Chapter thirteen in the Bedford book of Genres talked about how to use sources appropriately in your writing. A specific strategy of doing this that is mentioned is summarizing. This is one of my favorite ways to integrate a different source of writing into my own because you can talk about other people’s thought and ideas without going into such detail. It allows you to do this with just enough depth to get your point across. This is also beneficial because although you are implementing someone else’s writing, you are able to better tailor it to fit in your own paper. By using your own words, you can still keep your tone and style while introducing the thoughts and ideas of someone else. This except emphasized the importance of giving credit to the author of the writing you are summarizing but also to keep it short and sweet. They give an example, “If you’re summarizing a two page article, you summary might only be a page or less.” There is no need to keep all the small details if you goal is to get a broader point across to your reader, especially when mixed in with your own thoughts and ideas. This section ends with a helpful process one could use to effectively summarize a source so it best fits in your writing.
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