IN-SESSIONAL ACADEMIC WRITING (HUMANITIES): WEEK 2.

PARAPHRASING AND SUMMARISING

1. Discussion

 What is a paraphrase? What is a summary?

 What process do you go through when paraphrasing or summarising a source
text?
 What do you understand by the terms “traditional medicine” and “modern
medicine”?

2. Paraphrase

2.1 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?

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.

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

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).

2.2 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?

In-sessional Academic Writing 1 University Language Centre

(Humanities) Sem 2, Week 1 University of Manchester
2.3 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 ___________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

3 Practice

3.1 Make notes on the text on the next page. Then write a paraphrase without
looking at the original.

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.
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.

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 University Language Centre

(Humanities) Sem 2, Week 1 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.

The Liverpool and Manchester railway opened in 1830.

→ The opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway in 1830
brought increased prosperity to both cities.

In-sessional Academic Writing 4 University Language Centre

(Humanities) Sem 2, Week 1 University of Manchester