The first step to being a concise writer is identifying what shouldn’t be there and condensing what should. Now I am sure, that half of you all’s essays had to be some variation of a literary analysis where a book was meant to be used as the source of your evidence to support your claims. And I am almost CERTAIN that in the intros of these analytical essays, it was required for you to set up the background and setting of the book, and basically a recap of the main events in order to give good context for your audience (a.k.a. summarizing). HOWEVER, instructors fail to realize that this so-called easy technique is not so easy. Summarizing for me meant simply re-telling a story within my own words, and to webster dictionary, it is to; briefly state the main points of something. In other words, webster and I were not on the same page. But recounting all the main events of the book doesn’t really deliver your claim to the audience, but instead just gives them an idea about what you read in the book. Therefore we need another strategy that is going to help us still inform our audiences about our source of evidence but still ultimately work within the favor of our claim. That allows me to proudly present Paraphrasing. By definition, paraphrasing is; to express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity. Now I don’t know about ya’ll, but that sounds pretty darn accurate to what we as students are usually being asked to do within these essays already but how do you do this? According to Davis Starkey, author of; Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students, here is what you should include when you are asked to summarize or paraphrase

• A short summary only uses your own words

• A summary should indicate the source, including the author and the title of his or her piece.

• A summary should be accurate and objective: this is not the place to begin arguing your point of view

If you stick to these useful tips, and simply remind yourself that the purpose of your paper is not to summarize the main points of the book, but it is to utilize the main points so you can develop an analysis and argument. So basically, start paraphrasing so you too can be pushin’ p.