Part 1: Paraphrasing Basics

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Name: ______Period: ______

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Part 1: Paraphrasing Basics

How do I paraphrase accurately?

Define paraphrasing: ______
How is paraphrasing accomplished? ______

Does this sound like you?

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.

--Edgar Allan Poe, “The Cask of Amontillado”

Here’s how NOT to paraphrase it:

Failed Attempt #1: The “change a few key words and completely miss the meaning” approach

The thousand wounds of Fortunate I had suffered, but when he went on an excursion of insult I vowed revenge.

Failed Attempt #2: The “change a bunch of words until it sounds extremely awkward” approach The hundreds of irritations of the villain I had carried ok, but after he tried to do damage to me I promised retaliation.

Here’s how it’s done!

I put up with Fortunato for years, but when he intentionally insulted me, I decided to get him back.

The following rules for paraphrasing are simple:

•Keep the author’s tone.

•Keep the author’s meaning—all of it. It’s fine to take out redundant material, but do not remove any important details.

•It’s fine to move ideas around as long as you maintain the author’s intended meaning.

•The length of your paraphrase should be very close to the length of the original.

Practice

**Directions: For each of the following passages, write a paraphrase.

1. When you've been exercising or even just working up a sweat doing yard work or cleaning house, that grimy perspiration sits on your skin and clogs up your pores. To prevent an acne breakout, take a bath or shower or wash your face when you're sweaty to get skin clear and clean again.

Rodriguez, Diana. “Common Acne Triggers and How to Avoid Them.” Everydayhealth.com. About Everyday Health Media, LLC. 2013. Web. 2 Feb. 2013.

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2. In every generation, it seems, the same lament goes forth from the parents of adolescents: “What’s the matter with kids today?” Why are they so often confused, annoying, demanding, moody, defiant, reckless? Accidental deaths, homicides, and binge drinking spike in the teenage years. It’s the time of life when psychosis, eating disorders, and addictions are most likely to take hold. Surveys show that everyday unhappiness also reaches its peak in late adolescence.

“The adolescent brain: beyond ranging hormones.” Health.Harvard.edu. Harvard University. 2014. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.

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Part 2: Paraphrase an Excerpt of “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift

Today you will be reading an excerpt from the pamphlet “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, the same guy who wrote Gulliver’s Travels…

Here is a summary of “A Modest Proposal”:

In this satirical essay, published in 1729, Swift offers up one solution to Ireland's devastating food shortage: eating babies. Swift argues that this will solve the hunger crisis, stimulate the economy, and curtail overpopulation. Satire is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity.

The proposer suggests that of the 120,000 babies estimated to be born in Ireland per year, 100,000 of these be sold and eaten as a food staple. He argues that the plump flesh of the newborns will provide the tenderest meat and that their skin will make fine leather.
The proposer offers up a great many statistics about overpopulation, famine, and the cost of meat, arguing that the sale of infant children will stimulate the economy and provide a much needed source of income to the lower class, who can't afford to feed their children.
The proposer admits that this might not be a popular idea and that he himself can't aid in this effort, because his children are grown and his wife is long past childbearing age, but nevertheless feels that the benefits of his proposal outweigh the downsides.

“A Modest Proposal” Excerpt

A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of his kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve, so great a number of both sexes in every county being now ready to starve for want of work and services; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations.

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Part 3: Summarizing Basics

The Ramen Noodle Summary

Imagine that you’re cooking a pot of ramen noodles, but you forget about it and go to the mall. When you come back to your home—if you still have a home—there will be nothing left in the pot but a brown wad of mush. That’s a summary. It is boiling out all the “water” of an event until there is nothing left but the good stuff, the most important information.

A great way to train your brain to summarize is to read leads, those paragraphs that come at the beginning of news articles. They hold all the noodles, the who, what, when, where, and why.

**Directions: For each of these newspaper leads, identify the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW. These are the basic building blocks of a summary.

A redefining of doggedness!

The dog who was found shot in the head and face with a pellet gun, stuffed in a garbage bag and left to die earlier this month was released from a Texas veterinary clinic on Saturday, following eye surgery paid for by a Facebook campaign.

Who: ______

What: ______

When: ______

Where: ______

Why: ______

How: ______

One determined cat!

A cat in Florida traveled nearly 200 miles in more than two months to reunite with her owners.

Who: ______

What: ______

When: ______

Where: ______

Why: ______

How: ______

Four-year-old seriously injured after being hit by car in High Point

HIGH POINT, N.C. — Police say a four-year-old child suffered serious head injuries Monday when the child was hit by a car in High Point.

Capt. Mike Kirk says the accident was reported around 5 p.m. in the 1000 block of Asheboro Street. The investigation is ongoing, but police believe the child ran behind the car as it rolled backward. Investigators don’t believe anyone was behind the wheel of the vehicle, Kirk said. They’re looking into the possibility that the car somehow came out of gear before rolling.

The child is being treated at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. No other details were immediately available. Editor’s note: Police initially provided the child’s age as two, but later corrected the age to four.

Who: ______

What: ______

When: ______

Where: ______

Why: ______

How: ______

Part 4: Summarizing Excerpts of “A Modest Proposal”

**Directions: Summarize this paragraph from “A Modest Proposal” with EXACTLY ten words!! The ten words must include the major elements of a summary: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

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**Directions: Next, underline as many of the summary elements as you can find.

**Directions: Lastly, write a 25 word summary of the first 4 paragraphs from “A Modest Proposal.” The essay is written in first person (using “I”) with capitalization used to stress important words. Remember the elements of a summary: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

[1]It is a melancholly Object to those, who walk through this great Town,1or travel in the Country, when they see theStreets, theRoads, andCabbin-Doors, crowded withBeggarsof the female Sex, followed by three, four, or six Children,all in Rags, and importuning every Passenger for an Alms. TheseMothersinstead of being able to work for their honest livelyhood, are forced to employ all their time in Stroling, to beg Sustenance for theirhelpless Infants, who, as they grow up either turnThievesfor want of work, or leave theirdear native Country to fight for the Pretender in Spain,2or sell themselves to theBarbadoes.3

[2]I think it is agreed by all Parties, that this prodigious number of Children, in the Arms, or on the Backs, or at theheelsof theirMothers, and frequently of their Fathers, isin the present deplorable state of the Kingdom, a very great additional grievance; and therefore whoever could find out a fair, cheap and easy method of making these Children sound and useful Members of the common-wealth would deserve so well of the publick, as to have his Statue set up for a preserver of the Nation.

[3]But my Intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the Children ofprofessed beggars, it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of Infants at a certain Age, who are born of Parents in effect as little able to support them, as those who demand our Charity in the Streets.

[4]As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many Years, upon this important Subject, and maturely weighed the severalSchemes of other Projectors,4I have always found them grossly mistaken in their computation. It is true a Child,just dropt from it's Dam,5may be supported by her Milk, for a Solar year with little other Nourishment, at most not above the Value of two Shillings, which the Mother may certainly get, or the Value inScraps, by her lawful Occupation of begging, and it is exactly at one year Old that I propose to provide for them, in such a manner, as, instead of being a Charge upon theirParents, or theParish,6orwanting7Food and Raimentfor the rest of their Lives, they shall, on the Contrary, contribute to the Feeding and partly to the Cloathing of many Thousands.

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