Paraphrasing

In academic writing it is often necessary to refer to other people’s research

Direct quotations and paraphrasing Paraphrasing means using your own

words to report someone else’ writing, but maintaining academic style

References

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

Examples

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

Vocabulary

She examined the difficulties that… She investigated the problems that…

Rewrite the following: Smith and Jones (1991) found that the

circumstances had…

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…

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.

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

Summarising

giving a brief account of the main points of some writing

Writing a summary

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

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

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

Structure

Introduction (topic) Development (presentation, analysis

and discussion) – main idea Conclusion

Exercise

Read the text Modern Constitutions and write a summary!

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

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?