Writing Academic English 4th Edition

130 Partn IWritinganEssall

PRACTICEI

Choosingthe

BestParaphrase

Youcanwritea goodparaphraseifyoufollowthesesteps.

Step 1 Readtheoriginalpassageseveraltimesuntilyouunderstandit fully.

Lookupunfamiliarwords,andfindsynonymsforthem.Itmaynot

bepossibletofindsynonymsforeveryword,especiallytechnical

vocabulary.Inthiscase,usetheoriginalword.

Step 2 Ithelpstotakenotes.Writedownonlya fewwordsforeachidea-

notcompletesentences.Hereareonewriter'snotesontheoriginal

passageaboutuniversallanguage:

language-peopleusetocommunicate-butsomany-difficult

tounderstandoneanother-peoplewish-universalinternational

language-reasons:cultural,economicbonds,betterfeelings

betweencountries

Itmay behelpfultomakea briefoutlinesuchasthefollowing:

A. Language-peopleusetocommunicate

1. Somanylanguagesmakeit difficulttounderstandone
   another.


2. Peoplewishforoneuniversalinternationallanguage.

B. Reasons

1. Cultural,economicbonds


2. Betterfeelingsbetweencountries
   Step 3 Writeyourparaphrasefromyournotes.Don'tlookattheOliginal
   whileyouarewriting.
   Step 4 Checkyourparaphraseagainsttheoriginaltomakesure youhavenot
   copiedvocabularyorthesentencestmcturetooclosely.Aboveall,
   makesurethatyouhavenotchangedthemeaningoftheoriginalor
   givenanywronginformation.
   Step 5 Addanin-textcitationattheend.

Step 1 Readtheoriginalpassages.

Step 2 Choosethebestparaphrasefromthechoicesgivenandmarkit "Best."

Step 3 Marktheothers"Toosim."fortoosimilar,"Nocit."ifthereisno

in-textcitation,or"Inc./lnacc."forincompleteand/orinaccurate

information.

Thefirstonehasbeendoneforyouasanexample.

OriginalPassage 1

Source:Page 16 ofa three-pagearticleintheOctober15,2003,issueofSpace

Sciencemagazine.Thetitleoftheat1icleis"MannedMarsFlight:Impossible

Dream?" TheauthorisPatrickClinton,a NASA(NationalAeronauticsand

SpaceAdministration)physician.

Livingaboarda spacestationinorbitaroundEarthformonthsata timeposes

problemsforastronauts'bodiesaswellasfortheirminds.