Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing = putting something in your own words

Paraphrase is often combined with quotation.

Summarizing involves picking out the most important ideas and paraphrasing them (along with an occasional quotation).

Quotation marks are not used, but the source must be credited for paraphrases

Imitation

This is a form of plagiarism Literal paraphrase—changing

some of the words to synonyms Wording too close to the original –

merely rearranging the order and form of some of the words.

Example: Rearranging words

“It’s increasingly clear that the biggest roadblock to improving the achievement of U.S. students is violence and disorder in our schools.” Albert Shanker

Albert Shanker believes that clearly, we can increasingly realize that disorder and violence constitute the biggest roadblock for U.S. schools who want to improve their students’ achievement.

Example: Literal Paraphrase

“It’s increasingly clear that the biggest roadblock to improving the achievement of U.S. students is violence and disorder in our schools.” Albert Shanker

According to Albert Shanker, it becomes constantly more apparent that the largest hurdle to bettering the performance of American students is violent and disorderly behavior in our schools.

Example: Literal Paraphrase with a

Thesaurus “It’s increasingly clear that the biggest

roadblock to improving the achievement of U.S. students is violence and disorder in our schools.” Albert Shanker

Shanker professes progressively unambiguously that the prevalent barricade to humanizing the triumph of U.S. students is carnage and mayhem in our schools.

How can you avoid imitation?

One of the best ways is to read a passage, then look away and try to recall the important points from memory. This makes it difficult to remember the original well enough to imitate it.

Potential problem

If the passage is very difficult and you can’t fully understand it you may have problems with Misreading Guessing Projection Leaving things out

Simplification method

Make the sentences simpler. Paraphrase a sentence at a time using

your own words and sentence structure. Drop any non-essential ideas. Combine the sentences. Add the source’s name and edit to

make transitions,vary sentence structure, re-order and combine short sentences.

Inducing soldiers to comply with dangerous orders, in short, is mostly an emotional game with mirrors, requiring psychological sleight of hand. At the decisive moments, effective leadership consists in persuasively redefining the situation, reconstructing the soldiers’ sense of reality, so that what initially seems a foolhardy or even suicidal course of action comes to seem possible, even indispensable. By Mark J. Osiel

Simpler sentences

Inducing soldiers to comply with dangerous orders can be compared to an emotional game with mirrors.

It requires psychological sleight of hand. Effective leadership consists in

persuasively redefining the situation. Redefining the situation involves

reconstructing the soldier’s sense of reality.

Simpler sentences continued

Under this reconstruction of reality, what initially seems a foolhardy or even suicidal course of action is viewed differently.

It comes to seem possible, even indispensable.

Paraphrase each sentence

Inducing soldiers to comply with dangerous orders can be compared to an emotional game with mirrors.

Getting soldiers to follow dangerous orders without question involves tricking them and manipulating their emotions.

It requires psychological sleight of hand.

It is necessary to mislead them.

Effective leadership consists in persuasively redefining the situation.

Persuading them to view the situation in a different way from their instinctive response is a crucial skill for military officers.

Redefining the situation involves reconstructing the soldier’s sense of reality.

The soldier must be made to believe, through the skills of his commanding officer, that the reality is different from what he perceives.

Under this reconstruction of reality, what initially seems a foolhardy or even suicidal course of action is viewed differently.

The soldiers’ opinions are changed so what at first appeared reckless, desperate, or likely to cost their lives, is accepted.

It comes to seem possible, even indispensable.

The soldier now thinks that the mission is not only achievable but necessary; the order is made to seem the only plausible one.

Put it together

Getting soldiers to follow dangerous orders involves tricking them and manipulating their emotions. It is necessary to mislead them. Persuading them to view the situation in a different way from their instinctive response is a crucial skill for military officers. The soldier must be made to believe, through the skills of his commanding officer, that the reality is different from what he perceives. The soldiers’ opinions are changed so what at first appeared reckless, desperate or likely to cost their lives is accepted. The soldier now thinks that the mission is not only achievable but necessary; the order is made to seem the only plausible one.

Add source’s name and revise

Because people are instinctively reluctant to risk their lives, Mark Osiel believes that a crucial leadership skill for military officers is the ability to persuade soldiers to reinterpret dangerous situations. Getting soldiers to follow orders involves tricking them and manipulating their emotions. Through the skills of the commanding officer, the soldiers must be made to feel that what at first appeared reckless, desperate or likely to cost their lives is not only a plausible course of action but a necessary one.

Breakdown/build-up

There is also a more time-consuming and extreme version of this technique. It is worthwhile to use when paraphrasing important points for students who have trouble paraphrasing without plagiarism. It is also useful for helping anyone understand a difficult passage.

Breakdown/build-up

Break the sentences down into smaller units of meaning.

Using a dictionary (or, with caution, a thesaurus) as necessary, try to find another way of saying each unit

Eliminate non-essential units Recombine the rephrased units

without looking back at the original.

Al Shanker:

“It’s increasingly clear that the biggest roadblock to improving the achievement of U.S. students is violence and disorder in our schools.”

Step 1

Something( A) is increasingly clear

A= Something (B) is the biggest roadblock to doing something (C)

B= Violence and disorder in our schools

C= Improving the achievement of U.S. students

Step 2

Something( A) is increasingly clear

A is becoming easier to see

A is becoming more obvious as time passes

Step 2

A= Something (B) is the biggest roadblock to doing something (C)

B is the main obstacle to C; B is the main thing standing in the way of C; The continuation of B is preventing C; Getting rid of B is the key to C

Step 2

B= Violence and disorder in our schools

B = disruptive and violent students in the classrooms; B = classroom disturbances caused by those who start fights or misbehave

Step 2

C=- Improving the achievement of US students

C = helping American pupils learn betterC= Increasing academic performance in American classrooms

Step 3

Take the materials in step two and use them to build a new sentence without looking back at the original.

If you decide that one part is non-essential (such as the idea of becoming increasingly clear) you can leave it out

Some good paraphrases

Getting rid of students who start fights, bring weapons to school, or distract other students is the key to improving student learning in America’s schools, claims Albert Shanker.

Some good paraphrases

Albert Shanker argues that it is becoming more and more obvious that if we want to improve the academic performance of American students, we must first banish violence from our classrooms and re-establish order.

Some good paraphrases

According to Albert Shanker, permitting disruptive and violent students to remain in American classrooms is the main thing that is preventing our students from learning more effectively.