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How to Paraphrase — Transcript

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0:00Hi everybody. Welcome again to my
0:02writing course. For those of you who are
0:04new, welcome. I'm Adam. This is right to
0:07the top and we're working to become
0:09better writers, especially in academic,
0:11professional situations, and so on.
0:14So today's lesson is actually a very,
0:16very important skill that you need to
0:19develop.
0:20Today we're talking about paraphrasing.
0:23What is it? Why do you do it? How do you
0:25do it most importantly? Okay? Now before
0:28I get into it, I do want to remind
0:30everybody this channel does have a
0:32membership. You can join and become a
0:34member.
0:35There will be extra videos for members
0:37only. There will be worksheets. You can
0:39download all the PowerPoints that you
0:41see here on the screen behind me and a
0:44lot of other good features to the
0:46membership. Just so you know.
0:48If you don't want to join, that's fine.
0:50These videos are free. Please subscribe,
0:53like, and share with your friends. Let's
0:55grow this channel.
0:56Okay. With all that aside, let's get
0:58into it.
1:00What is paraphrasing?
1:01Now you've probably heard this word
1:03before. You've had to do it before. You
1:05will have to do it if you're going to
1:07university or higher education.
1:09Even if you just want to immigrate or
1:11emigrate, I should say, to a
1:12English-speaking country, you may need
1:14to take an English exam. You are going
1:16to have to understand what this is.
1:18So paraphrasing is basically taking
1:21somebody else's sentence or sentences
1:24and transforming this sentence
1:27by changing vocabulary, changing
1:29grammar, doing some other things to it,
1:30changing it and making it your own.
1:33Using your own words, your own voice to
1:35express the exact same meaning of the
1:38original sentence, the exact same
1:40message. Okay? So I wrote it down here,
1:43but that's essentially what it is. Now
1:45before we get into the details, why? Why
1:48do you need to paraphrase? Why is it
1:49such an important skill to have?
1:52Well, first of all,
1:53what you want to do is you want to
1:54present somebody else's ideas in your
1:56own words.
1:58You don't want to take credit for an
2:00or a presentation of an idea that
2:02somebody else did, right? That's not
2:04ethical. Plus, people might not
2:06necessarily trust you if you do that.
2:09Also, you want to convey somebody else's
2:11ideas that might not be very clear in a
2:15much simpler way that's easier for your
2:17reader to absorb, right? And we're going
2:19to see one example in particular, but
2:21older writing
2:23is very different style. It was a very
2:25different style.
2:27And some writers you're going to come
2:28across in the journals or textbooks you
2:30read,
2:31they might not be very good writers.
2:34They have good ideas. You're taking
2:35their ideas, but you want to express it
2:37in a way that your reader will
2:39understand it. And sometimes that can be
2:41uh much simpler.
2:44You also want to express an author's key
2:46points without the clutter.
2:49What is clutter? Clutter is basically
2:50like extra stuff, unnecessary stuff. It
2:54makes the sentence messy.
2:56So sometimes a person will write a
2:57sentence that's really long and the main
3:00idea
3:01might get a little bit buried under all
3:04the extra words that are there for fluff
3:06or for to be pretty or to be fancy or
3:09whatever, but they're really not
3:11necessary.
3:12Paraphrasing allows you to get rid of
3:14some of these words. Not all, but we'll
3:16get into that. And finally, for those of
3:19you who are going to take an English
3:20proficiency exam, IELTS, TOEFL,
3:22Cambridge, Pearson,
3:24you need to know how to paraphrase.
3:26And it's not only for the writing
3:27section. You're not only going to have
3:28to paraphrase the task in the writing
3:30section, for example in IELTS, you're
3:33also going to need to understand and
3:34recognize paraphrasing in the reading
3:36section.
3:38So imagine a reading passage, uh TOEFL
3:41or IELTS or any of the other exams,
3:43what do you see in the reading passage
3:45and what do you see in the question?
3:47Not the same.
3:49The the questions will be paraphrases of
3:51the passage and you make sure you have
3:53to make sure that you understand and
3:55they're going to try to trick you by
3:57making things look like the same as the
4:00passage, but there are differences that
4:02you should recognize and know it's not a
4:04proper paraphrase, not the same meaning.
4:07Okay, so let's get into it. First, we
4:09have to understand the difference
4:11between a paraphrase, a summary, and a
4:14quotation. Okay? A paraphrase is
4:18essentially saying the exact same thing
4:20as the original,
4:21maybe changing some words, changing some
4:23sentence structures or the syntax, but
4:26getting delivering the exact same
4:28message.
4:29It could be a bit shorter, could be
4:31simpler, definitely not longer or more
4:34complicated.
4:35A summary is basically the same as a
4:38paraphrase, but for a longer passage,
4:41for a whole paragraph. You want to
4:42squeeze a whole paragraph with multiple
4:45sentences into one sentence, for
4:47example. You can also summarize a whole
4:49chapter, a whole article, a whole book.
4:53So basically the difference the main
4:55difference is size and how much
4:58detail you're including. So in the
5:01paraphrase, you're probably going to
5:02include most of the information that you
5:05need to in order to deliver the same
5:07message.
5:08In a summary, you need to understand how
5:10to get the gist or the main point and
5:13get rid of everything else. The
5:15examples, the support, the details all
5:18have to be left out just to get the main
5:20message.
5:21A quotation
5:23takes the original sentence or sentences
5:26and presents them in exactly the same
5:29way. You don't change anything.
5:31You leave it as it is and you put it
5:33between quotation marks to show that
5:35you're taking it as is.
5:37Now this way, if there if the original
5:39writer had a mistake, a grammar mistake,
5:41a vocab mistake, you're quoting with the
5:43mistake and that's okay. That's not your
5:45mistake. It's the original author's
5:47mistake. Okay? So important to know the
5:49difference. Now now there's one thing
5:51you also have to keep in mind before we
5:53go into the details of how,
5:55regardless which of these three you do,
5:58paraphrase, summary, or quotation, you
6:00always have to cite.
6:02You You have to attribute the
6:05information to the original author.
6:08If you don't, then you can be accused of
6:09plagiarism.
6:11Plagiarism is basically cheating. It's
6:13copying somebody else's work and
6:15presenting it like it's your own.
6:17In university, you will be expelled for
6:20this.
6:21In professional settings, you will be
6:23discredited and maybe even fired. So
6:25always
6:27accredit. Always attribute the original
6:30information to the person you got it
6:32from or the persons you got it from.
6:35Okay?
6:35So now, let's look at an example
6:38of Before we get into the how, I want to
6:40show you a couple of examples, different
6:42ways to do it because it's also
6:43important to remember that when you're
6:45paraphrasing,
6:47there isn't one way to do it.
6:49I can look at a sentence, paraphrase it
6:51in one way. You look at the sentence,
6:53you'll paraphrase it another way. Both
6:54of us can be correct.
6:56Okay? The idea is to put it into your
6:58own words, and your own words means your
7:00own style.
7:02So here's an original sentence, and I'm
7:03keeping this very simple
7:05just to prove just to show the point.
7:08William proposed to Helene, but she
7:09refused.
7:11Very straightforward, easy sentence, but
7:13I want to paraphrase it.
7:15So I'm going to start changing words.
7:16William asked Helene to marry him,
7:19asked to marry, proposed,
7:21but she declined.
7:23Okay, with declined, refused, synonyms,
7:25no problem.
7:26The sentence is almost exactly the same.
7:29I just changed vocabulary.
7:31Or but she said no, same idea as
7:34refused.
7:35This is the most basic paraphrase you
7:38can get when you're only changing a few
7:39of the key words and leaving everything
7:41else the same.
7:43When you don't know how to change
7:45anything else, this is good enough.
7:47But you want to do a little bit more to
7:49get a true paraphrase.
7:51Helene said no when William asked her to
7:53marry him.
7:54So basically I took the same sentence
7:55and now I just switch the order.
7:58Helene is now the subject instead of
8:00William, and the William asked to marry,
8:03that clause is now at the end. I've just
8:04switched the order.
8:06Still, different words, different
8:08sentence structures, different syntax.
8:10That's a a little bit stronger
8:12paraphrase now.
8:13Then,
8:14Helene rejected William's marriage
8:16proposal.
8:17This is a full-on paraphrase because
8:19I've kept all the information. I've kept
8:21the exact same message.
8:24I've simplified it. I've shortened it a
8:26little bit, but you get the exact same
8:28information as you did up there. I
8:30changed syntax, I changed wording, I
8:32changed structures, okay? So this is
8:35probably the strongest paraphrase.
8:38Not wrong, not wrong, just the best.
8:41Okay? Last one. In the story, so I'm
8:44putting this like within a context of
8:46something. I'm telling a story. In the
8:48story, William proposed to her, but she
8:51refused. Notice I have the quotation
8:53marks. I'm taking the exact same words
8:56as the original.
8:57The only change I made
8:59was here. I took out Helene and I put
9:01her. So one, right away you understand
9:04that I already mentioned Helene before.
9:06That 's why I can point back to her. If
9:08I didn't mention Helene and you've never
9:10heard her before, I must put Helene
9:12here.
9:13Now another thing to notice, because I
9:15made a change to the original, I put it
9:18between square brackets to show that I,
9:21the new writer, made this change. Okay?
9:24Important to remember that.
9:26We'll talk about quotations at at
9:28another time anyway.
9:29Now one thing you don't want to do when
9:32it comes to paraphrasing. You don't want
9:34to make it less readable to your
9:38writers, to your readers, sorry.
9:40Don't do this.
9:42William approached Helene with an offer
9:43of marriage, but she turned him down
9:45emphatically.
9:47Yeah, the message is the same.
9:49But this is actually a longer sentence,
9:51much more complicated, a lot less easy
9:53to read, right? You don't want to have
9:56this kind of paraphrase.
9:57Simpler, not more complicated.
10:00Now how do we paraphrase?
10:02Okay, so what do we do first? The first
10:04thing we need to do is actually
10:06understand what it is we're reading,
10:07what the original author
10:09is expressing to us, right? What is the
10:11central point or the main claim or the
10:14main argument or the main idea that the
10:16author is presenting? You have to
10:18understand that first.
10:19How are you going to find that? Well,
10:21one thing you can do is you identify the
10:23main or the the independent clause, but
10:26if you have more than one independent
10:27clause, identify the main independent
10:30clause.
10:30If you have two independent clauses with
10:32and or but etc., find the main one.
10:36Separate the claim from all the
10:38supporting materials, all that clutter,
10:40right?
10:41Take the claim and isolate it,
10:43understand it. All the extra stuff
10:45you'll deal with a little bit later.
10:47And find the overarching point. So if
10:49you have a little bit of a longer
10:51section to paraphrase, find what is
10:53holding it all together and identify
10:55that so you understand what you need to
10:57express to your reader. Okay?
11:00Then
11:01you also have to recognize and keep
11:03intact. Keep intact means keep together,
11:05keep in the same position, same place,
11:08same function.
11:10Sequences.
11:11Something happened first, something
11:13happened second, something happened
11:14third. In your paraphrase,
11:16make sure you have the exact same
11:17sequence. Chronology. So something
11:19happened first in time, second in time,
11:22third in time. Make sure you keep the
11:23chronology. Steps and instructions and
11:26so on and so forth.
11:27Relationships. Make sure you identify
11:29all the relationships in the sentence
11:31and keep them. So the two types. One,
11:34you have like a grammatical
11:35relationship. The subject is doing the
11:38verb to this object. Now you in your
11:40paraphrase, you may want to go to a
11:41passive and that's fine. Just make sure
11:44that the relationship remains the same
11:46as the original.
11:48And other relationships, like if you're
11:49using adverb clauses to reinforce or
11:52make show a contrast or a condition,
11:54make sure your paraphrase shows those
11:56relationships as well.
11:58You you can't get rid of them because
12:00then it's not a paraphrase. Then you're
12:02changing the meaning of the of the
12:03sentence.
12:05Clause markers, references etc., you can
12:07change all of these.
12:08If you're using although in the
12:10original, if the original has although,
12:13yours can have despite, right? So you
12:15can change these, just make sure you're
12:17keeping the relationships. References.
12:19Pronoun in the original, change it to
12:21something else in the paraphrase. Scope,
12:24limitations, unique features, numbers.
12:26All of these things must transform
12:29equally in the paraphrase. Don't
12:31interpret anything, don't change
12:33anything, keep the meaning intact. Keep
12:35all the relationships and everything
12:37intact. Okay? Now, another way you can
12:40do it, you can change the vocabulary. We
12:42already talked about that in the
12:43example. That's the most that's the most
12:46direct or the easiest way to do it. But
12:48you also have to be careful.
12:50Just because words are synonyms doesn't
12:52mean that they're interchangeable
12:54in certain contexts.
12:56And you also have to think about
12:58connotation and nuance and all of these
13:00things, right?
13:01If the original said may, something may
13:03happen,
13:05your paraphrase cannot say will happen.
13:08Now you're changing the meaning. It
13:10looks like a small thing, modal verb,
13:12modal verb, completely changing the
13:14meaning.
13:14Let's go back to that example I showed
13:16you before.
13:18William asked her to marry him. She
13:19refused or she declined. Now, refuse and
13:23decline both mean say no,
13:26right? But refused is a little bit
13:28stronger. No.
13:30I won't marry you.
13:31Declined is more a little bit more
13:33polite, a little bit softer. No, thank
13:35you. Right? Now, does this make a
13:37difference in the big picture? It
13:40depends.
13:41If what you're writing about
13:44focuses a little bit more on Helene and
13:46you need to know her character, you need
13:48to know her thinking at that moment,
13:51then yeah, these two words make a
13:52difference. Refuse and decline shows her
13:55state of mind.
13:56If the story is about William
13:58and Helene is just like a a blip in his
14:00story, like a moment in time and then he
14:03lived happily ever after, then no, it
14:05doesn't matter. The reader won't even
14:06notice the difference, right? So it
14:08depends on context
14:11which synonym works, which doesn't.
14:13Okay?
14:14And then of course grammar, syntax,
14:16structures, you can change positioning
14:19within the sentence, grammatical
14:21positioning. You can change active to
14:23passive. You can change the clause
14:25order. Put this clause that was second
14:28first, and so on and so forth.
14:29Referencing tools, you have a whole
14:31bunch of referencing tools. You can
14:33change them.
14:34Other grammatical tools and features.
14:35You have all kinds of tools you can use
14:37with grammar to make the difference in
14:40the new sentence. Okay.
14:42Now,
14:43you're almost there. You're almost ready
14:45to paraphrase. One last thing I always
14:47recommend.
14:49Provide a simple explanation. Now, what
14:51does this mean? Imagine that you're
14:53taking the original sentence
14:55and you want to
14:57help somebody understand what it
14:58actually says. How would you explain
15:00this to somebody
15:01not involved in your essay, right?
15:04Somebody who doesn't know the subject,
15:06somebody who doesn't know what you're
15:07trying to say. You're going to explain
15:09to them what this author said
15:12as simple as possible so they can
15:13understand it. Or
15:15imagine you're explaining it to a child.
15:16How would you explain it?
15:18However you say it, say it out loud.
15:21Say it out loud, explain it, and then
15:22write down whatever it is you wrote.
15:25Then
15:26go back to your vocabulary, your
15:27grammar, make all the adjustments you
15:29need. Make sure you understand that the
15:30message is still there. Compare it to
15:32the original. And there you have your
15:34paraphrase. Okay? And then put all all
15:38of the tools together to get your new
15:40sentence.
15:42Then you're almost almost done
15:44because why are you paraphrasing?
15:47You're probably writing an essay. You
15:48need to take this author's idea and put
15:50it into your essay.
15:52That means there's going to be a
15:53sentence before it. There's going to be
15:55a sentence after it. You need to sew the
15:57ends together as it were, right? Like
15:59when a surgeon puts a new blood vessel
16:02in you, he has to attach it to both
16:04ends, right? So
16:06make sure that you make all the
16:07adjustments to fit it nicely
16:10into the surrounding text so that it
16:12flows
16:13all the way through the paraphrase into
16:15the next idea and so on and so forth.
16:17Okay? So now, we're going to do another
16:20example. Again, I'm keeping it pretty
16:22simple.
16:23Uh, just a very everyday situation here.
16:25We're going to paraphrase it. So Joey's
16:27parents were worried that his older
16:29siblings' reputations at the high school
16:30would overshadow Joey's own sense of
16:33personal identification. With this in
16:34mind, they decided to enroll him at the
16:36private school not far from their home.
16:39Press pause on your video,
16:41read the sentence to yourself again, and
16:43paraphrase it.
16:44Now remember, how I do it, how you do it
16:46might not be the same. Put yours in the
16:48comment section, compare to other
16:50people's, and press play and see what we
16:52do.
16:53So here's one
16:54possible paraphrase.
16:56Again, press pause, look at it, think
16:59what is wrong with this? Why is this not
17:01a good paraphrase?
17:03When you're ready, press play, come back
17:05and you'll hear me break it down for
17:07you.
17:08So let's start.
17:10Right away, you can see this paraphrase
17:13is actually longer than the original.
17:16We don't want to go longer. We want to
17:17stay the same or go shorter and simpler.
17:20Another problem is here we're talking
17:23about the impact of his elder brother
17:25and sister's status. In the original, we
17:28talked about his older siblings.
17:30Now siblings means brother or sister and
17:33or sister.
17:35How do you know if there's a brother and
17:37a sister?
17:38Maybe there's two brothers, maybe
17:39there's two sisters, three brothers and
17:41one sister, or any other combination is
17:44possible. That word doesn't give you any
17:47information
17:48unless you were told before. But we're
17:51only looking at this, so this doesn't
17:53tell you. Don't interpret.
17:56Don't add your own ideas just to change
17:58vocabulary. Okay?
18:00Same with mother and father for parents.
18:03You don't have to change every word.
18:06Parents is an everyday word. It's okay
18:08to say parents in the paraphrase again.
18:11Keep in mind
18:12mother and father, three words, parents,
18:14one word. If you say mother and father,
18:16mother and father, mother and father, if
18:17you say it 10 times, your reader's are
18:19gone. They're not reading you. They
18:20don't trust you.
18:22Right?
18:23If you're writing, parents, parents,
18:24parents, parents, parents, okay, then
18:25once in a while, just put in mother and
18:27father just for a little variety. But
18:29don't force
18:31changes just to force changes. Okay? So
18:34that's the main thing. Otherwise, the
18:36ideas are more or less the same. Let's
18:38look at another example.
18:40Here's my paraphrase.
18:42Concerned about their son's
18:43self-development, Joey's parents
18:45enrolled him in a private high school
18:46where he'd be judged on his own merits,
18:48not relative to his siblings.
18:50Again, I shortened it. I got rid of a
18:52few extra words that weren't necessary,
18:55but I kept the message. The messages
18:57match. And that's what you're aiming
18:59for.
19:00Okay?
19:01Let's look at a challenge. I gave you a
19:03little challenge.
19:04I'm going to again ask you to press
19:06pause on your video, take a few minutes,
19:09try to paraphrase this, or at least
19:11identify the things that you need to put
19:14in your paraphrase.
19:16Come back and I'll show you how to do
19:17it. Okay, so what are you going to start
19:20with right away?
19:21Number one, I see although I see there's
19:24going to be some sort of contrasting
19:25relationship here.
19:26That's fine.
19:27I'm looking at the whole thing and
19:30I'm looking all the way around, all the
19:31way around. My clause ends here. All
19:35this is extra information. Here is my
19:37independent clause.
19:39Just felt disappointed.
19:41That's your main idea.
19:43Whatever's going on, she felt
19:45disappointed.
19:47And she vowed.
19:48So here I would have she.
19:52She felt disappointed and she vowed to
19:54practice harder.
19:55So this is your main idea. Everything
19:57else is just a little bit extra, but you
19:59also want to make sure that you show the
20:01relationship, the contrasting
20:02relationship. Right?
20:04And you want to make sure that you
20:06include the notoriously difficult to
20:09impress critic because the writer made a
20:12point of of mentioning this. You can't
20:14get rid of that. Okay? So these are your
20:17main ideas. She got rave reviews.
20:21Means she got
20:23like, you know, very good reviews, very
20:25positive reviews about her performance.
20:27So she doesn't really have a reason to
20:29be disappointed. Okay, so here's how I
20:31paraphrase it. Jess was unhappy in her
20:35with her performance despite the praise
20:37it got in the press, especially by one
20:38hard-nosed critic. So she promised to
20:41put in the daily effort to get better.
20:44A little bit shorter, a little bit
20:45simpler. I put Jess at the beginning of
20:47the sentence.
20:48I have despite instead of although to
20:50show the contrast. I have the hard-nosed
20:53critic. Hard-nosed like stubborn, very
20:55difficult to impress in this case.
20:58And she promised to try harder every
21:01day.
21:02All the main points are in there.
21:05Good paraphrase has the same message.
21:08Okay? Again, put your paraphrase in the
21:10comments compared to your
21:13peers. And last thing I want to mention.
21:16I got another challenge for you.
21:18This is an excerpt from a book called
21:20The Wealth of Nations, very famous book
21:23still studied today even though it was
21:24written 250 years ago by Adam Smith, a
21:28Scottish economist and philosopher.
21:31They wrote differently back then.
21:33Right? They They use a lot of fancy
21:37structures and words and all kinds of
21:39things to be a That's how they spoke
21:41too, right? So it's it's understandable
21:43that they did this.
21:44Now, if you go to university today, you
21:46probably you Well, it depends what
21:48you're studying, but you may actually
21:49have to read this book.
21:50This book is still studied today.
21:53You're going to have to read a lot of
21:54older books that are not so easy to
21:56read.
21:57You need to be able to cut through all
21:59of this,
22:00understand it, and paraphrase it. So
22:03reduce all of this into one sentence to
22:06deliver the main idea.
22:08I'm not going to do it here.
22:10I'm going to do it in the next video and
22:11if you're a member of the channel, you
22:12can watch that video. I will do a bit of
22:15a workshop. I'm going to do a
22:17paraphrasing workshop. We're going to
22:19work through this
22:21quotation or this excerpt plus a couple
22:24of
22:25step by step to make sure that you
22:26understand how to paraphrase, okay?
22:29Now, if you have any questions or
22:30comments, please put them below
22:33and I'll see you on the next video.
22:34We're going to learn how to make your
22:36writing much clearer, okay? See you
22:38then. Bye-bye.

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