Summarizing

 

If you look at all your sources and then at how long your project is to be, it is obvious that it won't all fit.  You could simply leave material out, but a better solution is to summarize the material into your own words.  Pick out the main ideas and then put them into your own words.  Your end product should be much shorter than the original.  Do not use complete sentences on your note cards so that you will have to put the ideas into your own words.  If you summarize, you still must credit the author for the ideas.  Summaries are often used with general information, description, and historical background.  You must include the author's last name and page number after the summary.

 

Original:

 

What Stengel was actually acting like much of the time, however, was an overage juvenile delinquent.  He loved practical jokes, including mean ones, as well as verbal jokes.  He was aggressive and boisterous and got into fights, in ball games and after hours.  He was serious about playing baseball to win, but never solemn about it (or anything else).  He was a prototype of what older players then called "a fresh busher," and a later generation called "flaky."

 

Summary: 

 

Stengel was a wild, boisterous individual who enjoyed telling jokes or playing practical jokes.  His aggressive personality sometimes led to fights on and off the field.  He was serious, but not fanatical, about baseball (Koppett 139).

 

 

Entry in the bibliography at the end of the project:

 

Koppett, Leonard.  The Man in the Dugout: Baseball's Top Managers and How They

 

Got That Way.  New York: Crown Publishers, 1993.