Unit 8 Theme: Paraphrasing and summarizing

Objectives:

• look at paraphrasing i.e. writing another person’s idea in your own words

• look at summarizing, i.e. identifying the main ideas of the writer and putting them in your own words

Methodical instructions: This theme must be worked out during two lessons a week

according to timetable and its result can be achieved through extension the use of academic

language in speech activity: speaking, reading, writing and listening:

• The formation of listening skills can be developed when using a class video;

• The development of writing skills must be exercised through self-work tasks;

- Reading skills should be improved in course of working on training materials the content

of which is intended to be understood in full;

• Speaking skills can be developed through active communication on the Unit’s topics.

Listening: Watch a video “How to Paraphrase English text effectively” on http://youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+paraprase+text+effectevily

After watching do the following task: True, False or Not Given?

1. Paraphrasing is writing a content from the source material into your own words.

2. You should reread the source a few times until you clearly understand what it says.

3. Your source material which you are going to use, you should include in your reference list.

4. You might feel some difficulties in rewording when there is a marked similarity with the source material.

5. Don’t use antonyms.

6. Try not to change the word order.

7. Using different grammar can be helpful.

Task 1: Paraphrasing

1. Paraphrasing is writing the ideas of another person in your own words. You need to change the words and the structure but keep the meaning the same. Remember that even when you paraphrase someone’s work, you must acknowledge it. Look at this example, the original written by Andy Gillett.

Source

It has long been known that Cairo is the most populous place on earth, but no-one knew exactly how populous it was until last month.

Paraphrase

Although Cairo has been the world’s most heavily populated city for many years, the precise population was not known until four weeks ago. (Gillett, 2008).

What has the writer done to put this paragraph “into their own words”?

The process of paraphrasing involves the following stages:

1. Read and understand the text.

2. Make a list of the main ideas.

1. Find the important ideas – the important words/phrases. In some way mark them - write them down, underline or highlight them.

2. Find alternative words/synonyms for these words/phrases – do not change specialized vocabulary and common words.

3. Change the structure of the text.

1. Identify the meaning relationships between the words/ideas – e.g. cause/effect, generalization, contrast. Express these relationships in different way.

2. Change the grammar of the text: change nouns to verbs, adjectives to adverbs, etc., break up long sentences, combine short sentences.

4. Rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences. Combine your notes into a piece of continuous writing.

5. Check your work.

1. Make sure the meaning is the same.

2. Try to be concise and keep a similar length (not easy!)

3. Make sure the style is your own.

4. Remember to acknowledge other people’s work.

Adapted from Gillet, A. (2008) Information on paraphrasing retrieved from http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

Task 2: Practice in paraphrasing

1. you are now going to practice paraphrasing single sentences. Choose one sentence from the text below on tourism in Goa and use the following steps to paraphrase:

• Ensure you understand the text

• Underline or highlight the key points

• Use synonyms (similar vocabulary) for the main content words

• Change the structure of the sentence i.e. grammar and word order (active-passive; adjectives to adverbs), rewriting in your own words

Variously known as “Pearl of the Orient” and a “Tourist Paradise”, the state of Goa is located on the western coast of India in the coastal belt known as Konkan. The magnificent scenic beauty and the architectural splendours of its temples, churches and old houses have made Goa a firm favourite with travellers around the world. But then, Goa is much more than just beaches and sea. It has soul which goes deep into a unique history, rich culture and some of the prettiest natural scenery that India has to offer.

From: Goa Department of Tourism (2005). Retrieved January 12, 2005, from http://www.gotourism.org/About_Goa/goa_intro.htm

Summary writing

Being able to summarize skillfully is a useful tool. It can help you to study and to compete many of your writing assignments. You are often required to do large amounts of reading for college courses. Finding main ideas in what you read and writing these ideas down clearly makes studying more efficient.

Also, you are asked to produce different kinds of writing in college classes. Sometimes teachers will ask you to make reports on outside readings or to include the ideas of other authors in your research papers. In each case, you must know how to summarize.

What is a summary?

It is a shorted version of another author s writing.

It includes only the most important information.

It can be any length depending on the amount of information from the original text.

It is written in your own words

It Includes only the ideas from the original text, not your response to those ideas.

How do I summarize?

Notice the title, if there is one. It will help you know the topic. It may even help you know the main idea.

Read the passage quickly.

Then read it carefully. You will need to read it several times.

Find the main ideas.

Find the most important supporting details.

Put the passage away. (Don t look at it. )

In your own words, give the author’s main idea and main supporting ideas in a few sentences per paragraph.

Summary Problems

A summary has a problem when:

It uses too many of the same words as the original.

It is too short and doesn’t contain main supporting details.

It is too long and contains too many details.

It does not contain all the main ideas.

Its sentences lack clarity.

It contains an opinion.

Task 3: What is summary?

Paraphrase

1. Complete the definition of a summary below with suitable words for the gaps 1-6.

A summary is a (1) __________ version of a text. It contains the (2) __________points in the text and is written in your(3)__________words. It is a mixture of reducing a (4)________text to a shorter text and selecting relevant information. A good summary shows that you have (5)______ the text. When you summarize someone’s work, you (6) ____ acknowledge it.

____

(6)________acknowledge it.

You will often summarize ideas in academic writing, but summaries can also be useful when you are looking for information. It is an essential reading skill to preview certain parts of and article or book which provide summaries. These can help you decide how useful the material is for your purposes. The table below lists these parts

2. What is meant by the following terms?

1. ‘table of contents’

2. ‘blurb’

3. ‘preface’

Academic article	Title	Abstract Introduction Conclusion	Headings Topic sentences Diagrams
Book	Title Table of Contents	Blurb Introduction Preface Conclusion	Headings Topic sentences Diagrams
Chapter	Title	Introduction (1st 2/3 parag’s) Conclusion (last 2/3 parag’s)	Headings Topic sentences Diagrams
Essay/report/dissertation	Title Table of Contents (if appropriate)	Abstract (if appropriate) Introduction Conclusion	Section headings Sub-headings Topic sentences Diagrams

Task 4: Practice in summarizing.

4.1 Look at the short sample summary below and discuss with a partner the changes and omissions which have been made in order to produce the summary.

Source: The amphibia, which is the animal class to which our frogs and toads belong, were the first animals to crawl from the sea and inhabit the earth.

Summary: The first animals to leave the sea and live on dry land were the amphibia. (Gillet, 2008)

Source: Gillet, A. (2008) Information on summarizing adapted from http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm

Self work task:

Use paraphrasing and summarizing in your own research.

UNIT 9

Theme: Academic Style (Part I)

Objectives: look at some aspects of academic style, including use of reporting verbs, linking ideas and sentence structure

Methodical instructions: This theme must be worked out during two lessons a week according

to timetable and its result can be achieved through extension the use of academic language in

speech activity: speaking, reading, writing and listening:

• The formation of listening skills can be developed when using a class video;

• The development of writing skills must be exercised through self-work tasks;

- Reading skills should be improved in course of working on training materials the content

of which is intended to be understood in full;

• Speaking skills can be developed through active communication on the Unit’s topics.

Listening: Watch a video “What is Academic style” on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfQFjFXRSkk

After watching do the following task: True, False or Not Given?

1. Paraphrasing is writing a content from the source material into your own words.

2. You should reread the source a few times until you clearly understand what it says.

3. Your source material which you are going to use, you should include in your reference list.

4. You might feel some difficulties in rewording when there is a marked similarity with the source material.

5. Don’t use antonyms.

6. Try not to change the word order.

7. Using different grammar can be helpful.

Academic style covers a wide range of factors: it relates to your choice of vocabulary, the sentence structure you use, the way you link your ideas together both within a paragraph, and through different parts of your essay.

Task 1. Academic style – recognizing the difference

1. Read the following two passages A and B, and decide which you think is more academic in style. Why? Note some specific examples from the two texts by underlining or highlighting.

1.2 Can you name any of the features you have identified in Text B which are different from Text A?

i)

ii)

iii)

QUESTION: ‘Describe the short and long-term environmental effects of the deforestation of the Amazon Basin’.

Text A

(1)It’s obvious that if you destroy the trees of the Amazon Basin, you create problems both now and in the future. (2) In the short term, if people burn and log the forests, they get rid of a lot of kinds of flowers and animals. (3) And if they remove the forest, this takes away the food sources of the people who live there and who hunt and gather in them. (4) If you remove the protective canopy, the delicate soils of the area will be rapidly washed away by the heavy rainfall. (5) The people who clear the forests to raise animals and grow crops then find that the soil is useless. (6) Destroying the trees doesn’t just affect the Amazon Basin. (7) It has effects all over the world. …

Text B

1. The deforestation of the Amazon Basin leads to the creative of both short-term and long-term problems. (2) In the short-term, burning and logging forests may eliminate many species of fauna and flora. (3) The removal of forest also deprives hunting-and-gathering communities of food sources. (4) After the removal of the protective canopy, the delicate soils of the area may be rapidly eroded be the heavy rainfall, thus making the land useless for the pastoral or arable activities which often accompany forest clearance. (5) The effects of such large-scale deforestation are not simply local, but also global. …

Features of text B which indicate academic style

- Vocabulary is more formal

- Ideas are linked together e.g. ideas in sentences 6 and 7 have been combined for sentence 5.

- Full form of verb is used e.g. ‘it is’, not ‘it’s’

- It is more impersonal ‘the removal of…………’ replaces ‘if they remove’………..

- It is shorter although this is not necessarily a feature of more academic texts)

Academic Style – some guidelines

Source: Australia Study and Learning Centre (2007) Writing Skills. Accessed 1 Feb 2-11 at http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/

In the same way that recipes or disc jockeys use a particular style and form of language, academic assignments usually follow a particular style. Here are some guidelines:

Be tentative

Very little in the world today is clearly either right or wrong, all or nothing. Beliefs we may have held at one time may be challenged. Most research cannot cover every case of an event of phenomenon so most theories are open to modification. Academics, therefore, are cautious in the way they present their findings. and so should you be in your assignments. Use words or phrase such as:

• X suggests that

• There is a tendency to………………

• It would seem that/appear that………….

• The majority of……………….

e.g. Recent research suggests that a majority of people prefer to book a holiday which is organized, and where they do not have to make any decisions

Be precise and specific

Specific terminology in your subject is important, and even more important is your ability to explain these terms to a non-expert in your field. From the beginning you should think in terms of writing for the ‘educated’ reader, a non-expert in your field

• Build up your own glossary

• Develop a list of ‘power’ words e.g. a controversial idea is much more powerful than a different idea

• Edit your own work carefully, and even better get someone else to read it

• Support your ideas with specific examples and as far as possible let other people read your work

Task 2. Reporting verbs: Significance

Reporting verbs are widely used in academic writing, and can make a considerable contribution in demonstrating your stance and your analytical skills. You can choose to use some information from a text, and show clearly what you think about it from your choice of reporting verb.

2.1Look at the example below; in which sentence does the writer appear to support the author’s view. And in which sentence does s/he seem to think it is not a valid view?

1. McKeever clearly demonstrates that it is not the number of hours spent studying that guarantees success, but rather the strategies that students use.

2. Quinn claims that it is not the number of hours that students spend studying that guarantees success, rather the strategies they use.

Reporting verbs are also an important element of academic style, as you will be using them throughout your word, whether in summarizing, paraphrasing, or synthesizing ideas and in developing an argument. You have done some work on these in Unit 4, but will need to continue to develop your range of reporting verbs throughout your academic career. This stage will introduce you to more of the most common reporting verbs + that and show how you can use them to communicate your opinion about the sources more accurately.

Source: Adapted from Vicary, A. (2012) Forthcoming publication, Grammar for Writing. Reading: Garnet Education

Task 3. Reporting verbs + that

As you read academic texts in your subject area, notice the reporting verbs + that which are most commonly used. Make a list of them and try and use them in the correct context in your writing too.

1. Study the essay extracts a-d below.

1. Underline the five reporting verbs + that.

2. Which tenses are used in front of one of the reporting verbs for emphasis?

3. Which adverbs are used to emphasis the statement?

1. Leki (1990, p. 60) found that(1) there was ‘depressingly little evidence’ in both L1 and L2 research that teacher feedback could lead to improvements.

2. Cohen and Cavalcanti’s (1990) research confirmed that(2) instances of teacher bias were apparent in feedback. Difficult pupils seemed to receive more negative feedback comments than others whose behavior was more attentive in class.

3. Kando (1997) strongly believed that (3) old age was a time of decline, and that older people were less physically active and able and, therefore, required less housing space. However, Groc (2008) argues that many older people are also carers and the first US housing facility for older people who look after grandchildren or other dependants has just been built in New York City

4. Harding (2007) and Lansely et al., (2004) point out that even single older adults make extensive use of their rooms for family visits, leisure and other activities and they may also need room for a live-in carer or aids and adaptations.

Task 4. Tense of reporting verbs

Not that the simple present tense can be used even if the source cited was published some years also. This shows that the views of the author are still valid; they have not been disproved by subsequent research, in addition, the present perfect can be used to describe the result now of an activity in the past.

2. Choose the correct verb from the two given to compete the sentences in the boxes. Be careful to choose either the present or past simple.

1. Calculate/estimate

1. Brown (2004, p. 56) ____________ that ‘the number of storm days per month during the winter increased from 7 to 14 in 2003’.

2. Predictions are often inaccurate, but the IPPC (2003) ____________ that the increase in the Earth;s average surface temperature relative to 1991 will be within the range of 1° to 3.5° C by the year 2100.

2. Mention/emphasis

1. Seacott’s research (2008) ____________ that the three main indicators of global warming are temperature, precipitation and sea level.

2. In his introduction to the subject, Brown (2003) only briefly _____________ that the local innovation projects in Uganda had not been successful.

3. Agree/disagree

1. Smith (2001) states that there is strong evidence that global warming is increasing, and Jones (2002) clearly __________ that this is highly likely.

2. Smith (2001) states that there is compelling evidence that global warming is

3. increasing, but Sutton (2002) strongly ___________ that this is the case.

4. Claim/maintain

4. Claim/maintain

4.Claim/maintain

1. According to Maslin (2004), the climate change expert, skeptics falsely ________

that every data set showing global warming has been corrected or adjusted to achieve a desired result.

2. Maslin (2005) impressively _____________that this fact is itself part of the scientific process, whereby knowledge and understanding moves forward

incrementally.

5. Hypothesise/explain

5. Hypothesise/explain

5.Hypothesise/explain

1. In the 1980s, early scientists such as Arrhenius and Chamberlin __________ that ‘human’ activity could substantially warm the Earth by adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere’ (Faulkner, 2000:197). However, it was only in the 1940s and 1950s that modern technology was able to show that this was indeed the case.

2. Smith (1997)_______ that the experiment was fundamentally flawed; this view is now open to dispute.