Paraphrasing and Summarising

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Paraphrasing and Summarising
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Paraphrasing

• In academic writing it is often necessary to
  refer to other peoples research
• Direct quotations and paraphrasing
• Paraphrasing means using your own words to report
  someone else writing, but maintaining academic
  style

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References

• References must always be given to the sources of
  the text you are making use of

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Examples

• By changing the vocabulary
• By changing the verb form
• By changing the word class
• By synthesis

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Vocabulary

• She examined the difficulties that
• She investigated the problems that
• Rewrite the following
• Smith and Jones (1991) found that the
  circumstances had

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Verb form

• Johns (1991) analysed the students difficulties
  and
• The students difficulties were analysed by Johns
  (1991) and
• Rewrite the following
• Brown (1994) observed the problems caused by
  seminars

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Word class

• The reports were completed in April
• The completion of the reports in April ensured
  that
• Rewrite the following
• James (2004) concluded that there was a need for
  note-taking practice.

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Synthesis

• Combining two or more viewpoints or pieces of
  information from other writers
• References may support one another, but there may
  be opposing views as well

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Summarising

• giving a brief account of the main points of some
  writing

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Writing a summary

• Topic sentence(s)
• Keywords (the main information points)
• References to the sources of the text

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Suggestions for writing summaries

• At the beginnning write the title, the author and
  article, publisher and date
• Quickly skim the text to get an overall idea of
  it
• Make brief notes of the main points
• Underline important sentences or phrases
• Remove examples and details

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Checking summaries

• Ensure that your summary is neutral and accurate
  (do not add your ideas)
• As far as possible condense the points into
  straightforward statements
• Rewrite statements in your own words where
  possible
• Write clearly, concisely and logically

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Structure

• Introduction (topic)
• Development (presentation, analysis and
  discussion) main idea
• Conclusion

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Exercise

• Read the text Modern Constitutions and write a
  summary!

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• What is the best introductory sentence?
• What are the main points?
• What is the conclusion?

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Answer the following questions

• What is the fundamental belief which leads
  countries to want new Constitutions?
• Why do framers of a Constitution want to give it
  a higher status in law than the ordinary law?

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Thank you for your attention!