{"id":514,"date":"2021-03-30T18:01:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T18:01:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomp2\/?post_type=chapter&p=514"},"modified":"2022-07-25T19:31:28","modified_gmt":"2022-07-25T19:31:28","slug":"paraphrasing","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomp2\/chapter\/paraphrasing\/","title":{"raw":"Paraphrasing Sources","rendered":"Paraphrasing Sources"},"content":{"raw":"
\r\n

Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\nIdentify when and how to paraphrase information from a source\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\nParaphrasing or \u201cindirect quotation\u201d is putting source text in your own words and altering the sentence structure to avoid using the quotation marks required in direct quotation. Paraphrasing is the preferred way of using a source when the original wording isn\u2019t important. This way, you can incorporate the source\u2019s ideas so they\u2019re stylistically consistent with the rest of your document and thus better tailored to the needs of your audience (presuming the original was tailored for a different audience with different needs). Also, paraphrasing a source into your own words proves your advanced understanding of the source text.\r\n\r\nA paraphrase must faithfully represent the source text by containing the same ideas as in the original in about the same length. As a matter of good writing, however, you should try to streamline your paraphrase so that it tallies fewer words than the source passage while still preserving the original meaning.\r\n

Paraphrase to Keep a Consistent Voice<\/h2>\r\n\"Two\r\n

Original<\/strong>: \u201cHand gestures, like other forms of nonverbal communication, can change the meaning of our words as well as carry meanings totally by themselves.\u00a0 Unless we understand the meanings attached to certain hand gestures in the different cultures, we are likely to send and receive unintended messages when dealing with people from other cultures. When two ordinary citizens from two different cultures miscommunicate through hand gestures, the result can be embarrassment or hard feelings\u201d (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\r\n

Paraphrase<\/strong>: Both body language and words are used to convey meaning.\u00a0 Movements such as hand gestures can alter the meaning of spoken words, or be used alone to convey meaning.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t understand the meaning a person from another culture intends to convey through their hand gestures, and if that person doesn\u2019t understand the meaning of ours, there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019ll misunderstand each other and feel ill at ease or possibly offended (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\r\n\r\n

Paraphrase, Don't Patchwrite<\/h2>\r\nNotice that the paraphrased example uses different sentence structure as well as original writing. In other words, take care not to just replace or change out strands of words for synonyms. Completing such a task is known as patchwriting, and patchwriting is considered poor form (and in some contexts can even be seen as plagiarism).\r\n

Original<\/strong>: \u201cHand gestures, like other forms of nonverbal communication, can change the meaning of our words as well as carry meanings totally by themselves\u201d (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\r\n

Patchwritten<\/strong>: Hand movements<\/strong>, like other nonverbal signals<\/strong>, have the<\/strong> ability<\/strong> to alter<\/strong> the definitions<\/strong> of our words as well as carry meanings entirely on their own<\/strong> (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\r\nWhile the bolded words were changed, there are patches of material that remain the same. Even when a writer adds a citation here (like above), the material is still considered poorly rewritten and needs\u00a0 to be restructured to create a stronger paraphrase.\r\n

Paraphrase to Break Down a Concept<\/h2>\r\nParaphrasing helps readers see a new perspective on a source. When an original source is difficult to understand, it might be helpful to paraphrase it. Here, for instance, a passage from\u00a0Diego Rivera's essay \"The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art\" is being paraphrased:\r\n

Original<\/strong>: \"And now we come to the question of propaganda. (All painters have been propagandists or else they have not been painters. Giotto was a propagandist of the spirit of Christian charity, the weapon of the Franciscan monks of his time against feudal oppression. Breughel was a propagandist of the struggle of the Dutch artisan petty bourgeoisie against feudal oppression. Every artist who has been worth anything in art has been such a propagandist.) The familiar accusation that propaganda ruins art finds its source in bourgeois prejudice\" (Rivera 424).<\/p>\r\n

Paraphrase<\/strong>: In \"The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art,\" Diego Rivera writes that he's not afraid of his art becoming propaganda, because art has\u00a0always\u00a0<\/em>been propaganda, insofar as it makes an argument for a particular way of thinking (424).<\/p>\r\n\r\n

DON'T Paraphrase to Give Your Own Spin<\/h2>\r\nParaphrasing is not commentary. It is important to recall that when you paraphrase, you should refrain from including your personal opinions in the content. Even though you are writing in your own voice, paraphrasing is not sharing your own thoughts. Instead, your goal is to objectively share what the original author intended to say. Where appropriate, of course, the paraphrase or summary may be followed by your own reading, critique, or interpretation. Be sure to note the difference between parts of your essay where you're paraphrasing and parts where you're interpreting. Consider this claim:\r\n

In \"The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art,\" Diego Rivera says that all the great art throughout history\u2014basically everything that matters in Western Culture\u2014is just worthless propaganda for Capitalism.\u00a0 He wants to replace\u00a0Bruegel's The Procession to Calvary<\/em>\u00a0with murals of tractors.<\/p>\r\nAlthough this passage contains some elements from Rivera's essay, which does indeed mention propaganda, Capitalism, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, it's less a\u00a0paraphrase of Rivera's ideas than a negative caricature of them. The writer obviously disagrees with Rivera, and sets out to paint Rivera's essay in the worst positive light. While this kind of attack is quite common in some genres (such as editorials by political pundits, who often exaggerate the claims of the opposition), it is usually not acceptable in academic writing. To disagree with an argument in in academic writing, you should paraphrase the argument accurately first, then give your critique.\r\n

DON'T Forget to Cite<\/h2>\r\nRemember, you must still cite when you paraphrase. Even though you have used your own words, your development includes ideas that may not be your own. When you use someone else\u2019s ideas, you should still include a citation to help readers see the material\u2019s origin. Not only do citations show readers that you are borrowing someone else\u2019s ideas, but they also help to add credibility for readers, and thereby increase your credibility as a writer.\r\n

Paraphrasing, Step-By-Step<\/h2>\r\nParaphrase easily by breaking down the task into these seven steps:\r\n
    \r\n \t
  1. Read and re-read the source-text passage so that you thoroughly understand each point it makes. If it\u2019s a long passage, you might want to break it up into digestible chunks. If you\u2019re unsure of the meaning of any of the words, look them up in a dictionary; you can even just type the word into the Google search bar, hit\u00a0Enter<\/em>, and a definition will appear, along with results of other online dictionary pages that define the same word.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Look away and get your mind off the target passage. Process some different information for a while.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Without looking back at the source text, repeat its main points as you understood them\u2014not from memorizing the exact words, but as you would explain the same ideas in different words out loud to a friend.<\/li>\r\n \t
  4. Still without looking back at the source text, jot down that spoken wording and tailor the language so that it\u2019s stylistically appropriate for your audience; edit and proofread your written version to make it grammatically correct in a way that perhaps your spoken-word version wasn\u2019t.<\/li>\r\n \t
  5. Now compare your written paraphrase version to the original to ensure that:<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    • You\u2019ve accurately represented the meaning of the original without:\r\n
        \r\n \t
      • Deleting any of the original points<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Adding any points of your own<\/li>\r\n \t
      • Distorting any of the ideas so they mean something substantially different from those in the original, or even take on a different character because you use words that, say, put a positive spin on something neutral or negative in the original<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n \t
      • You haven\u2019t repeated any two identical words from the original in a row<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
          \r\n \t
        1. If any two words from the original remain, go further in changing those expressions by using a thesaurus in combination with a dictionary. When you enter a word into a thesaurus, it gives you a list of synonyms, which are different words that mean the same thing as the word you enter into it.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
            \r\n \t
          • Be careful, however; many of those words will mean the same thing as the word you enter into the thesaurus in certain contexts but not in others, especially if you enter a homonym, which is a word that has different meanings in different parts of speech.\r\n
              \r\n \t
            • For instance, the noun\u00a0party<\/em>\u00a0can mean a group that is involved in something serious (e.g., a third-party software company in a data-collection process), but the verb\u00a0party\u00a0<\/em>means something you do on a wild Saturday night out with friends; it can also function as an adjective related to the verb (e.g.,\u00a0party trick<\/em>, meaning a trick performed at a party).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
                \r\n \t
              • Whenever you see synonymous words listed in a thesaurus and they look like something you want to use but you don\u2019t know what they mean exactly, always look them up to ensure that they mean what you hope they mean; if not, move on to the next synonym until you find one that captures the meaning you intend. Doing this can save your reader the confusion and you the embarrassment of obvious thesaurus-driven diction problems (poor word choices).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n
                  \r\n \t
                1. Cite your source. Just because you didn\u2019t put quotation marks around the words doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t have to cite your source.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n
                  \r\n

                  Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/5c2677f1-fe6e-402f-be3c-fdc33f7ebfce\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n \r\n\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"915441\"]Works Cited[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"915441\"]\r\n

                  Ferraro, Gary. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective<\/em>. Wadsworth\/Thomson Learning, 2001<\/p>\r\n

                  Rivera Diego. \"The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art.\" 1932.\u00a0Art in Theory: 1900-2000<\/em>, edited by Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, Blackwell, 2003, pp. 421-424.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

                  A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One<\/em>, edited by Ben Rafoth, Heinemann, 2000, pp. 24-34.<\/p>\r\n[\/hidden-answer]","rendered":"

                  \n

                  Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n

                  Identify when and how to paraphrase information from a source<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

                  Paraphrasing or \u201cindirect quotation\u201d is putting source text in your own words and altering the sentence structure to avoid using the quotation marks required in direct quotation. Paraphrasing is the preferred way of using a source when the original wording isn\u2019t important. This way, you can incorporate the source\u2019s ideas so they\u2019re stylistically consistent with the rest of your document and thus better tailored to the needs of your audience (presuming the original was tailored for a different audience with different needs). Also, paraphrasing a source into your own words proves your advanced understanding of the source text.<\/p>\n

                  A paraphrase must faithfully represent the source text by containing the same ideas as in the original in about the same length. As a matter of good writing, however, you should try to streamline your paraphrase so that it tallies fewer words than the source passage while still preserving the original meaning.<\/p>\n

                  Paraphrase to Keep a Consistent Voice<\/h2>\n

                  \"Two<\/p>\n

                  Original<\/strong>: \u201cHand gestures, like other forms of nonverbal communication, can change the meaning of our words as well as carry meanings totally by themselves.\u00a0 Unless we understand the meanings attached to certain hand gestures in the different cultures, we are likely to send and receive unintended messages when dealing with people from other cultures. When two ordinary citizens from two different cultures miscommunicate through hand gestures, the result can be embarrassment or hard feelings\u201d (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\n

                  Paraphrase<\/strong>: Both body language and words are used to convey meaning.\u00a0 Movements such as hand gestures can alter the meaning of spoken words, or be used alone to convey meaning.\u00a0 If we don\u2019t understand the meaning a person from another culture intends to convey through their hand gestures, and if that person doesn\u2019t understand the meaning of ours, there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019ll misunderstand each other and feel ill at ease or possibly offended (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\n

                  Paraphrase, Don’t Patchwrite<\/h2>\n

                  Notice that the paraphrased example uses different sentence structure as well as original writing. In other words, take care not to just replace or change out strands of words for synonyms. Completing such a task is known as patchwriting, and patchwriting is considered poor form (and in some contexts can even be seen as plagiarism).<\/p>\n

                  Original<\/strong>: \u201cHand gestures, like other forms of nonverbal communication, can change the meaning of our words as well as carry meanings totally by themselves\u201d (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\n

                  Patchwritten<\/strong>: Hand movements<\/strong>, like other nonverbal signals<\/strong>, have the<\/strong> ability<\/strong> to alter<\/strong> the definitions<\/strong> of our words as well as carry meanings entirely on their own<\/strong> (Ferraro 125).<\/p>\n

                  While the bolded words were changed, there are patches of material that remain the same. Even when a writer adds a citation here (like above), the material is still considered poorly rewritten and needs\u00a0 to be restructured to create a stronger paraphrase.<\/p>\n

                  Paraphrase to Break Down a Concept<\/h2>\n

                  Paraphrasing helps readers see a new perspective on a source. When an original source is difficult to understand, it might be helpful to paraphrase it. Here, for instance, a passage from\u00a0Diego Rivera’s essay “The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art” is being paraphrased:<\/p>\n

                  Original<\/strong>: “And now we come to the question of propaganda. (All painters have been propagandists or else they have not been painters. Giotto was a propagandist of the spirit of Christian charity, the weapon of the Franciscan monks of his time against feudal oppression. Breughel was a propagandist of the struggle of the Dutch artisan petty bourgeoisie against feudal oppression. Every artist who has been worth anything in art has been such a propagandist.) The familiar accusation that propaganda ruins art finds its source in bourgeois prejudice” (Rivera 424).<\/p>\n

                  Paraphrase<\/strong>: In “The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art,” Diego Rivera writes that he’s not afraid of his art becoming propaganda, because art has\u00a0always\u00a0<\/em>been propaganda, insofar as it makes an argument for a particular way of thinking (424).<\/p>\n

                  DON’T Paraphrase to Give Your Own Spin<\/h2>\n

                  Paraphrasing is not commentary. It is important to recall that when you paraphrase, you should refrain from including your personal opinions in the content. Even though you are writing in your own voice, paraphrasing is not sharing your own thoughts. Instead, your goal is to objectively share what the original author intended to say. Where appropriate, of course, the paraphrase or summary may be followed by your own reading, critique, or interpretation. Be sure to note the difference between parts of your essay where you’re paraphrasing and parts where you’re interpreting. Consider this claim:<\/p>\n

                  In “The Revolutionary Spirit in Modern Art,” Diego Rivera says that all the great art throughout history\u2014basically everything that matters in Western Culture\u2014is just worthless propaganda for Capitalism.\u00a0 He wants to replace\u00a0Bruegel’s The Procession to Calvary<\/em>\u00a0with murals of tractors.<\/p>\n

                  Although this passage contains some elements from Rivera’s essay, which does indeed mention propaganda, Capitalism, and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, it’s less a\u00a0paraphrase of Rivera’s ideas than a negative caricature of them. The writer obviously disagrees with Rivera, and sets out to paint Rivera’s essay in the worst positive light. While this kind of attack is quite common in some genres (such as editorials by political pundits, who often exaggerate the claims of the opposition), it is usually not acceptable in academic writing. To disagree with an argument in in academic writing, you should paraphrase the argument accurately first, then give your critique.<\/p>\n

                  DON’T Forget to Cite<\/h2>\n

                  Remember, you must still cite when you paraphrase. Even though you have used your own words, your development includes ideas that may not be your own. When you use someone else\u2019s ideas, you should still include a citation to help readers see the material\u2019s origin. Not only do citations show readers that you are borrowing someone else\u2019s ideas, but they also help to add credibility for readers, and thereby increase your credibility as a writer.<\/p>\n

                  Paraphrasing, Step-By-Step<\/h2>\n

                  Paraphrase easily by breaking down the task into these seven steps:<\/p>\n

                    \n
                  1. Read and re-read the source-text passage so that you thoroughly understand each point it makes. If it\u2019s a long passage, you might want to break it up into digestible chunks. If you\u2019re unsure of the meaning of any of the words, look them up in a dictionary; you can even just type the word into the Google search bar, hit\u00a0Enter<\/em>, and a definition will appear, along with results of other online dictionary pages that define the same word.<\/li>\n
                  2. Look away and get your mind off the target passage. Process some different information for a while.<\/li>\n
                  3. Without looking back at the source text, repeat its main points as you understood them\u2014not from memorizing the exact words, but as you would explain the same ideas in different words out loud to a friend.<\/li>\n
                  4. Still without looking back at the source text, jot down that spoken wording and tailor the language so that it\u2019s stylistically appropriate for your audience; edit and proofread your written version to make it grammatically correct in a way that perhaps your spoken-word version wasn\u2019t.<\/li>\n
                  5. Now compare your written paraphrase version to the original to ensure that:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      \n
                    • You\u2019ve accurately represented the meaning of the original without:\n
                        \n
                      • Deleting any of the original points<\/li>\n
                      • Adding any points of your own<\/li>\n
                      • Distorting any of the ideas so they mean something substantially different from those in the original, or even take on a different character because you use words that, say, put a positive spin on something neutral or negative in the original<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
                      • You haven\u2019t repeated any two identical words from the original in a row<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                          \n
                        1. If any two words from the original remain, go further in changing those expressions by using a thesaurus in combination with a dictionary. When you enter a word into a thesaurus, it gives you a list of synonyms, which are different words that mean the same thing as the word you enter into it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                            \n
                          • Be careful, however; many of those words will mean the same thing as the word you enter into the thesaurus in certain contexts but not in others, especially if you enter a homonym, which is a word that has different meanings in different parts of speech.\n
                              \n
                            • For instance, the noun\u00a0party<\/em>\u00a0can mean a group that is involved in something serious (e.g., a third-party software company in a data-collection process), but the verb\u00a0party\u00a0<\/em>means something you do on a wild Saturday night out with friends; it can also function as an adjective related to the verb (e.g.,\u00a0party trick<\/em>, meaning a trick performed at a party).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                                \n
                              • Whenever you see synonymous words listed in a thesaurus and they look like something you want to use but you don\u2019t know what they mean exactly, always look them up to ensure that they mean what you hope they mean; if not, move on to the next synonym until you find one that captures the meaning you intend. Doing this can save your reader the confusion and you the embarrassment of obvious thesaurus-driven diction problems (poor word choices).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                                  \n
                                1. Cite your source. Just because you didn\u2019t put quotation marks around the words doesn\u2019t mean that you don\u2019t have to cite your source.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                  \n

                                  Try It<\/h3>\n

                                  \t