7 highly efective ways of paraphrasing an english sentence at intermediate level

7 highly efective ways of paraphrasing an english sentence at intermediate level 1 1 INTRODUCTION Rationale English has become the global language and has been used across all fields of life With such great effect, it is essential that everyone in the world should learn how to communicate in this language However, English learners often have difficulties mastering four main skills of this language, especially writing skill and paraphrasing is one of the obstacles students face during their proce[.]

1 INTRODUCTION:

- Rationale:

English has become the global language and has been used across all fields of life With such great effect, it is essential that everyone in the world should learn how to communicate in this language However, English learners often have difficulties mastering four main skills of this language, especially writing skill and paraphrasing is one of the obstacles students face during their process of learning this kind of skill

According to statistics reported by the National Language Strategies Development, Vietnamese learners often face difficulties when expressing their own words in the English language, especially in terms of writing although they have been learning English for a long time It is important to encourage students

to write as much as possible and to increase quality and accuracy, teachers need

to ensure that they are consistent in enforcing writing rules and in correcting students’ written work From this long term process, such English productive skill promotes need to produce language and paraphrasing enabling students to demonstrate their understanding of a text at a deeper level is one of the fundamental tasks of perfecting this main skill

However, learners have great troubles in paraphrasing an English text This is shown in a case study conducted with aims to find out the students ability in paraphrasing, the problems faced in paraphrasing and the causes of the problems in paraphrasing There were 23 participants in this study The data were collected from paraphrasing test, questionnaire and interview The finding

of the data analysis showed 77% of the students’ ability in paraphrasing qualified in unsatisfactory level From the test, it was found that 77% of the students made mistake in changing the order of ideas, while 77% respondents of the questionnaire and 80% of interviewees mentioned changing word as their problem in paraphrasing The different result of the instruments was caused by the students’ lack of understanding toward the criteria of a good paraphrasing Furthermore, lack of vocabulary and understanding about paraphrasing discovered as the causes of the students‟ problems in paraphrasing

good average Unsatisfactory

As a result, many of them lose their self – confidence on the ground of embarrassment of failing entrance exams or low level of English

22%

77%

The chart:

Students’ Ability in Paraphrasing

8%

- The purpose:

The aim of this paper is to show the different ways of paraphrasing an English source effectively in English writing skill for EFL students in intermediate level classrooms

Based on problems analysed above, the writer was interested in conducting some major ways of paraphrasing in written forms drawn from her teaching process with a hope that the students can find their confidence and develop their motivation in paraphrasing task

Paraphrasing is an act of re-writing phrases or sentences so that they have the same meaning as their original material When creating a paraphrase, the writer will convey the author’s information and implication from original sources in his own words without directly quoting them

There are a number of reasons for rephrasing sentences Firstly, quoting directly without attribution is a kind of plagiarism and therefore it constitutes academic dishonesty, which leads to punishments for illegality Additionally, repetition of the phrases or sentences in writing causes readers’ potential boredom Some sources recommend that no more than 10 percent of an academic paper or article consist of exact wording from a research source In terms of advanced writing, paraphrasing shows high level someone has achieved and mastered Definitely, advanced written form requires the findings and interpretations without precise reproduction of others For the accounts from above, it is essential to paraphrase any sentences/ sayings in almost all cases

Although paraphrasing today has been accorded higher and higher interest for its importance in expressing one’s thought in variety of his own words, it is still relatively new model of learning in high school classrooms The paper thus seeks to find out the possible ways of rephrasing a phrase/ sentence which both teachers and students use, to some extent, to shape their written forms Additionally, it also aims at fostering students’ creative learning and attaining academic goals in this level

- The objectives:

The inspiration for this writing is taken from English Mid-level students who need help and encouragement from their teachers in solving their repeated troubles converting a speech of others into their own form It is also the students who necessarily have an acknowledgement of parapharing as a pivotal role in writing and an acquisition of managing it in their current course

- Methodology:

To provide theoretical foundation for the innovative approach on sentence paraphrasing, this section focuses on research in 3 areas: Theoritical basis created during teaching process, the application of practice exercises derived from national textbooks and the survey based on students’ answers to this content

2 CONTENT:

2.1 Theoretical basis:

The approach to working with sentence paraphrasing focuses on suggesting the ways of restating a source in a new style that the students at high school often apply in four main English skills, especially in writing one

To paraphrase a sentence, one has to write down an author’s ideas in his own words It is not simply substituting the author’s exact words with synonyms and his writing needs making a difference from the original text in both vocabulary and style but still contains the author’s main implication For this reason, to have a perfect rewording writing, there are some important things that should be noted:

Paraphrasing acquisition:

- When reading a passage, try first to understand it as a whole, rather than pausing to write down specific ideas or phrases

- Be selective Unless your assignment is to do a formal or "literal" paraphrase, you usually don’t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper

- Remember that you can use direct quotations of phrases from the original within your paraphrase, and that you don't need to change or put quotation marks around shared language

- Gaining knowledge of English vocabulary as well as grammatical terms will greatly improve your ability to paraphrase While practicing paraphrasing, it is better to use an English dictionary and an English grammar book rather than a translation device

2.2 Factual basis:

From the experience drawn from English teaching process at high schools, the writer find that most of the students are afraid of writing lessons During the lessons, they express their difficulties in restating an originator’s words in their own style and just keep silence or do the tasks at their lowest level

in hopes that the lessons are quick processes The teachers have to give out many suggestions and encouragement; however, it is virtually hard for them to complete the tasks

At the end of the lesson, the students feel stressful and bored In consequence, their marks in writing skill test are very low The marks in 12A2, 12A3 and 12A6 are shown as follows:

Class Total No Excellent Good Average Weak Poor

The above statistics encourages the writer to spend time studying the reasons and solutions to the problems from which she can draw proper methods helping students have better results

The reasons from the teachers:

- Students are not supplied enough knowledge and vocabulary related to the topics by the teacher

- Because thinking that their students are not good at this skill and do not have sufficient time to complete the tasks on textbooks, teachers spend almost all time asking students to give out the result, instead of investing in While – writing

- Teachers do not apply other supporting activities in writing lessons, just using the simple teaching aids to assist writing task completion

The reasons from the students:

- They have not been aware of the importance of learning writing skill, which leads to their limited learning motivation

- Most of them do not practice writing at home; therefore, they do not have chances to deal with their difficulties in this skill and catch up with the speed of the lessons as well

- Lack of vocabulary and structures is also one of the main reasons causing bad writing skill of students In consequence, they are in state of fear and lack of self-confidence when doing the tasks

From the above deductions, the author has studied and found out some solutions helping both teachers and students solve the problem of paraphrasing – one of the main points in English writing lessons

2.3 Suggestions drawn from teaching processes:

In writing paraphrases you must attend to two points: the meaning of words as they are used in context and the relationship between words In both you must reach for more than loose approximation You must include all that was in the original, without adding anything new and without misrepresenting the original content

 General advice:

a Before paraphrasing a source

- Do away with wordiness:

+ Learning new words is great, but if you use too many, your paraphrase will not be successful and will not match your regular writing style

+ Focus on the details that are important for your essay, not on reporting everything the original author has said

- Keep Keywords: names of theories, places, people – terms that the original author uses repeatedly in the original text Leave any shared language; i.e., technical terms or conventional names, the same

- Simplify your explanation: Explain the ideas as if you were telling a friend who has not read the original text

- Make sure that you deeply understand the meaning of the original text as well

as the author’s inference Then, look away from the original and rewrite the text

in your own words If you find that you can't do the task, this may mean that you don't understand the passage completely or that you need to use a more structured process until you have more experience in paraphrasing

- Identify the main points and key words and highly them

- Determine what you can change and what cannot be changed

b While paraphrasing a source:

- Use a statement that credits the source somewhere in the paraphrase or summary, e.g., According to Jonathan, Director Patty Jenkins )

- If you're having trouble summarizing, try writing your paraphrase or summary

of a text without looking at the original, relying only on your memory and notes

- Put quotation marks around any unique words or phrases that you cannot or

do not want to change: e.g., "savage inequalities" exist throughout our educational system

- Check your paraphrase or summary against the original text; correct any errors in content accuracy, and be sure to use quotation marks to set off any exact phrases from the original text

- Check your paraphrase or summary against sentence and paragraph structure,

as copying those is also considered plagiarism

- Remember, you are writing a paper for your class, so you should still use formal, academic language Don’t use slang or jargon

- Use parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes to refer readers to additional sources about the idea, as necessary When you paraphrase, you’re rewriting someone else’s words into your own words

 Common ways of paraphrasing a source:

During the time of teaching High school English courses, I have deeply realized how difficult paraphrasing skill is for the students to master when writing an essay or expressing their thought in their own way Therefore, with wholehearted mind for the job; my personal experience with learning and learners; study of the experiences of others; and experimentation of trying out

suggesting main ways to reword a text originator into students’ written work Here are 6 different styles of writing a paraphrase corresponding to each common case

2.3.1 Changing the effect of action verbs into the subjects:

In an original clause/ sentence, if the object is the consequence of an action (harm, danger, bad effect, etc.) or is an effect caused by the action verb (positively, negatively, badly, well, dangerously, etc.), you can use that kind of object as the subject of the paraphrased writing with the same meaning

Example:

a Playing sports brings people a healthy life

 People’s health is a positive effect of playing sports

 That people live healthy results from playing sports

b Rawalpindi Rain badly affected the low-lying areas and slums in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad

 Rawalpindi and Islamabad’s the low lying areas and slums had a bad effect from Rawalpindi Rain

c The team won because Jones scored the winning goal in the last minute of the game

 John’s last minute goal brought winning for the team

 The winning of the team resulted from John’s last minute goal

2.3.2 Dummy subjects:

English clauses which are not imperatives must have a subject Sometimes we need to use a ‘dummy’ or ‘empty’ or ‘artificial’ subject when there is no subject attached to the verb, or where the real subject is somewhere

else in the clause It and there are the two dummy subjects used in English In

this case, dummy subjects are used to restate the author’s implication in a new style

Examples:

a Playing sports brings people a healthy life

 It is believed that playing sports brings people a healthy life

 It is playing sport that brings people a healthy life

b Rawalpindi Rain badly affected the low-lying areas and slums in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad

 It was reported that Rawalpindi Rain badly affected the low-lying areas and slums in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad

 It was Rawalpindi Rain that badly affected the low-lying areas and slums in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad

c The cinema did not become an industry until 1915

 It was not until 1915 that the cinema became an industry

2.3.3 Signposts ( to highlight the impact of the subject matters)

Theoretically, signposts are the posts bearing a sign that gives information

or guidance.In academic writing, the author is responsible for making the text as clear as possible for the reader To achieve clarity, the author has to ensure that the writing is explicit An active reader will want to know what the author’s aims are and how they will be achieved; what the author’s position is about key

issues; how the argument is constructed; how ideas relate to each other Signposts are thereby applied in paraphrasing a source so that the readers find it easier to recognise where these answers can be found

Examples of major signposts:

- The aim of this study is to …

- The purpose of this thesis is to…

- The advantage/ disadvantage/ drawback of ………

- The danger/ risk of ………

- This essay argues that …

- The main questions addressed in this paper are …

- This essay critically examines…

- The above discussion raises some interesting questions

Examples:

a Playing sports brings people a healthy life

 One of the advantages of playing sports is to bring people a healthy life

b Rawalpindi Rain badly affected the low-lying areas and slums in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad

 One of the greatest effect that Rawalpindi Rain caused was on the crowded and poor places in and around Rawalpindi and Islamabad

c The team won because Jones scored the winning goal in the last minute of the game

 The decisive goal John scored in the last minute brought the team’s winning

2.3.4 With different grammar.

In the list of paraphrasing ways, changing structural forms of sentences is considered one of the flexible styles applied for learners of all levels The most common structures often used are complex sentence (has a main clause and one

or more adverbial clauses) and compound sentence (has two or more clauses)

Common conjunctions

the time; until

Examples:

a Playing sports brings people a healthy life

 If you play sports regularly, you will have a good health/ enjoy a healthy

life (Complex sentence)

 Playing regular sports activities and your health will be improved

(Compound sentence)

b In order to better understand English, the students incorporate grammar, vocabulary and speaking in their studies

 Provided that there’s a combination of grammar, vocabulary and speaking in their studies, the students will gain English better understanding

(Complex sentence)

 The combination of grammar, vocabulary and speaking in students’ studies

ensures them an improvement in English acquisition (Simple sentence)

c John’s last minute goal that allowed the team to win

 The team won because Jones scored the winning goal in the last minute of the game

d.The initial stages of the experiment involved sorting through potential test subjects The scientists had to ensure there were sufficient representatives from each gender, age group and ethnicity

 The initial stages of the experiment involved sorting through potential test subjects because the scientists had to ensure there were sufficient representatives from each gender, age group and ethnicity

 Before any actual testing began, the scientists reviewed possible participants because a successful experiment depends on their subjects representing a good cross-section of the entire population

Additionally, in terms of structural sentence transformation, Adjective clause (Relative clause) also convincingly bring about marked changes in creating a new way of paraphrasing a source material

In case the source has an adjective and noun or in order to emphasize one of them, you can change the adjective into a relative clause: