moves nearer the action points, then it is the client who needs to provide the summaries and not the coach. This enables the coach to also understand what is important to the client and what they are taking from the session. If the coach summarises, for example the action points, it could focus on what the coach thinks the client ‘should’ do rather than hearing what the client actually is going to do or take away. (See CC 8.6 ‘partners with the client to summarise learning and insight…..)

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the art of reflecting ‘the essence’ of what is being said and is said using the coaches own words and without changing the original source or intention of the clients’ words. Paraphrasing really helps the client know that they have been truly heard.  Summarising is playing their own words back; paraphrasing is playing back what the coach believes he hears is the meaning of the client’s words in the context of the conversation. It enables the client to potentially know they have been heard and understood. When done well, it enhances empathy and trust. It doesn’t matter if the coach has drawn a different meaning, as the client may realise they haven’t conveyed their thinking sufficiently and can evoke new thoughts, additions or nuances to what they wish to share.

The science and art of Reflection, Summarising and Paraphrasing is largely found in the competency of Listens Actively (CC6).  Sub-competency 6.2 explicitly talks about ‘ Reflects or summarises what the client communicated to ensure clarity and understanding’ .  However, when you look deeper into that Core Competency, 6.3: ‘Recognises and inquires when there is more to what the client is communicating’ (using paraphrasing perhaps) and 6.5: ‘Integrates the client’s words, tone of voice and body language to determine the full meaning of what is communicated’ (summarising and reflecting perhaps) you will also see these skills reflected.

These skills can also be found in the other core competencies, and I would offer that it is a skill which, done well, really emphasises the partnership between coach and client that is so vital to support and facilitate the client’s development and growth.

A couple of question for you to reflect upon…

• Where are your strengths in the Science and Art of these important coaching skills?
• Where might you over- or under-do the skill of reflection, summary and paraphrasing?

Hilary Oliver is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF). She is also a trained Coaching Supervisor and Mentor Coach. Hilary trains coaches and works with managers and leaders to develop their coaching capability. She works as an International Corporate Executive and Board Level Coach, a leadership development designer and facilitator working with a wide range of organisations. Hilary also specialises in working with organisations to support them develop coaching culture. She has been the President of the UK ICF Chapter and is a Past Chair of the ICF Global Board.

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Summarizing, paraphrasing, and reflecting, video chapters, video transcription.

Have you ever been speaking to someone about something important, and you feel that they don't get it? That you're just not heard? They don't hear you?

So what do you do? You might repeat yourself or speak more forcefully, louder, thinking, well, maybe they'll get it if I say it again. It can be very frustrating.

Well, I'm Marlene, and today I want to talk with you about active listening-- here-- as a skill. And it's something that we can use as listeners to check in with the speaker to let them know that we are hearing them, that we do want to understand their message.

Now, there are three skills in particular that are part of active listening that I want to talk with you about. And they are summarizing, paraphrasing, and reflecting. So let's look at each of these.

Summarizing. When you summarize something, you are letting the speaker know that you get the key points. Notice I've written key points here. It's almost like a checklist. In fact, sometimes you might even want to make a checklist depending on the circumstances and the situation.

But you're letting the person know you get it. So for example, you're talking to your neighbor who's getting ready to do this renovation in the downstairs of the home. And it's an exciting time, but there's a lot to be done. And she starts to share with you some things about the project.

She says, you know, I'm just really frustrated. It's been awhile. The workers are supposed to be here last week, and they weren't so we put off getting ready, because they postponed the project. But now we have to get-- now suddenly they're coming.

So we've got to clear out all the furniture. We have to find some place to put some things in storage. Some of it we have to keep in the house. We've got to get boxes to pack up.

And, oh, we've got to find a place to board the dog for a while. I don't know, maybe my sister will do it. Otherwise, do you know the name of that kennel? I thought you said you knew somebody that ran a kennel and you liked it. Could you give me the name of the kennel please?

So there's a lot in this statement that she's telling you. So if you're going to summarize, you want your neighbor to know you heard these key points. So you might say, wow, you've got a lot to do in just the next few days here.

You've got a clear all the furniture, you've got to find a place for storage, you've got to figure out what to keep in the house. You need to check on a kennel for the dog. You'd like me to find the name of the kennel for you? I can do that. You've got to pick up boxes.

So you repeat back the things that you have heard here. That would be summarizing the list here. Now, this can be a really important skill, particularly, say, in a work situation where maybe you're on a new project and you want to make sure that you understand all the key issues in the project or all the next steps.

Now the next skill here is paraphrasing. And paraphrasing is when you paraphrase, you restate in your own words, what you heard from the speaker. So it's more of a general understanding. It's not the complete checklist.

So for example, you might say to your neighbor, wow, so you've got a lot going on. You've got to deal with the furniture, you've got to deal with the dog, and you'd like some options for where to, perhaps, board the dog. I'll be happy to help you with that.

So very generally you have let your neighbor know that you've heard the key issues here about furniture, about boarding the dog. So it's a general way of saying that you got the heart of the message, you heard what was said.

Now, there's another key skill here that's equally important in active listing, and that is to reflect back what you hear. Reflecting focuses on the emotional content of the message.

So you've got all the key points here, the issues, a general understanding of the content, but is there some emotional content that you might want to reflect back? For example, in this situation here, you might say to your neighbor, wow, it sounds like you're frustrated with the delays in the project and there's so much that you have to do in such a short time. It sounds like you're very frustrated with that.

So you're reflecting back something that you have heard in terms of the emotional content. So you typically will pick that up through tone of voice, body language, maybe some word choice. People don't always say, I am very frustrated. But you can pick that up by what you hear.

So these are three skills that you can use to reflect back to the speaker that you have heard the message. So which one do you use? Well, I think it depends on the situation, and it depends on what you're picking up verbally and nonverbally from the person who's talking.

And you might use more than one. You might paraphrase something and then step forward and reflect the emotion that you hear as well. And typically, if you feel like you have responded in one way but it wasn't quite enough, you can respond again. Use another one of these skills. The point is to be present, to show the speaker that you are wanting to understand, and that you are giving that person you're undivided attention.

Now, a response is not the same as an agreement. Response is not an agreement. So what you are doing here is letting the person know that you have heard them. Not necessarily that you agree with anything they're saying.

There might be instances where someone is very upset or very angry about a particular person or event and you want them to understand that you get how they feel, how they see this event. Doesn't mean that you necessarily agree, but you want them to know you understand where they're coming from.

So active listening, very key skill in communicating with people, particularly in conflict resolution or any time that you've got someone who's speaking to you and wants to make sure that you have heard them and understood. Thank you for joining me, and I look forward to next time.

in active listening, restating a speaker's message in the listener's own words to show understanding.

In active listening, indicating that the emotional content or purpose of a message has been heard and understood.

In active listening, repeating key points of a speaker's message to show understanding.

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Reflecting Skills

Ensuring that you understand your clients, and that your clients feel understood by you is foundational to the counseling relationship. The skills on this page are particularly useful for building the counseling relationship by helping your clients to know that you are hearing and understanding what they are saying.

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, & Reflecting

Summarizing, paraphrasing, and reflecting are probably the three most important & most commonly used microskills. These skills can be used by counselors to demonstrate their empathy to clients, make the counseling session go "deeper", & increase clients' awareness of their emotions, cognitions, & behaviors. All three methods involve repeating back, in your own words, what the client has said. Counselors often go beyond simple repetition and include their own interpretations of the client's emotions or existential meaning to increase the "depth" of the session. These techniques can often be used in place of questions, as, like questions, they prompt the client to reflect or talk more. However, these techniques often have additional benefits of questions as they also demonstrate that the counselor empathizes with and understands each client. Summaries, paraphrases, and reflections can be described as:

• Broadest of the three methods for repeating information.
• Useful at the end or beginning of session. For example, summarizing the session to the client or reorienting the client to the previous session.
• Summaries can include condensed paraphrases & reflections.
• Not as broad as a summary, yet more broad than a reflection.
• Useful for pacing counseling sessions and for demonstrating empathy to clients.
• Paraphrases can contain condensed reflections.
• There are three broad types of reflection: Reflections of content, reflections of feeling, & reflections of meaning.
• Counselors can strengthen their reflections by constructing a reflection that integrates content, process, affect, and meaning. For example, "While talking about the loss of your dog (content) I experience you as alternating between anger and sadness (affect). That makes a lot of sense to me (self-disclosure), since you told me that seeing your dog at the end of a stressful day kept you grounded (meaning)".

Types of Reflections

Counselors can reflect a wide range of information, but reflections typically include one or more of the following:

• Reflecting content involves repeating back to clients a version of what they just told you. Reflecting content shows the client you understand and are listening to them. Typically, reflecting content alone is not as powerful as reflecting content with emotions and/or meaning.
• Reflecting a client's emotions is often useful for heightening the client's awareness of and ability to label their own emotions. It is important that counselors have a wide emotional vocabulary, so they can tailor their word choice to match a level of emotional intensity that is congruent with a client's experience. Feeling word charts are useful for reviewing a wide range of feeling words.
• As existential theorists observe, humans are meaning making creatures. Reflecting a client's meaning can increase the client's self-awareness while encouraging emotional depth in the session.

Emotional Heightening

Counselors can intentionally use language to increase or decrease the emotional intensity of their reflections, thereby altering a client's emotional arousal. Using evocative language and metaphors (e.g., "walking on eggshells") encourages clients to go deeper into a particular experience or emotion, which can heighten awareness and understanding. Conversely, a counselor might support a client in containing their emotions toward the end of the session, so the client is prepared to leave the session.

It is important that counselors attempt to match their reflections to the emotional intensity of the client's experience. Thus, intentionality is important when counselors reflect more or less emotion than the client expresses, as doing so can result in the client feeling misunderstood and not listened to.

An example of emotional heightening is:

• Client: "My wife and I can't stop fighting with each other, and things are really escalating."
• Counselor: "Your fights are becoming more explosive and hostile."

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1.9: Summarizing and Paraphrasing

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Learning Objectives

• Summarize a passage of reading
• Paraphrase a passage of reading

Have you ever heard, “the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else”?

Writing a summary of a source is a very similar process to teaching someone the content—but in this case, the student you’re teaching is yourself.

Summarizing , or condensing someone else’s ideas and putting it into your own shortened form, allows you to be sure that you’ve accurately captured the main idea of the text you’re reading. When reading, summarizing is helpful for checking your understanding of a longer text and remembering the author’s main ideas. When writing, summarizing is critical when reviewing, writing an abstract, preparing notes for a study guide, creating an annotated bibliography, answering essay questions, recording results of an experiment, describing the plot of a fictional work or film, or writing a research paper.

How to Write Summary Statements

Use these processes to help you write summary statements:

• Underline important information and write keywords in the margin.
• Record ideas using a two-column note-taking system. Record questions you have about the text concepts in the left column and answers you find in the reading in the right column.
• Identify how concepts relate to what you already know.
• Add examples and details

For retaining key ideas as you read, write a summary statement at the end of each paragraph or section. For capturing the major ideas of the entire work, write a summary paragraph (or more) that describes the entire text.

Tips for Summary

For longer, overall summary projects that capture an entire reading, consider these guidelines for writing a summary:

• A summary should contain the main thesis or standpoint of the text, restated in your own words. (To do this, first find the thesis statement in the original text.)
• A summary is written in your own words. It contains few or no quotes.
• A summary is always shorter than the original text, often about 1/3 as long as the original. It is the ultimate fat-free writing. An article or paper may be summarized in a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs. A book may be summarized in an article or a short paper. A very large book may be summarized in a smaller book.
• A summary should contain all the major points of the original text , and should ignore most of the fine details, examples, illustrations or explanations.
• The backbone of any summary is formed by crucial details (key names, dates, events, words and numbers). A summary must never rely on vague generalities.
• If you quote anything from the original text, even an unusual word or a catchy phrase, you need to put whatever you quote in quotation marks (” “).
• A summary must contain only the ideas of the original text. Do not insert any of your own opinions, interpretations, deductions or comments into a summary.

Watch this video to see a walk-through explanation on how to summarize.

You can view the transcript for “Summarizing” here (opens in new window).

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/20213

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the act of putting an author’s ideas into your own words. When reading, paraphrasing is helpful for checking your understanding of what you read as well as remembering what you read. When writing, paraphrasing is an important skill to have when constructing a research paper and incorporating the ideas of others alongside your own.

Click to view the transcript for “Paraphrasing” here (opens in new window) .

https://assessments.lumenlearning.co...essments/20214

paraphrasing : rewriting a passage of text in your own words

summarizing : condensing someone else’s ideas and putting it into your own shortened form

Contributors and Attributions

• Modification, adaptation, and original content. Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
• PQRST Script. Provided by : Lethbridge College. Located at : www.lethbridgecollege.net/elearningcafe/index.php/pqrst-script. Project : eLearning Cafe. License : CC BY: Attribution
• Summarizing. Provided by : Excelsior College. Located at : https://owl.excelsior.edu/orc/what-to-do-after-reading/summarizing/ . License : CC BY: Attribution
• Why Use Quotes?. Authored by : The News Manual. Provided by : Media Helping Media. Located at : www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/journalism-basics/659-how-to-use-quotes-in-news-stories-and-features. License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• How to Write an A-plus Summary of a Text. Authored by : Owen M. Williamson. Provided by : The University of Texas at El Paso. Located at : http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/engl0310/summaryhints.htm . License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

• An Introduction to Paraphrasing, Summarizing, and Quoting

by jleemcga | Sep 6, 2023 | Resources for Students , Writing Resources

Whenever we’re assigned an essay or writing project that asks us to reference others’ ideas, it can be difficult to determine when to use our own words, the author’s words, or an overview of the text instead. These are all ways of integrating external source material into our own writing. It is important to feel comfortable paraphrasing, summarizing, and directly quoting within our writing in order to effectively and meaningfully reference our research and enhance our own credibility as writers.

Why Should I Paraphrase, Summarize, and Quote in My Writing?

The purpose for referencing external source material is to strengthen the evidence and reasoning within our own writing. If we’re writing an essay, reflection, discussion board post, or any written assignment that responds to other texts or a course topic, it is important that we know how to integrate credible and relevant information from other authors and sources on the same topic.

Doing so allows us to enter the scholarly conversation, which consists of the existing publications, discussions, and work surrounding a particular topic within a discipline. Think of it as pulling your chair up to the table where others are already seated and having a conversation; there is a topic laid out on the table, and several folks are already offering their perspectives and thoughts on the topic. You pull up your chair, listen to what others have to say first to help inform your own understanding of the topic (even though you may have an opinion already!), and then thoughtfully and carefully offer up your own point of view on the same topic for others to listen to. Just like with any conversation, we listen and respond to what others have to say before us in order to show respect, understanding, and objectivity. This is where paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting directly comes in handy— we can reference what others have said before us and respond. Being able to reference other source material allows us to:

• Provide credible support for our ideas
• Give a variety of examples and different perspectives on our topic
• Emphasize significant and interesting ideas from our research
• Acknowledge the ongoing scholarly conversation surrounding our topic

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Referencing and Plagiarism: Paraphrasing, summarising and quoting

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Paraphrasing and summarising

Summarising.

When you summarise, you are working from the notes you have taken from various sources during the reading and research you have done for your assignment. This means that in a summary you select the most important information from a text (book, journal article, website etc.) and bring it together to ‘fit’ into your writing. This is the information you have found which is significant for your discussion. Presenting this in your assignment shows your understanding of the source texts and demonstrates that you can select and deselect information as appropriate. It allows you to show interpretation of literature, and also to combine various sources into one paragraph.

Paraphrasing

When you paraphrase, you are working more closely with the original text; you want to use something specific from the text, but to put it into your own words; you want to help it ‘fit’ into your text and you want to avoid direct quotation. Although paraphrase is not as common as summary in academic writing, it is still used frequently and is better than using a direct quotation. Various techniques can help you paraphrase effectively and you need to use a combination of techniques in your writing; one technique is never enough as it will lead to patchwork paraphrase where your writing is too close to the original text.

Some techniques to use when paraphrasing:

Look at the examples below. The first paraphrase is too close to the original whereas the second paraphrase employs all of the techniques above; thus, it becomes the student’s own presentation of the idea while still being attributed to the original source. When paraphrasing, using author prominent citation (as in paraphrase 2 below) helps move away from the original wording.

You should use quotations sparingly, for example when you want to include definitions or strong statements. They should be as short (less than two lines or about 40 words in length) and relevant as possible.

Short quotations (fewer than 40 words)

Short quotations should provide the page number (using p. for ‘page’ or pp. for ‘pages’) and should not use italics or bold text.

Where the reference is after the quotation, as in the second and third examples below, the full stop comes after the parentheses (brackets) rather than the end of the actual quotation.

Quotations should match the grammar of the sentences they are placed within so that the overall sentence makes sense.

Pay attention to the examples below and the locations of the full stops:

Long quotations (40+ words)

Where the reference comes before the quotation (as in a)), the full stop comes before the closing quotation mark. Where the reference is after the quotation (as in b) and c)), the full stop comes after the bracket rather than at the end of the quotation.

Try to avoid such long quotations if possible. If you do need to include a longer quotation (over two lines in length) it should be indented in a separate paragraph as a block quote.

Unfinished quotations

Sometimes, to shorten the length of a quote and remove unnecessary or irrelevant information, you might want to leave out some words, lines or paragraphs from a direct quotation. When doing this you need to be careful not to distort the message being communicated by the author. You indicate you have omitted some of the quote, use an ellipsis (three dots: …).

Note: You do not need the ellipsis points at the start of the quotation if it is embedded within your own sentence.

Note: Cite Them Right advises that you can use single (' ') or double (" ") quotation marks, and to be consistent throughout your assignment. However, the Turnitin Similarity Checker will not disregard single quotation marks so quotations using single quotation marks may be flagged as plagiarism. The punctuation choice won't be a problem when your work is read and assessed by a human being, so don't panic, but please be aware that this may be flagged on the similarity score.

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Paraphrasing and summarising

Writing at university involves integrating ideas from other authors into your own writing.

Paraphrasing and summarising allows you to acknowledge these authors by expressing the information in your own words. Effective paraphrasing also demonstrates your understanding of the information.

How to paraphrase

To paraphrase, you need to:

• change the structure of the sentence
• change the words in the sentence

Changing the structure of a sentence

• Read the original text a number of times and make sure you understand the main ideas.
• Write down the main ideas from memory.
• Check what you have written against the original text – make sure you have retained the original ideas and that your version is different.

Changing the words

It can be easy to spot when someone has copied directly from a textbook. We all have different styles of writing and yours will be different to the authors you are reading.

• Once you understand the main ideas of the original text look for specialised words – these words may be retained in the paraphrased version, as they are key to the meaning of the sentence.
• Look for words or phrases that can be changed.
• Use a thesaurus or dictionary to find substitutes.

Paraphrase Rephrasing or restating information from another source in your own words without changing the meaning. Maybe shorter than the original passage.

Summary A summary includes only the main ideas of someone else’s writing, restated in your own words. Much shorter than the original text.

Always acknowledge the original author when using a paraphrase or summary.

For more information see  Citing APA style. 

See examples of paraphrasing and summarising below:

Original text

In recent years a body of research has revealed another, more nuanced benefit of workplace diversity: nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter. Working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance.

(from – Rock, D. & Grant, H. (2016). Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review

A bad paraphrase

In the last few years, a collection of research has shown another, more nuanced advantage of workplace diversity: diverse teams are simply better . Working with people who are unlike you may encourage your brain to lose its old ways of thinking and improve its performance.

Note this paraphrase has only replaced some words with synonyms and has kept the structure almost identical to the original sentence.

A good paraphrase

Recent research has revealed that working in diverse teams can stimulate your creativity and efficiency, advocating the benefits of workplace diversity (Rock & Grant, 2016).

Note: This paraphrase shows a change in sentence structure and words

Striving to increase workplace diversity is not an empty slogan — it is a good business decision. A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean.

In a global analysis of 2,400 companies conducted by Credit Suisse, organizations with at least one female board member yielded higher return on equity and higher net income growth than those that did not have any women on the board.

In recent years a body of research has revealed another, more nuanced benefit of workplace diversity: nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter. Working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance. Let’s dig into why diverse teams are smarter.

The benefits of workplace diversity has been illustrated in recent studies like the McKinsey report and the Credit Suisse analysis. These studies indicate that diversity in management resulted in higher profits for companies (Rock & Grant, 2016).

Word thesaurus

You are probably already familiar with spellchecker and grammar checker in Microsoft Word. Another beneficial tool is the thesaurus, which can aid your writing to find the best word to meet your needs.

Using the thesaurus, you can look up synonyms (different words with the same meaning) and antonyms (words with the opposite meaning).

The following screencast demonstrates how to use the thesaurus function in Word.

Paraphrasing techniques

Steps to effective paraphrasing and summarising:

• Read your text/paragraph and ensure that you understand it.
• Write down your ideas without looking at the original.
• Use synonyms or change the word order of your sentence.
• Compare with the original to see whether you are conveying the same meaning.
• Record the source details so you can easily cite it later.

3 key techniques for paraphrasing

Change vocabulary by using synonyms

• asserts – claims, argues, maintains
• twentieth century – 1900s
• illustrates – explains, emphasises, clarifies

Change word class

• analyse – analysis, analysing
• create – creating, creation
• assume – assumption, assuming, assumed

Change the sentence structure

• …the best explanation for the British location of the industrial revolution is found by studying demand factors.
• A focus on demand may help explain the UK origin of the industrial revolution.

Additional resources

The University of Auckland provides further resources on paraphrasing and summarising as part of the online learning module  Referen©ite.

Further paraphrasing tips from Queensland University of Technology.

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Summarizing and Reflecting on a Text

Once you have finished reading and annotating the text—and responding to it either in your annotations or in a separate writing—it’s a good idea to put that text into the context of the course and your learning. Doing work like this helps cement the ideas in our memory.

When you take the time to summarize, you are gathering up what you know about the author’s main point and putting it into words. Elsewhere in this textbook, I have more guidance for writing summaries , but even if you aren’t being asked to write a formal summary, taking the time to answer key questions about the text will help you use the text more effectively later.

Read back through your annotations and notes, and jot down answers to questions like the following:

• What is the author’s main point?
• What are the supporting points that lead to that main point?
• What evidence does the author provide to support those points?
• What examples does the author use, and how well do those examples explain and clarify the point?

I’m not going to write a full-blown summary here so that you have the opportunity to write your own if your instructor has decided to assign this. However, here are my answers to the questions:

• Main point: Mitchell argues that we need to choose between “segregated coexistence,” where people of different races and ethnicities live in enclaves but mostly stay separated from one another, and “living in community,” which he calls integration. He favors the latter.
• Supporting points: Mitchell explains that we have been living in segregated coexistence for a long time and argues that this status feeds inequity and racism in our society. He claims that living in community is difficult to achieve and that we can only do this if we decide that we don’t want to live in conflict any more.
• He uses statistical demographic data from the Othering and Belonging Institute to support his claim that we currently live in enclaves.
• He uses Eric Yamamoto’s description of the process of interracial justice that leans to racial reconciliation. Eric Yamamoto is a professor of law and social justice at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. He’s internationally known as an expert on racial justice.
• He gives Detroit and Baton Rouge as examples of cities that appear to be demographically diverse but that are really made up of enclaves.
• He gives the example of “equitable funding for schools” as something that the government must do if we are going to be able to live in community.

Again, using the article you have chosen to work with, answer the questions that are listed earlier to help you summarize the main point and understand how the supporting points, evidence, and examples work in that article.

Reflect on Your Purpose

In your notes from when you were focusing your reading, you should have information about why you were assigned this text in the first place. Take a moment and review those notes. Then think about how this text can be used in light of that focus.

You might find it helpful to jot down answers to questions like the following:

• Given what I know now, why was I asked to read this text?
• What parts of the text will be most useful for the purposes I’ve identified? Make sure to note specific passages where appropriate.
• How does this text fit in with other texts that we’re reading in this course or that I’m reading for this assignment?

When I go back to the assignment , I see that I am being asked to think about Mitchell’s terms and apply those to one of the readings from the list in the assignment. The assignment lists three terms, so I need to make sure I understand the following:

• “Segregated coexistence”
• “Living in community”
• “Quality of diversity”

If I’m going to use this text successfully, I must make sure I understand what Mitchell means by these terms—not just what I think they mean. In my annotations, I have already marked some passages that deal with these terms, but it would be helpful for me to write my own paraphrases of them.

As for why I was asked to write about Mitchell, this assignment is a kind of analysis in which the professor wants me not only to understand terminology from a text, but also to apply those terms in a context where they are not necessarily used.

Some of my reflection will depend on what else has been going on in the class. Here are some examples:

• If we’ve covered quotations and paraphrases , then the professor is probably expecting me to use those well.
• If we’ve covered paragraph development , then the professor is probably expecting me to make sure I am using enough evidence and enough explanation to make my point clear.
• If we’ve covered thesis statements , then the professor is probably expecting me to develop a clear thesis that makes an arguable claim and that provides the reader with some idea of the reasoning behind that claim.

One way to reflect on what I should be focusing on would be to review the syllabus and my notes up to that point.

Notice that this part of my reflection isn’t about Mitchell’s text. This is a writing class after all, so a good part of the purpose of the assignment would be to practice skills relevant to writing in college.

Again, using the article you have chosen to work with , answer the questions that are listed earlier to help you link the article to the purpose you were given for reading the article. Focus not only on the assignment, but also look over the syllabus to think about what you have been working on in class.

Reflect on Your Learning

Many of the texts we read hold meaning for us in ways we don’t expect and that aren’t necessarily related to our coursework and projects.

Explore this possibility through questions such as the following:

• What did you learn from this text or from the experience of reading this text?
• What surprised you about this text?
• What would you like to learn more about?

Reading Mitchell’s article taught me a number of things:

I hadn’t really thought about diversity in something other than demographic terms before. The possibility of “living in community” is intriguing to me, and I am thinking about what I can do to foster that kind of integration in my teaching, in the university, and in my work in the community. For example, as I am writing this textbook, I am thinking about assignments and activities that would help all of my students feel represented in what they read here. Specifically, I am considering having students add images and examples to this text that speak to them.

I already knew that I was pragmatic, but Mitchell helped me solidify my desire to understand concrete changes and actions that I can take. My resentment at the vagueness of how we get to “living in community” makes me want to talk to people who do this kind of work to get better ideas. I would like to learn more about how I can support this kind of change.

Using the article you have chosen to work with , answer the questions that are listed earlier to help you think about what you have learned both from the content of the article and your experience reading the text.

• To make sure that you understand what you are reading, be sure to summarize the text, focusing on the main point, but also including some of the details.
• Go back to the notes you have on the purpose for reading the text to make sure that you are able to address that purpose as fully as possible.
• Take a moment to reflect on your learning, including your experiences with the text. This can help you generate ideas and remember the text better when you need to.

Text Attribution

This chapter contains material taken from the chapter “Reflect” from The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear and is used under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

A rewording of someone else's ideas so that the ideas are accurately represented, but the language and sentence structure are different.

Reading and Writing Successfully in College: A Guide for Students Copyright © 2023 by Patricia Lynne is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Article • 12 min read

How to Paraphrase and Summarize Work

Summing up key ideas in your own words.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Imagine you're preparing a presentation for your CEO. You asked everyone in your team to contribute, and they all had plenty to say!

But now you have a dozen reports, all in different styles, and your CEO says that she can spare only 10 minutes to read the final version. What do you do?

The solution is to paraphrase and summarize the reports, so your boss gets only the key information that she needs, in a form that she can process quickly.

In this article, we explain how to paraphrase and how to summarize, and how to apply these techniques to text and the spoken word. We also explore the differences between the two skills, and point out the pitfalls to avoid.

What Is Paraphrasing?

When you paraphrase, you use your own words to express something that was written or said by another person.

Putting it into your own words can clarify the message, make it more relevant to your audience , or give it greater impact.

You might use paraphrased material to support your own argument or viewpoint. Or, if you're putting together a report , presentation or speech , you can use paraphrasing to maintain a consistent style, and to avoid lengthy quotations from the original text or conversation.

Paraphrased material should keep its original meaning and (approximate) length, but you can use it to pick out a single point from a longer discussion.

What Is Summarizing?

In contrast, a summary is a brief overview of an entire discussion or argument. You might summarize a whole research paper or conversation in a single paragraph, for example, or with a series of bullet points, using your own words and style.

People often summarize when the original material is long, or to emphasize key facts or points. Summaries leave out detail or examples that may distract the reader from the most important information, and they simplify complex arguments, grammar and vocabulary.

Used correctly, summarizing and paraphrasing can save time, increase understanding, and give authority and credibility to your work. Both tools are useful when the precise wording of the original communication is less important than its overall meaning.

How to Paraphrase Text

To paraphrase text, follow these four steps:

1. Read and Make Notes

Carefully read the text that you want to paraphrase. Highlight, underline or note down important terms and phrases that you need to remember.

2. Find Different Terms

Find equivalent words or phrases (synonyms) to use in place of the ones that you've picked out. A dictionary, thesaurus or online search can be useful here, but take care to preserve the meaning of the original text, particularly if you're dealing with technical or scientific terms.

3. Put the Text into Your Own Words

Rewrite the original text, line by line. Simplify the grammar and vocabulary, adjust the order of the words and sentences, and replace "passive" expressions with "active" ones (for example, you could change "The new supplier was contacted by Nusrat" to "Nusrat contacted the new supplier").

Remove complex clauses, and break longer sentences into shorter ones. All of this will make your new version easier to understand .

4. Check Your Work

Check your work by comparing it to the original. Your paraphrase should be clear and simple, and written in your own words. It may be shorter, but it should include all of the necessary detail.

Paraphrasing: an Example

Despite the undoubted fact that everyone's vision of what constitutes success is different, one should spend one's time establishing and finalizing one's personal vision of it. Otherwise, how can you possibly understand what your final destination might be, or whether or not your decisions are assisting you in moving in the direction of the goals which you've set yourself?

The two kinds of statement – mission and vision – can be invaluable to your approach, aiding you, as they do, in focusing on your primary goal, and quickly identifying possibilities that you might wish to exploit and explore.

We all have different ideas about success. What's important is that you spend time defining your version of success. That way, you'll understand what you should be working toward. You'll also know if your decisions are helping you to move toward your goals.

Used as part of your personal approach to goal-setting, mission and vision statements are useful for bringing sharp focus to your most important goal, and for helping you to quickly identify which opportunities you should pursue.

How to Paraphrase Speech

In a conversation – a meeting or coaching session, for example – paraphrasing is a good way to make sure that you have correctly understood what the other person has said.

This requires two additional skills: active listening and asking the right questions .

Useful questions include:

• If I hear you correctly, you're saying that…?
• So you mean that…? Is that right?
• Did I understand you when you said that…?

You can use questions like these to repeat the speaker's words back to them. For instance, if the person says, "We just don't have the funds available for these projects," you could reply: "If I understand you correctly, you're saying that our organization can't afford to pay for my team's projects?"

This may seem repetitive, but it gives the speaker the opportunity to highlight any misunderstandings, or to clarify their position.

When you're paraphrasing conversations in this way, take care not to introduce new ideas or information, and not to make judgments on what the other person has said, or to "spin" their words toward what you want to hear. Instead, simply restate their position as you understand it.

Sometimes, you may need to paraphrase a speech or a presentation. Perhaps you want to report back to your team, or write about it in a company blog, for example.

In these cases it's a good idea to make summary notes as you listen, and to work them up into a paraphrase later. (See How to Summarize Text or Speech, below.)

How to Summarize Text or Speech

Follow steps 1-5 below to summarize text. To summarize spoken material – a speech, a meeting, or a presentation, for example – start at step three.

1. Get a General Idea of the Original

First, speed read the text that you're summarizing to get a general impression of its content. Pay particular attention to the title, introduction, conclusion, and the headings and subheadings.

2. Check Your Understanding

Build your comprehension of the text by reading it again more carefully. Check that your initial interpretation of the content was correct.

3. Make Notes

Take notes on what you're reading or listening to. Use bullet points, and introduce each bullet with a key word or idea. Write down only one point or idea for each bullet.

If you're summarizing spoken material, you may not have much time on each point before the speaker moves on. If you can, obtain a meeting agenda, a copy of the presentation, or a transcript of the speech in advance, so you know what's coming.

Make sure your notes are concise, well-ordered, and include only the points that really matter.

The Cornell Note-Taking System is an effective way to organize your notes as you write them, so that you can easily identify key points and actions later. Our article, Writing Meeting Notes , also contains plenty of useful advice.

4. Write Your Summary

Bullet points or numbered lists are often an acceptable format for summaries – for example, on presentation slides, in the minutes of a meeting, or in Key Points sections like the one at the end of this article.

However, don't just use the bulleted notes that you took in step 3. They'll likely need editing or "polishing" if you want other people to understand them.

Some summaries, such as research paper abstracts, press releases, and marketing copy, require continuous prose. If this is the case, write your summary as a paragraph, turning each bullet point into a full sentence.

Aim to use only your own notes, and refer to original documents or recordings only if you really need to. This helps to ensure that you use your own words.

If you're summarizing speech, do so as soon as possible after the event, while it's still fresh in your mind.

5. Check Your Work

Your summary should be a brief but informative outline of the original. Check that you've expressed all of the most important points in your own words, and that you've left out any unnecessary detail.

Summarizing: an Example

So how do you go about identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them? SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you to do this.

What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you to uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt your ability to move forward in your role.

If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself from your peers, and further develop the specialized talents and abilities that you need in order to advance your career and to help you achieve your personal goals.

SWOT Analysis is a technique that helps you identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Understanding and managing these factors helps you to develop the abilities you need to achieve your goals and progress in your career.

Permission and Citations

If you intend to publish or circulate your document, it's important to seek permission from the copyright holder of the material that you've paraphrased or summarized. Failure to do so can leave you open to allegations of plagiarism, or even legal action.

It's good practice to cite your sources with a footnote, or with a reference in the text to a list of sources at the end of your document. There are several standard citation styles – choose one and apply it consistently, or follow your organization's house style guidelines.

As well as acknowledging the original author, citations tell you, the reader, that you're reading paraphrased or summarized material. This enables you to check the original source if you think that someone else's words may have been misused or misinterpreted.

Some writers might use others' ideas to prop up their own, but include only what suits them, for instance. Others may have misunderstood the original arguments, or "twisted" them by adding their own material.

If you're wary, or you find problems with the work, you may prefer to seek more reliable sources of information. (See our article, How to Spot Real and Fake News , for more on this.)

Paraphrasing means rephrasing text or speech in your own words, without changing its meaning. Summarizing means cutting it down to its bare essentials. You can use both techniques to clarify and simplify complex information or ideas.

To paraphrase text:

• Read and make notes.
• Find different terms.
• Put the text into your own words.
• Check your work.

You can also use paraphrasing in a meeting or conversation, by listening carefully to what's being said and repeating it back to the speaker to check that you have understood it correctly.

To summarize text or speech:

• Get a general idea of the original.
• Check your understanding.
• Make notes.
• Write your summary.

Seek permission for any copyrighted material that you use, and cite it appropriately.

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Encouragers, Paraphrasing and Summarising

A counsellor can encourage a client to continue to talk, open up more freely and explore issues in greater depth by providing accurate responses through encouraging, paraphrasing and summarising. Responding in this way informs the client that the counsellor has accurately heard what they have been saying. Encouragers, paraphrases and summaries are basic to helping a client feel understood.

Encouragers, also known as intentional listening , involve fully attending to the client, thus allowing them to explore their feelings and thoughts more completely. Paraphrasing and summarising are more active ways of communicating to the client that they have been listened to. Summarising is particularly useful to help clients organise their thinking.

The diagram below shows how encouragers, paraphrases and summaries are on different points of a continuum, each building on more of the information provided by the client to accurately assess issues and events.

Encouragers – Encouragers are a variety of verbal and non-verbal ways of prompting clients to continue talking.

Types of encouragers include:

• Non-verbal minimal responses such as a nod of the head or positive facial expressions
• Verbal minimal responses such as “Uh-huh” and “I hear what you’re saying”
• Brief invitations to continue such as “Tell me more”

Encouragers simply encourage the client to keep talking. For a counsellor to have more influence on the direction of client progress they would need to make use of other techniques.

Paraphrases – To paraphrase, the counsellor chooses the most important details of what the client has just said and reflects them back to the client. Paraphrases can be just a few words or one or two brief sentences.

Paraphrasing is not a matter of simply repeating or parroting what the client has stated. Rather it is capturing the essence of what the client is saying, through rephrasing. When the counsellor has captured what the client is saying, often the client will say, “That’s right” or offer some other form of confirmation.

Example: I have just broken up with Jason. The way he was treating me was just too much to bear. Every time I tried to touch on the subject with him he would just clam up. I feel so much better now. Paraphrase: You feel much better after breaking up with Jason.

Summaries – Summaries are brief statements of longer excerpts from the counselling session. In summarising, the counsellor attends to verbal and non-verbal comments from the client over a period of time, and then pulls together key parts of the extended communication, restating them for the client as accurately as possible.

A check-out, phrased at the end of the summary, is an important component of the statement, enabling a check of the accuracy of the counsellor’s response. Summaries are similar to paraphrasing, except they are used less frequently and encompass more information.

• July 21, 2009
• Communication , Counselling Process , Encouraging , Microskills , Paraphrasing
• Counselling Theory & Process

Comments: 23

Yeah,must say i like the simple way these basic counselling skills are explained in this article. More of same would be most welcome as it helps give a better understanding of the counselling process and the methods and techniques used within the counselling arena

I really find this information helpful as a refresher in my studies and work. Please keep up the excellent work of ‘educating’ us on being a better counsellor. Thank you!

Wonderfully helpful posting. Many thanks!

Thankyou so much. I am doing a assignment at uni about scitzophrenia and needed to clarify what paraphrasing truly meant. Cheers

So helpful to me as a counselor.

Thankx so much for these post. I’m doing Counselling and Community Services and I need to clarify what summarising and paraphrasing really meant. Once again thank you, this information it’s really helpful

Hello Antoinette friend and doing guidance and counselling need uo help about this question With relevent examples explain the following concepts as used in communicating to clients. (I;listening to verbal messages and using encouraged minimal prompts. 2)making use of non verbal communication and exhibiting attending behaviours using Gerald Eganis macro skill SOLER/ROLES. 3.paraphrasing 4.identifying and reflecting feelings and emotions from the clients story 5.summarizing 6.confrotation 7.counsellor self disclosure 8.asking open and close open ended concept 9.answering questions 10.clarifying

thanks I am doing a counselling community services at careers Australia

Really love the explanations given to the active listening techniques it was really useful and helpful good work done.

Helpful. Thanks!

I really like hw u explain everything in to simple terms for my understanding.

Hai ,thanks for being here .Am a student social worker,i need help an an able to listen to get the implied massages from the client.and to bring questions to explore with them .I love to do this work .What shall I do.how do i train my self in listening.

really appreciate.

You explanation of these three basic intentional listening are very helpful. Thank you for remained us.

very helpful indeed in making the client more open and exploring the issues more deeply

Very important cues.thanks

the article was helpful .thank you for explaining it in more clear and simple words.appreciate it alot .

I need to write about what counselling words mean ie I understand summarising and paraphrasing any more would be useful as I’m near the end of my course

I have a role play exam tomorrow on counselling and find above explanation very useful. thanks for sharing.

This explanation is clear and precise. Very easy to understanding than the expensive textbook. Please keep posting as this helps a lot. Thanks and God bless.

Pingback: Summarising In Counseling (a Comprehensive Overview) | OptimistMinds

One of the simple and memorable descriptions of this I’ve read, thanks so much!

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Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Summing up key ideas in your own words.

© GettyImages Foxys_forest_manufacture

Make complex information easier to digest!

Imagine you're preparing a presentation for your CEO. You asked everyone in your team to contribute, and they all had plenty to say!

But now you have a dozen reports, all in different styles, and your CEO says that she can spare only 10 minutes to read the final version. What do you do?

The solution is to paraphrase and summarize the reports, so your boss gets only the key information that she needs, in a form that she can process quickly.

In this article, we explain how to paraphrase and how to summarize, and how to apply these techniques to text and the spoken word. We also explore the differences between the two skills, and point out the pitfalls to avoid.

What Is Paraphrasing?

When you paraphrase, you use your own words to express something that was written or said by another person.

Putting it into your own words can clarify the message, make it more relevant to your audience   , or give it greater impact.

You might use paraphrased material to support your own argument or viewpoint. Or, if you're putting together a report   , presentation   or speech   , you can use paraphrasing to maintain a consistent style, and to avoid lengthy quotations from the original text or conversation.

Paraphrased material should keep its original meaning and (approximate) length, but you can use it to pick out a single point from a longer discussion.

What Is Summarizing?

In contrast, a summary is a brief overview of an entire discussion or argument. You might summarize a whole research paper or conversation in a single paragraph, for example, or with a series of bullet points, using your own words and style.

People often summarize when the original material is long, or to emphasize key facts or points. Summaries leave out detail or examples that may distract the reader from the most important information, and they simplify complex arguments, grammar and vocabulary.

Used correctly, summarizing and paraphrasing can save time, increase understanding, and give authority and credibility to your work. Both tools are useful when the precise wording of the original communication is less important than its overall meaning.

How to Paraphrase Text

To paraphrase text, follow these four steps:

1. Read and Make Notes

Carefully read the text that you want to paraphrase. Highlight, underline or note down important terms and phrases that you need to remember.

2. Find Different Terms

Find equivalent words or phrases (synonyms) to use in place of the ones that you've picked out. A dictionary, thesaurus or online search can be useful here, but take care to preserve the meaning of the original text, particularly if you're dealing with technical or scientific terms.

3. Put the Text into Your Own Words

Rewrite the original text, line by line. Simplify   the grammar and vocabulary, adjust the order of the words and sentences, and replace "passive" expressions with "active" ones (for example, you could change "The new supplier was contacted by Nusrat" to "Nusrat contacted the new supplier").

Remove complex clauses, and break longer sentences into shorter ones. All of this will make your new version easier to understand   .

4. Check Your Work

Check your work by comparing it to the original. Your paraphrase should be clear and simple, and written in your own words. It may be shorter, but it should include all of the necessary detail.

Paraphrasing: an Example

Despite the undoubted fact that everyone's vision of what constitutes success is different, one should spend one's time establishing and finalizing one's personal vision of it. Otherwise, how can you possibly understand what your final destination might be, or whether or not your decisions are assisting you in moving in the direction of the goals which you've set yourself?

The two kinds of statement – mission and vision – can be invaluable to your approach, aiding you, as they do, in focusing on your primary goal, and quickly identifying possibilities that you might wish to exploit and explore.

We all have different ideas about success. What's important is that you spend time defining your version of success. That way, you'll understand what you should be working toward. You'll also know if your decisions are helping you to move toward your goals.

Used as part of your personal approach to goal-setting, mission and vision statements are useful for bringing sharp focus to your most important goal, and for helping you to quickly identify which opportunities you should pursue.

How to Paraphrase Speech

In a conversation – a meeting or coaching session, for example – paraphrasing is a good way to make sure that you have correctly understood what the other person has said.

This requires two additional skills: active listening   and asking the right questions   .

Useful questions include:

• If I hear you correctly, you're saying that…?
• So you mean that…? Is that right?
• Did I understand you when you said that…?

You can use questions like these to repeat the speaker's words back to them. For instance, if the person says, "We just don't have the funds available for these projects," you could reply: "If I understand you correctly, you're saying that our organization can't afford to pay for my team's projects?"

This may seem repetitive, but it gives the speaker the opportunity to highlight any misunderstandings, or to clarify their position.

When you're paraphrasing conversations in this way, take care not to introduce new ideas or information, and not to make judgements on what the other person has said, or to "spin" their words toward what you want to hear. Instead, simply restate their position as you understand it.

Sometimes, you may need to paraphrase a speech or a presentation. Perhaps you want to report back to your team, or write about it in a company blog, for example.

In these cases it's a good idea to make summary notes as you listen, and to work them up into a paraphrase later. (See How to Summarize Text or Speech, below.)

How to Summarize Text or Speech

Follow steps 1-5 below to summarize text. To summarize spoken material – a speech, a meeting, or a presentation, for example – start at step 3.

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1. Get a General Idea of the Original

First, speed read   the text that you're summarizing to get a general impression of its content. Pay particular attention to the title, introduction, conclusion, and the headings and subheadings.

2. Check Your Understanding

Build your comprehension of the text by reading it again more carefully. Check that your initial interpretation of the content was correct.

3. Make Notes

Take notes on what you're reading or listening to. Use bullet points, and introduce each bullet with a key word or idea. Write down only one point or idea for each bullet.

If you're summarizing spoken material, you may not have much time on each point before the speaker moves on. If you can, obtain a meeting agenda, a copy of the presentation, or a transcript of the speech in advance, so you know what's coming.

Make sure your notes are concise, well-ordered, and include only the points that really matter.

The Cornell Note-Taking System   is an effective way to organize your notes as you write them, so that you can easily identify key points and actions later. Our article, Writing Meeting Notes   , also contains plenty of useful advice.

4. Write Your Summary

Bullet points or numbered lists are often an acceptable format for summaries – for example, on presentation slides, in the minutes of a meeting, or in Key Points sections like the one at the end of this article.

However, don't just use the bulleted notes that you took in step 3. They'll likely need editing or "polishing" if you want other people to understand them.

Some summaries, such as research paper abstracts, press releases, and marketing copy, require continuous prose. If this is the case, write your summary as a paragraph, turning each bullet point into a full sentence.

Aim to use only your own notes, and refer to original documents or recordings only if you really need to. This helps to ensure that you use your own words.

If you're summarizing speech, do so as soon as possible after the event, while it's still fresh in your mind.

5. Check Your Work

Your summary should be a brief but informative outline of the original. Check that you've expressed all of the most important points in your own words, and that you've left out any unnecessary detail.

Summarizing: an Example

So how do you go about identifying your strengths and weaknesses, and analyzing the opportunities and threats that flow from them? SWOT Analysis is a useful technique that helps you to do this.

What makes SWOT especially powerful is that, with a little thought, it can help you to uncover opportunities that you would not otherwise have spotted. And by understanding your weaknesses, you can manage and eliminate threats that might otherwise hurt your ability to move forward in your role.

If you look at yourself using the SWOT framework, you can start to separate yourself from your peers, and further develop the specialized talents and abilities that you need in order to advance your career and to help you achieve your personal goals.

SWOT Analysis is a technique that helps you identify strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats. Understanding and managing these factors helps you to develop the abilities you need to achieve your goals and progress in your career.

Permission and Citations

If you intend to publish or circulate your document, it's important to seek permission from the copyright holder of the material that you've paraphrased or summarized. Failure to do so can leave you open to allegations of plagiarism, or even legal action.

It's good practice to cite your sources with a footnote, or with a reference in the text to a list of sources at the end of your document. There are several standard citation styles – choose one and apply it consistently, or follow your organization's house style guidelines.

As well as acknowledging the original author, citations tell you, the reader, that you're reading paraphrased or summarized material. This enables you to check the original source if you think that someone else's words may have been misused or misinterpreted.

Some writers might use others' ideas to prop up their own, but include only what suits them, for instance. Others may have misunderstood the original arguments, or "twisted" them by adding their own material.

If you're wary, or you find problems with the work, you may prefer to seek more reliable sources of information. (See our article, How to Spot Real and Fake News   , for more on this.)

Paraphrasing means rephrasing text or speech in your own words, without changing its meaning. Summarizing means cutting it down to its bare essentials. You can use both techniques to clarify and simplify complex information or ideas.

To paraphrase text:

• Read and make notes.
• Find different terms.
• Put the text into your own words.
• Check your work.

You can also use paraphrasing in a meeting or conversation, by listening carefully to what's being said and repeating it back to the speaker to check that you have understood it correctly.

To summarize text or speech:

• Get a general idea of the original.
• Check your understanding.
• Make notes.
• Write your summary.

Seek permission for any copyrighted material that you use, and cite it appropriately.

This site teaches you the skills you need for a happy and successful career; and this is just one of many tools and resources that you'll find here at Mind Tools. Subscribe to our free newsletter , or join the Mind Tools Club and really supercharge your career!

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Comments (10)

• Over a month ago Midgie wrote Hi sahibaMehry, My view is that we paraphrase the meaning and essence of what has been said, rather than sentence by sentence or word for word. If you are to use the exact words, that would be 'quoting' someone. Hope that helps. Midgie Mind Tools Team
• Over a month ago sahibaMehry wrote Hello could you please answer my question do we need to paraphrase sentences in summarizing or not we should summarize it word to word?
• Over a month ago Michele wrote Hi SabrinaSeo, You are most welcome. We hope the information in the article was helpful. Michele Mind Tools Team

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The Science and Art of Reflecting, Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Reflecting, summarizing and paraphrasing in a coaching conversation are important skills that a coach needs to learn. It’s not just the skill itself that is important, it can often be more about when to do it, and indeed ‘if’ to do it (the art) than what and how to do ‘it’ (the science). What I notice in early day coaches is that this skill is often overused in terms of what is reflected, summarized or paraphrased and is perhaps not always truly in service of the client, as it is used as a learned behavior to demonstrate ‘hearing’.

In this blog I will look at all three of these coaching interventions and explore when the times are that they might be most useful for our clients. In addition, the main competency these three are found in is CC 6 Listens Actively. The definition of which is that the coach: ‘ Focuses on what the client is and is not saying to fully understand what is being communicated in the context of the client systems and to support client self-expression’

Let’s take each in turn…

Reflecting in coaching, as the word implies, is the equivalent of holding up a mirror to the client. This allows the client to hear back what they said, and sometimes how they said it. ‘Reflecting back’, could be a whole sentence, some of the words used or even a single word. 

What therefore might the purpose of reflecting? It could be simply to ensure clarity and understanding of what is being said, it could also be used as a form of challenge– again to check for understanding, rather than use a question.

For example, suppose the client says:

“My teammate and manager are fighting. I’m really angry with him”.

’ For the coach to be in their client’s frame of reference, they may need to know whether ‘him’ refers to the manager or the teammate.  The coach might simply reflect back the word  ‘ him ’  with an expression of inquiry.

The client might then respond:

“Yeah, my colleague. It puts me in an awkward position that I don’t know how to handle.”

It might also be that a coach reflects words they have heard that seem to have more of an important meaning for the client. The client may repeat a certain word a number of times or place emphasis, and it may be useful to enquire, simply by restating the words as a reflection.

The coach gets clarity and remains in the client’s context & frame of reference without getting too much into, possibly irrelevant, data. The client also gets to hear what they are saying and even how they are saying it, which may give rise to a new insight.

Summarizing

Summarizing is the art of playing back to the client what you have specifically heard, in the clients’ words but in a shortened form.

It's important to summarize only what you've heard, without interpretation, addition or judgement which is why using the client words becomes vital. At the end of a summary, it can be helpful to ask the client if you have heard them correctly. This provides the coach with clarity and the client to be sure they have said what they intended.

Summarizing can be very useful when working with clients to discover and uncover what the work is that needs to be explored in the coaching session. We know clients have sometimes not yet synthesized what they want to work on and playing back in a summary can be helpful, especially when it seems there might be several pieces to look at. Having gained that clarity, it then is helpful to ask a forward-thinking question to initiate the exploration.

Summarizing, using the client’s own words, may also support them to gain an insight which is why a forward-thinking question to follow can be really helpful at this point.

What I notice with newer coaches is that they may play back a summary every time the client pauses and start with ‘what I am hearing is…”. The question that comes to me here is: ‘who is this summary in service of?’ Sometimes, summarising like this is used as a way for the coach to create a pause to think about what to ask next. With clients who are very talkative, this can just mean the client will tell even more of the story, unless a forward-thinking question follows the summary. It is not always necessary to use words like: ‘what I am hearing’. It can simply be a summary.

While summarizing is a useful skill, when overused it can mean that the coach is doing the work for the client, as opposed to the client doing the work. I would offer that, as the coaching session moves nearer the action points, then it is the client who needs to provide the summaries and not the coach. This enables the coach to also understand what is important to the client and what they are taking from the session. If the coach summarizes, for example the action points, it could focus on what the coach thinks the client ‘should’ do rather than hearing what the client actually is going to do or take away. (See CC 8.6 ‘partners with the client to summarize learning and insight…..)

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the art of reflecting ‘the essence’ of what is being said and is said using the coaches own words and without changing the original source or intention of the clients’ words. Paraphrasing really helps the client know that they have been truly heard.  Summarizing is playing their own words back; paraphrasing is playing back what the coach believes he hears is the meaning of the client’s words in the context of the conversation. It enables the client to potentially know they have been heard and understood. When done well, it enhances empathy and trust. It doesn’t matter if the coach has drawn a different meaning, as the client may realize they haven’t conveyed their thinking sufficiently and can evoke new thoughts, additions or nuances to what they wish to share.

The science and art of Reflection, Summarizing and Paraphrasing is largely found in the competency of Listens Actively (CC6).  Sub-competency 6.2 explicitly talks about ‘ Reflects or summarizes what the client communicated to ensure clarity and understanding’ .  However, when you look deeper into that Core Competency, 6.3: ‘Recognizes and inquires when there is more to what the client is communicating’ (using paraphrasing perhaps) and 6.5: ‘Integrates the client’s words, tone of voice and body language to determine the full meaning of what is communicated’ (summarizing and reflecting perhaps) you will also see these skills reflected.

These skills can also be found in the other core competencies, and I would offer that it is a skill which, done well, really emphasizes the partnership between coach and client that is so vital to support and facilitate the client’s development and growth.

A couple of question for you to reflect upon…

• Where are your strengths in the Science and Art of these important coaching skills?
• Where might you over- or under-do the skill of reflection, summary and paraphrasing?  

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Counselling Skills in Action

Student resources, video 3.3 reflecting, paraphrasing, summarizing.

These resources support you in exploring the core skills of therapeutic work and integrated frameworks for ‘active listening’.

Mick Cooper describes and gives examples of the skills of reflecting, paraphrasing and summarizing (07:05)

Discussion question

• What are the important things to bear in mind when using different skills of reflecting back?t

If only a preview is showing, please click here to access the full video.

Summarising

Summarising in counselling.

Feltham and Dryden (1993: 186) define ‘ summarising ’ as ‘accurately and succinctly reflecting back to the client, from time to time within and across sessions, the substance of what she has expressed’.

Summarising is therefore a  counselling skill  used to condense or crystallise the main points of what the client is saying and feeling.

Difference between paraphrasing and summarising in counselling

Using summaries is different from using  paraphrasing , as a summary usually covers a longer time period than a paraphrase. Thus, summarising may be used after some time: perhaps halfway through – or near the end of – a counselling session.

The summary ’sums up’ the main themes that are emerging.

Purpose of Summarising in counselling

When summarising, the counsellor is ‘reflecting back’ the main points of the session so that the client has the opportunity to recap, and to ‘correct’ the counsellor if any parts of the summary feel inaccurate.

Summaries are therefore useful for:

• clarifying emotions for both the counsellor and the client
• reviewing the work done so far, and taking stock
• bringing a session to a close, by drawing together the main threads of the discussion
• beginning a subsequent session, if appropriate
• starting the process of focusing and prioritising ‘scattered’ thoughts and feelings
• moving the counselling process forward.

While the above uses are all in keeping with a person-centred approach to counselling, other uses may also be more relevant in more directive modalities. For example, in CBT, summarising may be useful for:

• enabling ‘the client to hear what she has expressed from a slightly different perspective’
• offering ‘an opportunity for structuring counselling, especially with clients who have difficulty in focusing on specific topics and goals’
• providing ‘a useful orientation towards homework and future sessions’ (Feltham & Dryden, 1993: 186).

Free Handout Download

The Skill of Summarising Explained

Summarising at the End of a Session

Kelly (2017: 10)) outlines how important the skill of summarising is, as a way of respectfully bringing the session to a close, while giving the client an opportunity to correct any misconceptions the counsellor may have.

Note how he uses the term ‘a neat package’ as a metaphor  to indicate that the client leaves with a summary of their material, feeling understood and ‘heard’:

It can be useful to summarise what has been brought to give the client a ‘neat package’ that they can go away with, feeling understood because the summary matches their material. Equally, the summary is an opportunity for the client to say, ‘No, it’s not like that; it’s like this.’ This too is great for the counsellor, because it allows you to realign where you are and be fully within the client’s frame of reference.

Kelly (2017: 10) describes the use of summarising in ending the therapeutic hour as follows:

About five or ten minutes before the end of the session, it’s important to let the client know that the time is coming to an end, so they have time to ‘pack up’. It allows them to ‘change gear’ and gives you, as the practitioner, the chance to close everything up before they leave, making sure they’re safe to ‘re-enter the world’.

Use of Summarising in Beginning a Session

Summarising can also be used as a way into the next session, reminding the client (who may have come from a busy week of everyday life, not necessarily recalling the nuances of their previous week’s therapy) of the key themes covered then.

When reviewing the client’s notes, before they arrive for the session, you might like to draw out the key theme (or a few themes – perhaps a maximum of three) that they brought to their previous session, and summarise these at the start.

This can help the client ‘settle in’ to the session; it also shows them that you have a clear memory of their material, which helps to build and consolidate the therapeutic relationship.

For person-centred counsellors, using a summary at the start of a session in this way doesn’t go against the principle of the client being free to bring what they wish to each session: you can still convey the client’s absolute freedom to choose to develop any of that work or to bring something entirely different this time. The choice is theirs.

How do you feel when someone has clearly listened and understood you?

© Counselling Tutor, updated 10/11/2020

Kelly K (2017) Basic Counselling Skills: A Student Guide , Counselling Tutor

Feltham C & Dryden W (1993) Dictionary of Counselling , Whurr

Spotted out-of-date info or broken links? Kindly let us know the page where you found them. Email: [email protected]

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Paraphrasing, Summarising and Reflecting

One of a series of presentations and notes exploring some fundamental interpersonal and group work skills.

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