Writing a Great Speaker’s Corner or Essay

In Your Own Words…

Paraphrasing,
Turnitin.com & Topic
Sentences
 Paraphrasing…
what is it?
· Paraphrasing is putting an author’s words into your own words

· The meaning of the passage CANNOT change, if so, you are

NOT paraphrasing

· Paraphrasing isn’t a summary, because it usually focuses on a

single main idea
 A step by step guide
1. Read the passage thoroughly
2. Read the passage again
a. Keep rereading the passage until you understand its full meaning
3. Identify the key points of the passage
4. Set the passage aside
5. In your own words, restate the meaning of the
passage
6. Look at the original passage and compare
The Purpose of the lesson is
to learn…
o How to put a passage in your
own words without changing
the meaning
o How to find the main idea of
the text in order to paraphrase
it
o How Turnitin.com will help
you.
o How to write a Topic Sentence
 What is Paraphrasing???
o PARAPHRASING IS…
o Used to rewrite the text in your
own words
o Used to clarify meaning
o Used to shorten a longer
statement but keep the main
ideas
o Used to avoid PLAGIARISM.
What is NOT Paraphrasing

· -Changing a
couple of words.
· -Deleting a couple
words or phrases.
· -Rearranging the
order of the
words.
 So How Do We Do It?

o Read the passage

carefully PARAPHRASE
o Decide the main ME!
ideas of the passage
o Identify important
words or phrases
o Put the main points
in your own words
 TOPIC SENTENCES
are also important!
-A topic sentence organizes and focuses the
entire paragraph.
 -A topic sentence is usually the first sentence of
the paragraph.
 Every sentence in the paragraph must relate to
the topic sentence.
 -There is no announcing in a topic sentence.
 Topic Sentence Tips

To write a topic
Ask yourself what are sentence, answer
you trying to prove the question
in the paragraph: Q S
(Question to Statement)
What is one reason that The United States should prohibit
smoking should be smoking because of the
banned? negative health consequences
caused by smoking.
 What does “Announcing”
sound like?
· -In this report, you will read….
· -This report is about…
· -This means…
· -My topic sentence is…
· -Do you believe…If not, listen to this
report…
· ANYTHING ELSE LIKE THESE
 A Topic Sentence focuses all the other
sentences in the paragraph.

· Which of these sentences do not belong?

· The United States should ban smoking because
smoking damages the health of the smoker and
everyone near the smoker. Nearly 400,000 people
per year die from smoking related illnesses.
Smoking can lead to illnesses such as cancer, heart
disease, stroke, and lung disease. The smoking
industry spends over $30 million dollars a day
advertising their products. Finally, smoking
contributes to 1 in every 5 deaths in the United
States. The United States should prohibit smoking
because of the negative health consequences caused
by smoking.
 Remember

You must give credit for every:

•Summary

•Paraphrase

•Quotation
 Paraphrase

· A sentence-by-sentence restatement
of the meaning of a passage
2. Read the passage carefully
 Paraphrase

“When the accumulation of wealth is no

longer of high social importance, there will
be great changes in the code of morals. We
shall be able to rid ourselves of many of
the pseudo-moral principles which have
hag-ridden us for years.”

John Maynard Keynes

British Economist
3. Read for “chunks” of meaning

· When the accumulation of wealth is

no longer of high importance, there
will be great changes in the code of
morals.
 3. Rewrite each “chunk” in
your own words
When the The
accumulation of understanding of
wealth is no longer right and wrong
of high importance, would be
there will be great different if
changes in the code society valued
of morals. money less than
it does.
 4. DO

• Use the thesaurus to carefully choose synonyms

• Keep meaning in the same order as much as

possible
 5. DO

• Make sure that each sentence makes sense

• Make sure that the whole paraphrase makes

sense
 6. DO

Keynes (2011) stated

that the understanding
Credit your of right and wrong
source would be different if
society valued money
less than it does.
 Paraphrase Summary

· 1. Select passage you want to use

· 2. Read passage carefully
· 3. Read for meaning in chunks
· 4. Rewrite in your own words
· 5. Do not translate one word at a time
· 6. Make sure the writing makes sense
· 7. Credit your source
 Example
Original Paraphrase

“At just 8.5 square miles, the

Nauru is a Pacific island country
Pacific island country of Nauru
that is only 8.5 square miles in
is one of the smallest countries
area. It is one of the smallest
in the world. The island was
countries on the planet and only
once rich in phosphate, but
about 10,000 people live there.
most of the resource has been
Nauru has mined its once
mined leaving damage to the
plentiful supplies of phosphate.
environment behind. Nauru has
This has damaged the
a population of about 10,000
environment on the island.
people.”
 Another Example
Original
· “Although he was born in a poor
family, Benjamin Franklin made a
fortune as a printer in Philadelphia.
By the age of 42, Franklin was one
of the richest men in the colonies.
He chose to retire from active
business and become a most wealthy men in the area.
“gentleman.” He began to pursue
“philosophical studies and
amusements.” He was especially
curious about electricity, and his
experiments made him famous.”
Paraphrase
· Benjamin Franklin is well-known
as both a businessman and a
scientist. Franklin’s successful
printing business in Philadelphia
led him to become one of the
When he was only 42, he decided
to retire from business and spend
more time doing things he loved,
such as electrical experiments
and philosophical studies.
 The original passage
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a
result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably
only about 30% of your final manuscript should appear as directly
quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D.
Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

Paraphrased
Students often use too many direct quotations in taking notes, resulting
in the overuse of quotations in the final paper. Only approximately
30% of your final paper should be direct quotes. Consequently, you
should try to limit how many quotes you write when taking notes.
A legitimate paraphrase
In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep
quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem
usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the
material recorded verbatim (Lester, 1976).
"The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just
as the sun is the source of our heat, and it exerts
tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques] Cousteau
told the camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica
flows north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and
its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our
atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is
now threatened by human activity." From "Captain
Cousteau," Audubon (May 1990):17
 What is plagiarism

Using someone's ideas or words without citing

the author appropriately (giving credit to the
author).

Copying another persons ideas as if its your own

idea
 How to Avoid Plagiarism
 Print out the materials, read them understand
the main idea of the writer and put those ideas
in your own words.
 Avoid copy and paste
 Avoid reading the materials online
 Ensure you always acknowledge the sources
you cited in your work.
 Meaning of turnitin

 Is a tool used to check the originality of works or

research works of students and academics
 It helps to stay away from plagiarism

 Many universities in the world has adopted to ensure

academic integrity in their institutions and also check
plagiarism
 Purpose of turnitin

 To ensure academic integrity

 Students are accountable for what they submit
 To check similarity of text to sources
 To guide against misuse of online sources in
research writing
 To help students cite and reference sources correctly
 It encourages original research
Materials that can be checked in
turnitin
 MS Word, WordPerfect, PostScript, PDF, HTML,
RTF, and plain text documents

 Turnitin.com DOES NOT check files in graphic

formats such as TIFF, EPS, PSD, JPEG, PICT, etc.

Document Size:
Less than 40mb
Has a minimum of 25 words
Less than 400pages
 Support tools in turnitin

 Originality Check – plagiarism detection

 Grade Mark - Grading of student work

 Peer Mark – students reviewing each others work

 Grade Book – recording of results

 Similarity index

BLUE (1) indicates that there are <0% matches

GREEN (2) 1%-25%
YELLOW (3) 26%-50%
ORANGE (4) 51%-75%
RED (5) 76%-100%

 https://guides.turnitin.com/01_Manuals_and_Guides/Student/Cla
ssic_Student_User_Guide/17_Similarity_Check

07/28/21
 What it looks like &How
turnitin works

07/28/21 Workshop for postgraduate students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka

 Login page

Type in your
username and
password
( University email as
username)
Enter your
login details
here

To rese
To reset your passw
password click your c
on reset remem
07/28/21 password
Workshop for postgraduate students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka
 Instructions for Students - to create user profiles

1. Go to www.turnitin.com
2. Click “sign up” on top menu bar
3. Click enrol as a student
4. Under ‘create a user profile’ select ‘student’ as user type.
5. Enter Class ID:
6. Enter enrolment password:
7. Follow instructions on the screen to create your own
personal login (UNN email address) and password

(Remember your password for later assignments)

 Instruction for students -to
create user profile
 You can also enroll ( provided you have the class
ID and enrollment password)

 sign up, enroll as a student, create the user profile,

enter the class ID and Enrollment password
Assignment page
 Class home page

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 Filling all necessary details and upload from computer,
dropbox or google drive. Depends on where your work is
saved
 Click Confirm once uploading is done

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 Click on “ Go to assignment inbox”

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Keep refreshing your URL to get your
result
Once the result is out, click on
the highlighted colour, it takes
you to another page to see the
originality report
Originality report from
originality check
 You can resubmit again

The date due

still allows
to resubmit
 REMEMBER
PRACTICE MAKES
PERFECT!