How can you paraphrase a text in written English?
When using written English for work or study purposes, sometimes you have to use the materials of other authors and remake them into your own texts.Paraphrasing (writing the text in different words) and summarizing (emphasizing the main points and getting rid of minor details) will help you here.
These aspects of working with text are important for the following reasons:
- First, if you use the original language of another author without modification, you limit your knowledge. Using paraphrasing and summarizing, you partially create the material yourself and absorb it better.
- Secondly, the authors of various materials and books did not write their works specifically for your audience. In these materials, you will definitely have to redo and discard some points that are not suitable for your readers.
- Thirdly, materials written by other authors are considered their property (as, for example, a car or clothes ). If you just copy other people's texts, you may be accused of plagiarism .
Paraphrasing and summarizing are often used together, but not always. Let's take a closer look at these useful ways to work with text.
Paraphrasing
As mentioned above, paraphrasing includes the use of synonyms and rearrangement of words. It is very important at the same time to preserve the meaning of the text, but change it so that the reader does not recognize the original text in it.
Consider examples of correct and insufficient paraphrasing:
- Original text : The political and economic crisis in the country was overcome after the president took resolvete steps.
- Misparaphrasing : The crisis in political and economic fields that swallowed the whole country was overpassed due to the president's decisive activity.
- Correct paraphrasing : The president managed a set of successful and crucial moves that essentially improved critical political and economic affairs.
As you can see from the second sentence, word permutation and use of synonyms is not always enough for a quality paraphrase. In the last sentence, the structure of the sentence was also changed, which made it possible to significantly change the original text.
What are the ways to paraphrase
The process of paraphrasing is creative, but there are some important things to keep in mind to help you achieve good paraphrasing:
- The main idea of the text, as well as personal statements, are best left in their original form.
- By changing the structure of the sentence and the order of the ideas contained in it, preserve the logical connections between them. For example, if the author begins the text with a generalization and reinforces it with an example, make this example an introduction to the generalization.
When paraphrasing a sentence , you can move the phrase from its beginning towards the end and vice versa.
- Actively use synonyms to replace words in the original text, remembering to adapt them to your specific topic.
- If necessary, proposals can be combined and divided .
- Use direct quotes only in special cases. Try to choose the most interesting and important statements for this.
- Constantly compare your paraphrased version with the original text. It is important that you do not lose the meaning and do not miss important details of the original.
- Accompany your text with links, paying tribute to the author of the original text.For example: Johnson, MJ (2013) Modern trends in the development of the world economy. London: British State Publishing House.
Now, knowing these rules of paraphrasing in English, you will be able to write your thesis or term paper more successfully. Paraphrasing skills will also help you in the English entrance exams .
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