Paraphrasing Strategy

Abstract

Paraphrasing is a process of translating an original text into your own words. Paraphrasing a work demonstrates that a student understands the original text, can adopt the text to fit his or her own work, and ensures that the student is not presenting someone else’s words as his or her own. While advanced students and writers are able to quickly paraphrase, paraphrasing is a learned activity that requires training in a combination of reading and writing skills and strategies.

Overview

The goal of paraphrasing is to articulate new information in one’s own words and style. When considering what to paraphrase and what to quote, writers think about what information must be presented in the original form. For example, if writing about Abraham Lincoln’s life, one might paraphrase portions of his life, including his run for president and work during the beginning of the Civil War. Because the writer is not an expert on Abraham Lincoln, it would be necessary to read a variety of historic texts, summarize and paraphrase those texts, and create a cohesive story that provides necessary and interesting information for audience. However, in discussing the Gettysburg Address, it would be useful and appropriate to provide a block quote extracted from Lincoln’s speech (the primary source document). By limiting the amount of quoted text and paraphrasing other texts to write the greater part of the paper, the writer develops his or her own ethos.

Paraphrasing is a necessary writing and research skill to combine many different types of text. It is also a helpful tool to adapt information for a new audience. For example, a detailed medical textbook may be useful for learning about how the human heart works, but an audience of second graders may find the presentation overly challenging. Quoting from the textbook for this audience may not be an appropriate way to convey the information contained in the text. Instead, a writer will need to comprehend the medical text and then, through the process of paraphrasing, produce a new text that uses vocabulary and syntax to meet the needs of second graders.

Paraphrasing is a necessary writing tool that requires in depth, continual training at all academic levels. For young students, paraphrasing focuses on summary and developing the student’s voice. Then, as students advance, paraphrasing is developed as a skill necessary to the construction of research papers and a way to demonstrate reading comprehension. Teachers can guide the process of paraphrasing through a variety of skills and strategies that teach both how to paraphrase and why paraphrasing is a necessary tool to prevent unintentional plagiarism.

Applications

Paraphrasing is a critical skill that ensures students are absorbing and critically thinking about assigned materials. In the reading and writing process, paraphrasing is a necessary stepping-stone toward inference generation (Bohn-Gettler, 2014) or the conclusion that students reach when critically thinking about a text. This stepping-stone effect occurs because students that paraphrase a text must make connections with concepts they have already learned and the new information they are learning from the assigned text. Additionally, students demonstrate their comprehension by producing an articulate summary and improving their recall of new knowledge. Students learn to gauge their own understanding of an assigned text, knowing that when they can produce a paraphrased summary they understand the information well and that if they cannot produce a paraphrased summary then they need to re-read the assigned text. Paraphrasing and summarizing are not the same thing. Paraphrasing refers to the expression of a text using new words or examples to improve clarity, whereas summarizing simply presents the main points of a text. The difference is that a paraphrased text is more specific and aims to adapt a text for an audience while a summary merely abbreviates the original text.

Teachers can begin teaching paraphrasing strategies by having students talk through their own experiences. For example, students might work in pairs to summarize what they did yesterday after school. The first student is allowed to give a full and lengthy description of his or her afterschool activities. The second student is tasked with producing a short, two- or three-sentence summarized and paraphrased report. After the second student reports to the class, the first student is asked if all the important information was covered. In this way, students are able to work together to negotiate which information must be included and what can be excluded. Additionally, students become used to the idea that they must check back with the original source to ensure that the most important information is accurately presented in the paraphrased version.

Read-Ask-Put

When students begin to paraphrase texts, they can follow the Read-Ask-Put (RAP) method. First students read the original text. Then, they ask themselves what each word and sentence means. During this ask stage, students identify the key concepts and ideas in the original text and look up any information that they do not understand. Finally, students put the main idea and details of the original text into their own words. For some students, the RAP method provides enough instruction to produce a successful paraphrasing. However, if a teacher finds that the students are not yet ready for these steps, the class can break the RAP method into additional steps. The students will still begin with the read and ask steps, but they will break the "put" step into additional steps.

The four additional steps of the put stage include rewording, rearranging, determining what should stay, and checking the original. During the reword phase, students replace words and phrases with others that they know well and are confident do not change the passage’s meaning. Students rearrange words into new sentences, some becoming longer, others getting shorter, and on occasion whole sentences being deleted. Looking at the emergent text, students determine what should stay, that is, which key elements (e.g., places, dates, and names) cannot be changed from the original text and must be used to maintain the original meaning. Finally, students check their paraphrased passage in comparison to the original to ensure that they are conveying the same meaning but have not reproduced any part of the original text.

The process of paraphrasing can be very difficult for students. Many students over-paraphrase and thereby lose necessary details or change critical terms. Other students do not paraphrase enough, resulting in a text that is very close to the original. For these reasons, some teachers first demonstrate paraphrasing strategy and walk their class through an exercise that demonstrates the process. Students might then be broken into groups to try a sample text, and finally be asked to produce paraphrased texts on their own. As students develop their paraphrasing skills, they might reorder the steps, or meld steps together. However, teachers should always stress that students return to the original text and recheck their work to ensure that they have not unintentionally plagiarized the original text.

Employing Paraphrasing

Once students have conquered the skills of paraphrasing, they are ready to consider the reasons that they should sometimes use paraphrasing and sometimes use short quotations to construct a strong argument and text. Additionally, they will be ready to make comparisons between texts, determining what is most important and which pieces of information are superfluous. In this way, by first paraphrasing and then summarizing, students will demonstrate advanced comprehension of assigned texts (Kletzien, 2009). When learning a new style of writing such as narration or poetry, students can learn, develop, and practice new skills through paraphrasing, which removes the pressure to create a wholly original text from scratch and instead allows students to focus concepts such as rhythm, meter, and mode in poetic writing.

In advanced grades, students will already know what paraphrasing is, but may still have difficulty paraphrasing effectively and ethically. For these high school and college students, the challenge in teaching is not so much in making students understand why they should paraphrase, but in helping them negotiate between paraphrasing and plagiarizing.

Plagiarism as Underdeveloped Paraphrasing

While many high school and college students express confidence in their ability to paraphrase, studies have demonstrated that even at the college level, students still require instruction in paraphrasing skills to prevent unintentional plagiarism (Walker, 2008). These students may think a sufficient paraphrasing strategy is to change the tense of a sentence, remove only one or two words from the original text, or use synonyms of original terms (Mass, 2002). Frequently the use of these insufficient techniques indicate that the student has not spent enough time with the text, or did not fully understand its meaning. To resolve issues of comprehension, teachers might require students to first type out an assigned text, and then type out the paraphrased text. In this way, the instructor can test for comprehension as well as determine the specific difficulty that each student is experiencing with paraphrasing. Additionally, following this exercise, the teacher can produce a set of examples where the paraphrasing has gone too far or not far enough to produce a clear and accurate text.

Some schools have responded to unintentional plagiarism by simply encouraging students not to plagiarize. Using online programs such as Turnitin.com, teachers are easily able to compare the student’s text with a large body of published work. These programs frequently identify places where students have copied and pasted, often only with minimal changes, from original source material. Punitive measures, ranging from failing grades to expulsion, are used against students who are identified as plagiarizing in their course work. While some students are indeed attempting to pass off another’s work as their own, others are attempting to produce their own texts and are simply unprepared or unskilled in proper paraphrasing strategy.

Solving the problem of unintentional plagiarizing at the high school and college levels will require that emphasis be placed on practicing the paraphrasing of advanced texts such as academic articles, rather than practicing paraphrasing sample paragraphs as is done in the lower grades (Barry, 2006). This advanced level of paraphrasing is more difficult to learn and at times forces students to study texts that are too advanced for them. The challenging aspects of this work, however, will improve student writing and reading skills.

Once students have paraphrased an assigned academic article, they will be ready to produce an annotated bibliography. In this activity, commonly used before writing a research paper, students collect a body of research articles and then begin surveying the academic literature base that will form the foundation of a research paper. In this activity, students will produce a full citation for an academic text. They then submit an important paragraph from the original text and demonstrate how that paragraph could be paraphrased. This activity tasks students with reading the full text and demonstrating that they not only understand how the reading applies to their research project, but also comprehend the reading well enough that they can explain key concepts in their own words.

Viewpoints

While paraphrasing is usually applied to subjects such as literature and history, it can also be an effective strategy for teaching subjects such as new languages, mathematics, and art. When learning a new language, students frequently translate word for word, demonstrating vocabulary, but not necessarily comprehension skills. By tasking students with rewording, rearranging, realizing, and rechecking a foreign language text, teachers are requiring that students creatively negotiate their new vocabulary and clearly demonstrate that they comprehend new ideas.

For example, when learning Arabic, students might paraphrase Arabic prose, at first to demonstrate comprehension, but later as their skills develop they might also attempt to mimic the literary style of the source text (Jawad, 2007). In this way, students produce texts that use accurate vocabulary as well as mimic the literary styles of the language that they are learning. This leads to better comprehension and quicker progress to language mastery.

Another innovative use of paraphrasing strategy is with students at risk of mathematic disabilities. Researchers have shown that paraphrasing in the form of re-wording word problems can improve students’ problem-solving accuracy and related critical thinking skills (Moran, Swanson, Gerber & Fung, 2014).

Other teachers have experimented with using art to discuss the topic of plagiarism and paraphrasing. For example, showing students the original Mona Lisa and then a number of works that are derived from the Mona Lisa. In their discussion of these competing images, students assess the problem of not acknowledging sources and the need to highlight critical information while glossing over other parts. From this exercise, students are not only better prepared to discuss and produce their own art, but also can transfer paraphrasing concepts to their own writing activities (McGill, 2015). Additionally, by drawing parallels between art and writing, students begin to see the interconnections between multiple subjects rather than the artificial division of academic subjects.

Paraphrasing is a skill that should be developed in the early grades and then developed continuously through college. Regardless of the course topic or level in which a teacher presents paraphrasing strategies, attention should always be paid to ensuring that students comprehend the assigned text. Through successful paraphrasing, unintentional plagiarism will be avoided, students will better comprehend assigned readings, and student writing will flow in a more cohesive manner.

Terms & Concepts

Block Quote: A direct quotation, taken from original or secondary source material and inserted into a new text. Block quotes are typically four or more lines long.

Critical Thinking: Students use critical thinking when they analyze and evaluate a text and make a judgment about the text’s value or contribution to a subject.

Ethos: A Greek term for character and ethics. Concerning a written text, a writer establishes ethos when they explain or show that they are well qualified to write on a specific subject.

Paraphrase: Paraphrasing is the rewording of someone else’s words. This is done to produce greater clarity for a particular audience and ensure that a text flows well.

Plagiarism: Using someone else’s words and presenting them as your own.

Read-Ask-Paraphrase (RAP) method. A teaching method in which students read the original text, ask themselves what each word and sentence means, and put the main idea and details of the original text into their own words.

Summary: A summary briefly covers the main points presented in a text or speech.

Bibliography

Barry, E. S. (2006). Can paraphrasing practice help students define plagiarism?. College Student Journal, 40(2), 377–384. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=21375562&site=ehost-live

Bohn-Gettler, C. M., & Kendeou, P. (2014). The interplay of reader goals, working memory, and text structure during reading. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 39(3), 206–219. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=97250482&site=ehost-live

Hagaman, J. L., Casey, K. J., & Reid, R. (2016). Paraphrasing strategy instruction for struggling readers. Preventing School Failure, 60(1), 43–52. Retrieved January 12, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=111160946&site=ehost-live

Jawad, H. A. (2007). Paraphrase, parallelism and chiasmus in Literary Arabic: Norms and translation strategies. Babel, 53(3), 196–215. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Academic Search Complete with Full Text. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=29985120&site=ehost-live

Kletzien, S. B. (2009). Paraphrasing: An effective comprehension strategy. Reading Teacher, 63(1), 73–77. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=44054588&site=ehost-live

Maas, D. A. (2002). Make your paraphrasing plagiarism proof with a coat of E-prime. ETC: A Review of General Semantics, 59(2), 196. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=7009223&site=ehost-live

McGill, J. (2015). Using art to explore plagiarism. Teaching Theology & Religion, 18(1), 99. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=100489210&site=ehost-live

Moran, A. S., Swanson, H. L., Gerber, M. M., & Fung, W. (2014). The effects of paraphrasing interventions on problem-solving accuracy for children at risk for math disabilities. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice (Wiley-Blackwell), 29(3), 97–105. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=97500808&site=ehost-live

Walker, A. L. (2008). Preventing unintentional plagiarism: A method for strengthening paraphrasing skills. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 35(4), 387–395. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=36182187&site=ehost-live

Suggested Reading

Keck, C. (2014). Copying, paraphrasing, and academic writing development: A re-examination of L1 and L2 summarization practices. Journal of Second Language Writing, 25, 4–22. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=97935279&site=ehost-live

Shi, L. (2012). Rewriting and paraphrasing source texts in second language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 21(2), 134-148. Retrieved January 2, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=75355874&site=ehost-live

Youjia, H., Woods-Groves, S., Ford, J. W., & Nobles, K. A. (2014). Effects of the paraphrasing strategy on expository reading comprehension of young adults with intellectual disability. Education & Training in Autism & Developmental Disabilities, 49(3), 429–439. Retrieved January 12, 2016 from EBSCO Online Database Education Research Complete. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=97550377&site=ehost-live