Paraphrasing Techniques

The paraphrasing technique consists of expressing an idea or phrase with our

words. Its objective is to understand a topic written by a person, but presented
in another way in its own way and allows to fully express what has been
understood from the original writing. The Centered Approach paraphrasing
technique is one of the two forms of active listening. Paraphrasing means
reflecting the statement in oneself, it means repeating what we heard in our
own words, and verbalizing means reflecting the hidden feelings that we can
recognize in that situation through the information received.

Procedure:

 Read the original writing several times.

 Write (list) or underline main ideas that are observed.
 Explain in your own way what has been learned either verbally or in writing, without changing the
author's idea.

Tips:

 The important thing is that you express yourself in your own words.
 First you must look at the type of text you are going to read.
 Express the meaning of the text in your own words.
 Your writing should not lose the author's idea.

First, what is paraphrasing? It is paraphrasing a text or writing. Now what is

Paraphrase? It is the explanation or amplification interpretation of a text to
illustrate it or make it clearer or intelligible.
It is also the verse translation in which the original is imitated, without
rendering it with scrupulous accuracy.
It is also a phrase that, imitating another known one in its structure, is
formulated with different words.

There is a close and important link between oral language and text
comprehension, since the knowledge of the language that learners bring with
them to a reading or learning situation constitutes a determining factor for
comprehension.

One of the strategies that allows learners to engage in verbal elaboration

activities is paraphrasing. This strategy requires the reader or learner to use
their own words to reconstruct the information contained in a text using
vocabulary, phrases or sentences different from those in the text, but equivalent
in meaning. Then you must restructure said information globally in order to form
a personal account about it. When paraphrasing a text, the reader should focus
his attention on the most important aspects of the information contained in it.

Paraphrasing, apparently, is a simple strategy; However, in order to correctly

paraphrase the content of a text, the reader must:

Understand the text.

Identify and extract important information.
Use words, phrases and sentences equivalent in meaning to the information
detected as relevant.
Reorganize or restructure, globally, the content of the text.
Provide a personal account of its content, either orally or in writing.
As can be seen from the steps outlined above, it is very important that the
reader understands the text. This is the first step. No one can explain in their
own words something that they have not understood. The use of paraphrasing
as an elaboration strategy constitutes a form of language enrichment. If one
must use vocabulary, phrases and sentences equivalent in meaning to those
used in the original text, it is very likely that one will be forced to search for and
use other vocabulary, other phrases and sentences different from those in the
text.

In studies carried out with the purpose of examining the effectiveness of the
use of this strategy in the understanding and learning of information contained
in written materials, it has been found that when using paraphrasing as an
elaboration strategy during reading a text and subsequently To it, learners
perform better on comprehension and learning tests than those who engage in
other elaboration activities such as drawing pictures or answering questions, or
who do not perform any of these activities.

In this sense, it is necessary that you teach your students to paraphrase the
new information they want to learn. Paraphrasing can be practiced in the
classroom so that students do the activity in pairs or individually. The
fundamental steps involve: a) the silent reading of the information by the
students, b) work in pairs where one student carries out the activity and makes
a personal account of what was read and the other plays the role of the listener,
alternating activity. We suggest the following sequence:

Explain what the strategy consists of. Your students should know why they are
doing the activity and why it is important. It indicates that paraphrasing is like
retelling what has been read and that such an activity will allow them to
evaluate whether or not they have understood the text read.
Model the strategy. Read the text and then paraphrase it, highlighting its
important aspects. Use short texts - between 80 and 120 words - and
paraphrase in three or four sentences.
Guide students' practice. After you model the strategy, offer opportunities for
your students to practice it. Ask them to: a) read a text, b) keep the important
ideas in mind, c) paraphrase the text read. Allow work in groups and help them
with the use of questions.
Allows the application of paraphrasing and its practice individually. After your
students have practiced the strategy, promote its application. It is important
that your students realize the usefulness of this strategy to understand and
remember information.
Suggest students paraphrase to themselves (silent verbal practice) as an
independent strategy when they need to remember information they have read.

Steps to prepare a paraphrase:

1.- Read the text carefully

2.- Check the words that you have not understood in the
dictionary.

3.- Identify the essential message.

4.- Write the key words from the text and change them to their
synonyms.

5.- Write the draft of the paraphrase

6.- Make the final draft.

Steps to perform a paraphrase:

To write a paraphrase, you must follow the following basic steps:
1. It is applied to be able to understand the text with due depth
to reconstruct it faithfully to its content.

2. Attentive and general reading of the text.

Attentive and general reading of a text allows us to analyze and
determine what is essential. The main ideas from which the
paraphrase is written are selected, maintaining the essence,
content, and meaning of the text, without any alteration.

3. Selection of fundamental ideas.

It means determining the words that can be changed without
altering the content of the information.

4. Underlining words or phrases susceptible to change.

Process of analysis and rewriting of the information offering an
explanation of the essentials with similar ideas, personal
opinions are not allowed, it is a faithful version, based on the
fact that each text has meaning and form and the latter is changed
but the former remains unchanged (meaning or content).
5. Reading and substituting words and phrases in writing.

6. Reading the paraphrase and comparing it with the original text

It means carefully reading the paraphrase, comparing it with the
original text to verify if the essence, content, and meaning of
the message are maintained. It is to avoid the slightest
alteration.