PARAPHRASING AND SUMMARISING

1. Paraphrase

1.1 Read the extract below, together with its paraphrase, and try to identify the key
content. Underline any words/phrases which are common to both the
original and the paraphrase. Why have these words not been paraphrased?

Source: Bannerman, R.H. (1983), Traditional Medicine and Health Care Coverage, WHO, Geneva.

Original:

Since traditional medicine was incorporated in the World Health Organisation's

programmes in 1976, the gulf between traditional and modern systems appears to
have narrowed to some extent.

Paraphrase:

The incorporation of traditional medicine into the World Health Organisation's

programmes in 1976 seems to have gone some way towards reducing the gap
between the traditional and modern systems (Bannerman, 1983).

1.2 Listed below are the items in the original extract above which are changed to
produce the paraphrase. In the right-hand column, write the corresponding item from
the paraphrase. What kind of changes have been made?

Original Paraphrase

was incorporated the gulf

appears
to have narrowed to some extent

There is also a grammatical change. What is it?

1.3 A good paraphrase should express the ideas of the source in a new way, using
different sentence structures. Paraphrase the original text from 2.1 using these
structures:

a) Following _________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
there
_______________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________.
b) The _____________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
seems to have brought about ___________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

2. Practice
3.1 Make notes on the text on the next page. Then write a paraphrase without

looking at the original.

Source: Bannerman, R.H. (1983), Traditional Medicine and Health Care Coverage, WHO, Geneva.

3.2 Make notes on the main points of the text on the next page. Then write a
summary using the structure given, without looking at the original text.

A genuine interest in the many traditional practices now exists among practitioners of
modern medicine; and growing numbers of practitioners of traditional, indigenous or
alternative systems are beginning to accept and use some of the modern
technology.

Sometimes it is believed that members of the family, especially adult children, have
become less willing to meet the care needs of their elderly parents. This has not
been demonstrated. Recent research shows instead that people continue to support
each other: parents with respect to their children, and children with respect to their
aged parents. The family continues to play an essential role in caring for the elderly.
Even for elderly people who live separated from their children, when they are
bedridden or incapacitated, the family fulfils a crucial role. And although multi-
generational households are decreasing, living with a child remains relatively
common when an elderly person is widowed, has severely limited daily functioning,
or is of advanced age.

From: Dooghe, G. (1992) 'Informal Caregivers of Elderly People: A European Review', Ageing and Society, Vol.12, 369-380.

In-sessional Academic Writing 2 University Language Centre (Humanities) Sem 2, Week 1 University
of Manchester

3.1 Notes

Paraphrase

___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________

3.2 Notes

Summary
Dooghe (1992) challenges the view
that___________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________
________
___________________________________________________________________
_______, arguing instead
that___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________
________
___________________________________________________________________
________

Source: O’Brien, J. (2005) Text to Text. The University of Manchester

In-sessional Academic Writing 3 (Humanities) Sem 2, Week 1

University Language Centre University of Manchester

For reference: Linguistic options for paraphrasing

i) to use another word (vocabulary)

eg conduct an experiment → perform an experiment

ii) to change the verb form

eg The questionnaire asked (active) students how they felt about ... → Students
were asked (passive) how they felt about ...

iii) to change the word class

eg The machines are designed to serve a number of functions (noun phrase) → The
machines are designed to be multi-functional (adjective)
eg The course was introduced (verb - in finite clause) last year.
→ The introduction of the course (noun phrase) last year ...

Nominalization

This means using a complex noun phrase instead of a finite clause, and is common
in academic writing. It is particularly useful in paraphrasing as it enables the writer to
refer to an idea expressed as a sentence in the original source and develop it in
some new way. In nominalization, what was originally the subject and the verb (a
finite clause) combine to become the subject (in a complex noun phrase), and the
writer is then free to add another verb and develop the rest of the sentence.
Consider this sentence:

The course was introduced last year.

If we combine the subject and the verb, we can then develop the sentence in the
following way:
The introduction of the course last year resulted in a significant increase in the
number of postgraduate students in the department.

Further examples of nominalization:

Manchester was transformed from a market town to a city after 1761.

→ The transformation of Manchester from a market town to a city after 1761 was
remarkable in the history of urbanisation.