Paraphrase Skills
Copying and pasting from somewhere else cannot be called “writing”. It is also not necessary, because factual material can be paraphrased: rewritten to retain the factual content, expressed in a way sufficiently different from the original wording.
Paraphrase is a composite skill, and includes concision work. It is also the key enabling skill, if you want to compile encyclopedia articles.
In brief, you need to respect copyright; you need the skill of picking out the key points in the text in front of you; you must not simply claim the work of others as your own; and, fundamentally, there is no copyright in pure facts, but you must be able to articulate and present them. Paraphrase of a selection is the way to reuse factual prose.
The topics covered in this chapter are:
- Copyright violation and plagiarism
- Concision
- Make an abstract
- In your own words
Allow one hour to work through these points.
Copyright
Most content pasted from another website will be subject to copyright. It should therefore not be used in that form. It must be paraphrased and referenced. Rewriting it also gives a chance to improve concision and get the right tone.
Plagiarism exists in a different dimension than copyright violation, even if the two often occur together. A claim to be doing original writing, when you are not, offends against a social rule. Most people take it to be a kind of lying. Now, in dealing with factual material, repeating the facts shows little enough originality. And so you can repeat facts. Still, you are supposed to reference the facts also to your source, which can serve as attribution.
And no way should you use the exact words, in a verbatim copy. A close paraphrase is not acceptable, either, but in dealing with plain facts, you don't have to make artificial attempts to reword everything.
Example
First, supply chain efficiency, logistics, and infrastructure are becoming more important for manufacturing sector success. As a recent World Bank publication notes, manufacturers are increasingly competing in these areas as opposed to in lower wages. China has already built up a reliable ecosystem incorporating these factors, but recently renewed its efforts to invest and upgrade in them.
[From Peer review – Made in China. This text by Ravi Prasad can be found here. Its usage in this manual is considered “fair use”. There are many clues that can lead to the detection of copyright violations. Here the term “recent” is used, which is not good from the encyclopedic point of view: in a few years' time it would be unhelpful. Replace “recent” by “2018” or a relevant date in such cases.]
Proposed solution
Better logistics are becoming more important to manufacturers than keeping wages down. In China, earlier progress in this area is being reinforced by further investment.[1]
Example
In the late 1960s, computer vision began at universities that were pioneering artificial intelligence. It was meant to mimic the human visual system, as a stepping stone to endowing robots with intelligent behavior. In 1966, it was believed that this could be achieved through a summer project, by attaching a camera to a computer and having it "describe what it saw". What distinguished computer vision from the prevalent field of digital image processing at that time was a desire to extract three-dimensional structure from images with the goal of achieving full scene understanding.
[From Computer Vision.]
Please work out your proposed solution for the example just given, before scrolling down further!
Proposed solution
Computer vision as a research field started as a support to robotics. By the mid-1960s, academics in the artificial intelligence field saw that a camera could be interfaced to a robot. The required advance over digital image processing, of understanding scenes, was initially not thought to require lengthy research.
Concision
Concision means saying the same things in fewer words. Up to a point, it is very useful to give a compact version of material from a quoted source, by tighter wording. Earlier parts of an article may have already given context that allows your version to be shorter and clearer.
Example
Due to the limited knowledge of the behaviour of duplex stainless steel in structural engineering, the development of using duplex as a structural material has been somewhat restrained. One can argue that the mechanical and structural behaviour of duplex steels are “in-between” austenitic and ferritic (carbon) steels. However, under these premises structural design tends to be conservative, which may lead to unnecessary over-sizing, and rightly so, to provide certain structural integrity if specific material data are not available. Nevertheless, the structural potential of a material is not fully utilized without specific guidelines considering the characteristic properties of stainless steel and particularly duplex grades.
[From Duplex engineering design considerations]
Proposed solution
Duplex stainless steel, intermediate between austenitic and ferritic carbon steels, has only slowly been taken up for construction. Data has been lacking, meaning that designs would err on the side of safety, in other words use too much steel.
Example
Initially the ground was the home of the Holbeck Rugby Club, which played in the Northern Rugby Union, the forerunner of the Rugby Football League. One of Leeds' first nicknames, 'The Peacocks', comes from the original name of Elland Road – 'The Old Peacock ground'. It was named by the original owners of the ground, Bentley's Brewery, after its pub The Old Peacock, which still faces the site. The newly formed Leeds City agreed to rent and later own Elland Road. After their disbandment, it was sold to Leeds United. The most recent stand at Elland Road is the East, or Family, Stand, a cantilever structure completed during the 1992–93 season that can hold 17,000 seated spectators. It is a two-tiered stand that continues around the corners, and is the largest part of the stadium. The Don Revie Stand was opened at the start of the 1994–95 season, and can hold just under 7,000 seated spectators.
[From Peer review – Leeds United F.C.]
Please work out your proposed solution for the example just given, before scrolling down further!
Proposed solution
Elland Road, the Leeds ground, was once used by Holbeck Rugby Club, and at one time was called the Old Peacock ground, after a pub opposite that still exists. Leeds City club in its early days rented Elland Road; they closed down, and it was sold to Leeds United, who acquired a nickname too, “The Peacocks”. The major part of the stadium is the East Stand (also known as the Family Stand); there is also the Don Revie Stand.
Make an abstract
Précis is the literary term for the art and technique of summarising essential points from a source. In science and technology this process is usually called making an abstract.
Abstracting makes proper use of any extended material your research turns up. A good abstract goes beyond concision work by discarding what you don’t want. If anything in it looks superfluous or like padding, you should take more out.
The final example in Chapter 4 suggests that just paring down sentences can eventually work against fairness. Being selective can operate another way: just drop stuff unless you can give a good reason it needs to be retained.
There is no set proportion to précis. it is not based on wanting a reduction in length to 20%, or any such figure, and "editing to length" is something different. It should pick out the salient points, for your particular purpose.
Example
He was elected member for Trim in the Irish Parliament, in the session commencing 20th January 1791; and held the seat until that Parliament was dissolved on 5th June 1795. Reference to the Irish Debates shows that he addressed the House on five occasions. On 10th January 1792 he seconded the address on the speech from the Lord-Lieutenant — supporting Government in its warlike policy towards France and its discouragement of the Volunteers, or "National Guards," and thus expressed himself on the Catholic question: "I have no doubt of the loyalty of the Catholics of this country, and I trust when the question shall be brought forward we shall lay aside animosities, and act with moderation and dignity, and not with the fury and violence of partisans." On 28th January 1793 he spoke in favour of the House vindicating its privileges in the matter of the printer and proprietor of theHibernian Journal, accused of publishing a libel on their body. On the 25th of February he supported a Catholic Relief Bill, but deprecated the admission of Catholics into Parliament. On 24th January 1794 he expressed himself with reference to a return regarding enlistment. On 13th March 1795 he defended the conduct of the Lord-Lieutenant in permitting a large number of regular troops to be sent out of Ireland for the defence of the Empire, assuring the mover of a resolution, that, "however he may treat the new levies with contempt, they were not objects of contempt to the enemies of their country." Arthur Wellesley and Lord Edward FitzGerald sat in Parliament at the same time, and served together on committees. Sir Jonah Barrington thus describes the former in 1793: "He was then ruddy-faced and juvenile in appearance, and popular enough among the young men of his age and station; his address was unpolished; he occasionally spoke in Parliament, but not successfully, and never on important subjects; and evinced no promise of that unparalleled celebrity and splendour which he has since reached, and whereunto intrepidity, decision, good luck, and great military science, have justly combined to elevate him. … I became rather intimate with Captain Wellesley and Mr. Stewart [afterwards Lord Castlereagh], and perceived certain amiable qualities in both, which a change of times, or the intoxication of prosperity, certainly in some degree tended to diminish." Lord Plunket often told how upon one occasion, when sitting with Arthur Wellesley on a committee of the Irish House of Commons, he never for a moment ceased playing the then fashionable game with a "quiz." FitzPatrick, in his Sham Squire, says: "The early life of the 'Iron Duke,' if honestly told, would exhibit him deficient in ballast. Having had some warm words with a Frenchman in Dublin, he wrested from his hand a cane, which was not returned. The Frenchman brought an action for the robbery of the cane, and Wellesley was absolutely tried in the Sessions House, Dublin, for the offence. He was acquitted of the robbery, but found guilty of the assault." In June 1794, Arthur Wellesley embarked at Cork with some Irish regiments on an expedition to Flanders, where he distinguished himself upon several occasions. The British troops were obliged to return home ignominiously next spring, having been unable to effect anything against the French, and Wellesley appears to have been disgusted with the war, with the incapacity of the generals, and the blunders and mismanagement of the home authorities.
[A part of the early career of the Duke of Wellington. From Wikisource.]
Proposed solution
Wellesley was member for Trim in the Irish Parliament from 1791 to 1795. In 1792 he expressed himself there on Catholic emancipation: "I trust when the question shall be brought forward we shall lay aside animosities, and act with moderation and dignity." In 1794, a British Army officer, he embarked at Cork with Irish regiments on an expedition to Flanders. The British troops had to return home next spring, without doing anything against the French, and Wellesley appears to have been disillusioned with the war.
Comment: The original text is very verbose, and the essential content has to be picked out. The "Catholic question" was a euphemism for the political inertia on and resistance to Catholic emancipation. Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, encountered the issue, as Prime Minister. The point is therefore important, but the euphemism would be unwelcome. It really is interesting that in 1792 Wellesley's line on "moderation" was a politician's, while in later life he expressed himself more as the stereotypical crusty general.
Example
While anthropologists and ethnobotanists first brought information of this practice to the western world, it was Terence McKenna and his brother, Dennis, who is credited for having the most influence in spreading its use and popularity. Terence, who embodied the term psychonaut, was dedicated, arguably obsessed, with discovering pathways to the wisdom realms of expanded consciousness so often revered in traditional tribal cultures around the world. It was through the McKenna brothers’ books and Terence’s extraordinary gift as a spell-weaving orator that so many were drawn to explore ayahuasca and adapt it into their spiritual pharmacopeia.
[From Peer review – Ayahuasca]
Please work out your proposed solution for the example just given, before scrolling down further!
Proposed solution
The brothers Terence and Dennis McKenna spread interest in ayahuasca, through books and Terence’s conviction as a public speaker.
In your own words
At the end of this writing guide, here is an example given without a solution.
Example
The poem has been part of English literary culture ever since Henley wrote it, however it has also been part of many historical figures lives. The most famous example of this is that Nelson Mandela recited this poem to the political prisoners on Robben Island. [10] Winston Churchill also referenced this poem in a speech to parliament in 1941, saying "We are still masters of our fate. We still are captains of our souls." [11]
The poem has also seen many cultural references, from its inclusion in Mass Effect 3 and the Big Short to it being the namesake for the film 'Invictus.' Invictus is a film about Nelson Mandela and the 1995 Rugby World Cup in which against the odds the Springboks (South Africa) won. The poem also gave inspiration to The Invictus games, which are an olympic styled games event for wounded armed service personnel from around the world, created by Prince Harry. [12]
[From Invictus (Poem)]
You might notice a number of issues: use of “however”, Mandela occurring in two places, the film Invictus being spread over two sentences. The repetition of “games” in the final sentence is a jarring duplication. You might think, rightly, that Churchill should be moved to the top of this selection.
Go ahead and try it your own way. If you share these thoughts, you probably can find a solution to the issues on your own. If you have followed what has been said so far, you should consider yourself a graduate of the course.
There is no one way to write well, so no model solution is given.