The Practical Grammar Handbook for College Writers by Marian Anders

Author:Marian Anders [Anders, Marian]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781531005436
Amazon: 1531005438
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2017-10-04T21:00:00+00:00

Guided Instructions for Paraphrasing

Answer the following questions to analyze the three examples of paraphrase on the previous page.

1. Imagine that you are a professor reading Paraphrase #1. Even if you had never read the original text, why might you suspect that the student had not really put this information into his own words?

2. Imagine that you are a professor reading the Paraphrase #3. Even if you had never read the original text, why would you believe that the student had been careful to put all the information into his own words?

Original texts often have a formal, academic style or tone. When you write a paper, your writing should sound like you. How often do most people use the word capricious? While it is important to use an appropriate level of formality in a research paper, your writing should be clear and sound natural, not stuffy or artificial.

See page 143 for more info about wordiness and choice of language.

3. Look for places where Paraphrase #1 uses the same words as the original text; this is called plagiarism.

4. How do Paraphrase #2 and Paraphrase #3 change those words?

5. Find some places where Paraphrase #2 and Paraphrase #3 do use the same words as the original text. Why is it necessary to use those exact words?

When you paraphrase, you must change the words that can be changed. What are some different ways you could express the idea of continual strife? You could say fighting all the time or always arguing or didn't get along well, etc. Since there are several ways you could change the words continual strife, those words must be changed or you will be plagiarizing.

Some words in the original text cannot be changed. If the ape king's name is Terkoz, you can't call him Steve just to use a different word. Since you really can't change that word, you don't have to change it. The same is true for names of places, dates, etc.

6. Compare the first sentence of Paraphrase #2 to the first sentence of the original text. The words in Paraphrase #2 have been changed from the original text, so that's good. But the sentence structures all the way through Paraphrase #2 are very close or identical to the sentence structures of the original text.

7. How does Paraphrase #3 use different sentence structures for the first sentence and all the way through?

In Paraphrase #3 the parts of the sentences are rearranged so that the paraphrased sentences are quite different from the original text.

If you need to paraphrase information that includes words you can't change, be sure to rearrange the parts of the sentence:

Original text: Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston.

Paraphrase: Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706.

Writers often include some quotations within their paraphrase. This allows the writer to copy some words from the original that are important in meaning or that express an idea vividly.

Paraphrase #4

Well-Written: Changing the Words and the Sentence Structures but Including Some Quotes:

The apes did not get along peacefully after Tarzan left.

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