Definition:
A restatement of a text in another form or other words, often to simplify or clarify meaning. See also:
Examples and Observations:
- "A summary, written in your own words, briefly restates the writer's main points. Paraphrase, although written in your own words, is used to relate the details or the progression of an idea in your source. Quotation, used sparingly, can lend credibility to your work or capture a memorable passage."
(Lawrence Behrens, A Sequence for Academic Writing. Longman, 2009) - "Paraphrase passages that present important points, explanations, or arguments but that don't contain memorable or straightforward wording. Follow these steps:
- Quickly review the passage to get a sense of the whole, and then go through the passage carefully, sentence by sentence.
- State the ideas in your own words, defining words as needed.
- If necessary, edit for clarity, but don't change the meaning.
- If you borrow phrases directly, put them in quotation marks.
- Check your paraphrase against the original for accurate tone and meaning."
- "In the famous sketch from the TV show 'Monty Python's Flying Circus,' the actor John Cleese had many ways of saying a parrot was dead, among them, 'This parrot is no more,' 'He's expired and gone to meet his maker,' and 'His metabolic processes are now history.'
"Computers can't do nearly that well at paraphrasing. English sentences with the same meaning take so many different forms that it has been difficult to get computers to recognize paraphrases, much less produce them.
"Now, using several methods, including statistical techniques borrowed from gene analysis, two researchers have created a program that can automatically generate paraphrases of English sentences."
(Anne Eisenberg, "Get Me Rewrite!" The New York Times, Dec. 25, 2003)
Pronunciation: PAR-a-fraz
