Despite many thesis and researches, it is hard to find the actual meaning of paraphrasing. Perhaps paraphrasing is the method of rewriting the main gist of the article in own language by understanding the main theme and with no elimination of it to check plagiarism. However, paraphrasing in the correct way is hard as it requires multiples attributes to understand and execute.
This essay argues the paraphrasing techniques and manners in a correct way and the essential aspects of rewriting the articles. It also explores the findings and methodology of different researchers alongside with their conclusion to prove the argument. Furthermore, it argues that reading and understanding, finding suitable synonyms, note taking and, writing ability and referencing paraphrase are the key factors for the paraphrasing in a suitable way. In addition, this paper will first provide the definition of paraphrasing followed by the discussion of each of the four key components and with the supportive examples for efficient paraphrasing.
Paraphrasing is defined as the content which expresses the same meaning with different words (Ho et al. 2011). Generally, there is lexical, phrasal and sentential paraphrase depending upon the appearance as word, phrase, and sentence respectively.The first method to initiate paraphrasing is to have good reading and understanding skills. This helps the students to decode the actual meaning from the text. Hagaman et al.
(2016) present the effective research result of TRAP (Think before you read, Read a paragraph, Ask myself, and Put it into my own) technique for the support of this method. This was justified by the survey carried out in seven elementary students having a problem with reading comprehension. Furthermore, Hagaman et al. (2017) support that the good reading and understanding of material helps to get the good academic achievement by formulating Common Core State Standards(CCSS). The benefit of this strategy is that it can be easily incorporated into the present academic modules for the improvement of struggling readers. Reading and understanding help the students to get the main theme of the article as well as it helps them for the selection of information for the transformation and editing. Paraphrasing is done to focus on the key information and to help in recalling important facts and ideas. So, until the student understands the fact it is difficult to paraphrase by them as they have no idea about the main idea.
Overall it indicates that understanding the main gist is the first and important step toward paraphrasing the main content of the article.The second methodology for paraphrasing is using the appropriate synonyms (which means different words having the same meaning) of the informative word from the sentence that needs to be paraphrased. Literally, the meaning of paraphrase is to rewrite and for that purpose, we need the synonyms. So, finding the synonym is one of the key factors for paraphrasing strategy. Also, the ultimate reason for paraphrasing is to avoid plagiarism and for so, proper synonym must be used. For example: If we replace the word ‘writer’ with other words which give other meaning than the person who writes then the resulting sentence can have the different meaning than the original.
Chen et al. (2015) research about the use synonyms for the effective rewriting of sentences. Furthermore, it explains about the ease of using synonyms with the help of corpus-based assistance system by conducting the test on college freshman which showed the prominent progress in paraphrasing activity. However, it could have shown negative results if assistance system was unavailable to find out the proper synonym. Choi et al. (2012) disagree for the terminologies that have the unique meaning and no synonym.
It further presents the fact that scientific studies contain many unreplaceable words. Lastly, it can be concluded that synonyms can be the effective way for paraphrasing if scientific terminologies are excluded.Note taking is the third and one of the prominent ways for the paraphrasing the sentences correctly. Making notes helps student for the selection of key points for rewriting the articles as it only contains the main ideas with the supportive materials organized by student itself. It helps to filter the useful materials and avoid the other unnecessary materials.
Bretag et al. (2008) explain about the reviewing of notes during argument development helps to connect the writers thinking and mental links to the referenced article. However, in the same paper electrical note taking is criticized as it involves the copy-paste of the sentences which leads to the severe plagiarism. In addition, Shi (2012) to disagrees by presenting the result that most student and researcher find difficult in notetaking and summarizing. This result was based on the research carried upon the students and lecturers. Notetaking can be effective if the sentences are rewritten in own words for the further purpose of argument development and to paraphrase the context in the proper manner. Making notes followed by the summarizing can be more beneficial for the students for rewriting the articles.
It helps to develop skills in paraphrase writing in systematic and well-organized manner. This would seem to indicate that note taking can be complex for some students and as it must be organized first before paraphrasing thus, it may take long hours to accomplish the task.The final and the most important step for the effective paraphrasing is writing skills and referencing techniques. Writing skills include proper sentence formation, correct use of grammar and use of the correct synonym for the keyword. Schwabl et al.
(2013) explain the different writing schemas workshops which lead to effective paraphrasing. It was justified by the research activity based on nine instructors and sixty-six students. Writing skills help in the formulation of different new sentence structure than the original one which carries the same theme and meaning as before. During paraphrasing students only rewrite the sentences without using correct references which ultimately result in plagiarism.
So, Ho et al. (2014) focus on the idea of the paraphrasing strategy with equally taking consideration of resources. It further argues about the extraction of sources for citation and referencing.
Choi et al. (2012) studies about different web-based and teacher-led practices for paraphrasing which showed the positive result. However, web-based groups could use paraphrasing tool which is considered as plagiarism. During writing, grammars and synonyms must be checked and sentences formations must be made in a precise way. Overall, it can be concluded that writing skills must be developed for paraphrasing in an efficient manner as it includes the main factor that is rewriting and sentence formation. In addition to these, correct references must be given to avoid plagiarism. In conclusion, this essay argues about the definition and main basic four components for effective paraphrasing namely; reading and understanding skills, selection of appropriate synonym, note taking and; lastly writing skills and referencing techniques.
As from the essay, one can easily sum up that paraphrasing is one of the technique to develop the writing and comprehension techniques of students by rewriting the topics using different word having the same meaning. To paraphrase in a systematic and well-organized way, all the four components are mandatory to be followed. Firstly, understanding and reading the topic is essential as it gives the main idea to the writer for the selection of notes. Then, choosing correct synonyms and formulating it with accordance of the notes with the correct writing skills are involved in the process of paraphrasing the articles.
Also, the proper use of reference helps the student to avoid plagiarism and to paraphrase the work of other writers in an effective way.
