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Summarising

A summary is also a kind of indirect quotation, but it will be much shorter than the original text as it only includes the key points. It is possible to summarise the information or ideas in a paragraph, article, chapter or even a whole book. As with paraphrasing, a summary must be written in your own words and a full citation is needed, but no page number. The following examples summarise two different aspects of the original text:

  • Cottrell (2008) describes how the Internet began in the late 1960s and today links computers all over the world, without the need for a central regulatory body.
  • The inception of the Internet in 1969 began a move away from paper-based information (Cottrell, 2008).