1. Paraphrasing - Paraphrasing is reading something and wording it differently, so you don't plagiarize. Plagiarizing is when you take someone else's work and label it as yours. It's an actual and serious crime that can get you into some trouble if you aren't careful. Although people will let you off when your younger, you absolutely must start paraphrasing when your in middle school, because highschool will not let plagiarism off easily. To avoid plagiarizing, it would help to change most of the words in each sentence that you get off of a different resource. An online resource that I use a lot is a website called thesaurus.com.
A good way to remember the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing is to try and recall the prefix para-. Para- means apart from, so the word "paraphrasing" which makes sense because when you're paraphrasing you are taking apart a word and replacing it.
Another way to remember the difference is by remembering the "phrase" in "paraphrase". A "phrase" is two or more words that have been used to show an idea. Every sentence is made up of one or more phrases. The question that was given stated, "____ is reading a passage and putting it into your own words," put the words "putting it into your own words". If you know that a "phrase" is made up of "your own words" then you'll be able to understand the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing.
2. Summarizing - Summarizing is when you sum up a piece of writing, usually to get to the main point (or theme). An example of summarizing is to write a single paragraph (which is usually five to seven sentences)
A good way to remember the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing is to try and remember what the word "summary" means. After all, the word "summary" means to show all the main points, and the word is basically in the word "summarizing itself.
3. Main Points - A summary is shorter than the original passage because it only includes the main ideas. Although it may include the author's name, publishing information is highly unlikely. While there may be supporting details, they are unnecessary in a summary (but you can still include them) if you explain the main points well. After all, summarizing is when you sum up a piece of writing to get to the reason why it was written.
If you remember what summarizing is, you have this question in the bag, because you just need to remember that summarizing is when you sum up a piece of writing to <em>get to the main points</em>.
Here's a good dictionary if you didn't understand some of the words I was using during the explanation. This one defines the words simply and without any confusing other words: yourdictionary.com.
