Paraphrasing and Summarizing Exercises with Answers
Paraphrasing and Summarizing are two skills that are highly useful for writers. With these two techniques, writers can get help creating their content and providing it to their readers in an easy-to-peruse way.
However, if you happen to be new to the field of writing, you could be a little unaware and untrained in both these skills. But don’t worry. Everyone starts out as a beginner.
In this post, we’re going to be looking at some paraphrasing and summarizing exercises along with their answers and explanations. By following along, you’ll get a good idea about how you can use these techniques in your own capacity.
Let’s begin!
What is Paraphrasing and Summarizing?
Before we get to the exercises, let’s digress a little and understand what paraphrasing and summarization actually are.
Let’s start with paraphrasing.
Paraphrasing is the process in which a particular piece of content is reworded and rephrased in such a way that it looks different from its original version but it has the same meaning and context.
A simple example of paraphrasing would be to change “John likes his cat” to “John adores his feline pet”. Paraphrasing can be as slight as merely changing some words in the text, or it can be as drastic as fully changing the tone, structure, order, and words of the content.
On the other hand, Summarizing is the process in which a piece of content is shrunk and shortened to about one-tenth of its original size. In this shortened version, the main idea and concept of the content is provided.
Summarization is usually used by authors and writers when they want to give a brief outline of a book or article to their readers.
Now that we’ve looked at the definitions of both, let’s move ahead to look at some exercises.
Paraphrasing Exercises (with Answers)
The main purpose of providing these exercises along with their answers is to help you understand what these techniques look like when they are implemented. Since we have explained their core definition above, you can try and work along the exercises to improve your skills a little as well.
Related: Difference Between Paraphrasing And Rephrasing
Paraphrasing Exercise # 1:
Here is a sample paragraph that we will be paraphrasing as an exercise. We’ll write the paragraph alone first, and then provide the answer after a brief explanation.
Sample Paragraph:
"John could not find the butter in his fridge. He went to buy some from the store. On coming back, he saw his cat sitting on the floor, smacking its lips. There was some yellow stuff smeared all around its face. Thus, John solved the mystery of the missing butter."
So, as we mentioned earlier, paraphrasing can be done simply and sparingly, or it can be done drastically.
One of the primary and basic ways of paraphrasing is to simply change some words in the provided content with their synonyms. This is, we reiterate, a very basic level of paraphrasing, and it is often very easy to see through it.
So, for this first exercise, we are going to be doing only that level of paraphrasing as a way to illustrate how it looks like.
Here is what the above paragraph looks like when paraphrased:
Paraphrased Paragraph:
"John could not locate the butter in the refrigerator. He went to purchase some from the shop. On coming back, he observed his cat sitting on the ground, licking its lips. There was some yellow material smeared all around its face. Hence, John solved the mystery of the missing butter."
While we are on this discussion, it will also be salubrious to understand that when changing words with their synonyms for the purpose of paraphrasing, you have to be careful that you pick those that don’t mess up the context and intent of the lines.
Paraphrasing Exercise # 2:
Moving on, let’s look at another paraphrasing exercise. Here is the paragraph that we will be using for this one:
"John’s cat got lost in the forest. He went looking for it in the night time. He heard some movement in one of the bushes. He put his hand in and felt the fur. He pulled the thing out, thinking it to be his cat. After coming home, he realized it was an angry raccoon."
We mentioned in the last exercise that the basic level of paraphrasing is to change some of the words in the given text with their synonyms. And we also mentioned how that sort of paraphrasing can be easily detected.
So, for writers who want to paraphrase something in such a way that it does not resemble its original form a lot, there’s a step further that they can go, and that is to change the sentence structures + phrases.
Essentially, by changing the phrases used in the content as well as the arrangement of the sentences, the overall look of the paraphrased piece looks very different. If someone wants to go even ahead of that, they can shuffle the sentence order as well.
Considering this type of ‘extensive’ paraphrasing, here is the answer to the paragraph given above:
"John’s cat went missing in the forest. He went to search for it when it was dark. He discerned some movement in the hedge. After putting his hand inside it, he felt some fur. Thinking that it was his cat, he pulled the animal out. It was only after coming home that he realized that it was a frustrated raccoon."
Read more: How And Why to Paraphrase Your Content?
Summarizing Exercises (with Answers)
Now that we have looked at the paraphrasing exercises, let’s move on to look at some for summarizing.
Just as we’ve looked at two types of paraphrasing above, we’ll also look at two different types of summarizing.
Actually, it’ll be better if we explain those two types before getting to the exercises.
Basically, there are two types of summaries . One of them is called extractive and the other is called abstractive .
In extractive summarization, the summary of a piece of content is generated merely by taking out some sentences from it and joining them together. This is usually the type of summaries that you get from automated tools.
When extractive summaries are created, there is no effort to understand the actual meaning and context of the text. Rather, the purpose is only to take some lines from it and join them together in such a way that they make sense.
On the other hand, abstractive summaries are those that are written using a completely new and different set of words, phrases and sentences than the content (that is being summarized). As opposed to extractive summarization, abstractive summarization involves understanding the meaning and context of the text, and then creating a completely new summary that features all those concepts and ideas.
Summarizing Exercise # 1 (Extractive)
In order to demonstrate and explain extractive summarization, we’re going to first write a paragraph here and then provide its summary afterwards:
Sample paragraph:
"John’s car broke down. He stopped by the road side and screamed at people to stop and help him. But no one stopped for him. He continued howling and howling for hours. People kept driving by. After getting tired, he picked up a sheet and wrapped it around himself. Then, he started spinning on his spot. He grew dizzy. He kept spinning and spinning until he fell asleep."
Now, since we have to use the “extractive” summarization technique here, we’ll create the summary using the lines and sentences used in the content itself.
"John’s car broke down. But no one stopped for him. Then, he started spinning on the spot. He kept spinning and spinning until he fell asleep."
Summarizing Exercise # 2 (Abstractive)
For this exercise, we will use the same para that we did above. However, the technique used for the summarization will be different.
Since we will be using the abstractive technique here, the summary will be created using different words and phrases as the original.
"John’s vehicle went phut. But, no one stopped their car to help him. After he was tired, he made himself dizzy by spinning and then went to sleep."
So, that’s about it.
If you were a little confused about paraphrasing and summarization techniques, hopefully you’re a little more confident about them now.
These skills can come in handy for writers in a lot of different situations. If you don’t have the hang of them already, you should try and get it as quick as you can.
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Paraphrase and Summary Exercises
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The exercises in this section provide opportunities for second language writers (ESL) of various proficiency levels to practice with paraphrase and summary writing.
Exercises in this section were developed by Kamal Belmihoub. Last Update May 29, 2014.
Basic-level Paraphrase and Summary Writing
Paraphrasing.
Paraphrasing refers to rewriting a given sentence using your own words. When we need to use a sentence in our writing that someone else wrote, we paraphrase it. That is, we use the same idea(s) in that sentence and write it differently. In addition to using different words, we use different grammar. The main purpose of paraphrasing has to do with being able to use someone else’s ideas while we write our own texts. Of course, it is required that any writer acknowledges the original source using the proper citation format.
This paraphrase has too many words, such as “PayLess is closed because of” are repeated. It is important to use different words and grammatical structure, while keeping the same meaning of the original sentence.
As can be seen in the above example, in addition to using different words, the grammatical structure of the sentence was changed by starting with the second part (dependent clause) of the original sentence.
Summarizing
A summary should be a short version of a longer original source. Its main goal is to present a large amount of information in a short and concise text that includes only the most important ideas of the original text.
Intermediate-level Paraphrase Exercises
Source Material
Inappropriate paraphrase
The inappropriate paraphrase is too close to the original sentence. Several words are the same and the complex structure of the sentence is the same. Deleting some words from the original sentence is not enough to write an appropriate paraphrase.
Appropriate paraphrase
The appropriate paraphrase uses a different structure for the sentence, and most words are different from the original.
Paraphrase Summary Exercises List of Works Consulted
List of works consulted.
“American History Series: The United States Turns Inward After World War One.” Voice of America, 24 Nov. 2010. Web. 1 April 2013.
“Budgets Slash English Classes for Immigrants.” 8 Apr.. 2013. Web. 1 May 2013.
“Bullying.” Science Daily, n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.
“Business English Speakers Can Still be Divided by a Common Language.” Voice of America, 1 Mar. 2011. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“Camaraderie of sports Teams May Deter Bullying.” Science Daily, 5 May 2013. Web. 30 May 2013.
“Childhood Bullying Increases the Propensity to Self-Harm During Adolescence.” Science Daily, 28 May 2013. Web. 30 May 2013.
“Exposure to Two Languages Can Have Far-Reaching Benefits.” Northwestern, 20 May 2009. Web. 1 May 2013.
“Global Economic Forum Rates Global Risks for 2013.” Voice of America, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 May 2013.
“Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!” Voice of America, 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“Lifestyle Habits Lower Heart Failure Risk.” Science Daily, 13 Sep. 2011. Web. 30 May 2013.
“More Wins for TEA Party Activists, but Will They Win in November?” Voice of America, 17 Sep. 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“Movies Become Big Business in the 1920s.” Voice of America, 7 Dec. 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“New Anti-Cancer Components of Extra-Virgin Olive Oil Revealed.” Science Daily, 27 Dec. 2008. Web. 30 May 2013.
“New Hampshire Chinese Language School Attracts non-Chinese Students.” 30 Oct. 2009. Web. 1 May 2013.
“Quitting Smoking: Licensed Medications are Effective.” Science Daily, 30 May 2013. Web. 30 May 2013.
“Soccer Training Improves Heart Health of Men with Type 2 Diabetes.” Science Daily, 30 May 2013. Web. 30 May 2013.
“Tornado Season Returns, Voice of America.” Voice of America. 30 Apr. 2012. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“What is the Human Relations Commission?” City of West Lafayette Indiana, 6 Mar. 2012. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“Women Edge Past Men in Getting Doctorates, Voice of America.” Voice of America, 5 Oct. 2010. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
“World’s Population Reaches 7 Billion Voice of America. 4 Jan. 2012. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.
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