Summarizing and paraphrasing requires some practice to do it right. Using the opening text scroll from Star Wars: A New Hope, we demonstrate appropriate summarizing and parphrasing.
Summarizing condenses, or takes a chunk of text and shrinks it into its main components.
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...
This is a great quote! Nothing needs to be changed here.
It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, strking from a hidden base have won their first victory against the evil Galatic Empire.
The key points from this paragraph are there are Rebels and an Empire, they are in a civil war, and the Rebeles just won their first victory.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
From this paragraph one can glean that the rebels stole some secret plans to the Death Star.
Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents. Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...
Lastly we see Princess Leia is being pursued, and she has the stolen plans.
Here is an example of an acceptable summary of the opening scroll:
The movie Star Wars opens with a brief history of the events that happen before the action begins.
We are told that "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" there are two factions engaged in a civil war - the Rebels (the good guys) and the Galatic Empire (the bad guys). The Empire is building a new weapon, the Death Star, which will likely destory the Rebels.
The Rebels have stolen plans to the Death Star and the Empire is trying to get them back.
The summary contains key points found in the text and they are condensed into the simplest possible way to fully understand the plot.
Paraphrasing translates text into your own words. Let's paraphrase the opening text of Star Wars.
At the beginnig of the movie, Star Wars, the viewer is informed that the Rebels and the Galatic Empire are engaged in a civil war. The Rebels are using guerilla tactics resulting in a recent success, and they are the heroic underdogs fighting "the evil Galatic Empire."
Notice how the important points are directly transferred over, but in the writer's own words. Here the civil war can stay the same, the word choice of the tactics used is altered and the Galatic Empire is quoted.
The Rebels have just stolen the plans to a cataclysmic weapon that is likely to win the war for the Empire.
Here, we can simplify both main topics, to get straight to the point. Again, it's very important to paraphrase in your own words!
The Empire is giving chase to one of the main Rebel characters, Princess Leia, who hopes to use the plans to win the fight against the Empire.
Again, the wording is made more concise. The wording is altered to the writer's own, but as Princess Leia is a character, her name is fine as is.