Paraphrasing

What is Paraphrase?

Paraphrase Definition - A restatement of a text or passage in another form or other words, often to clarify meaning. Another definition specifies ‘Express the same message in different words’. A paraphrase thus means a text material which is a duplicate copy of the original matter but composed in a different way. The word “paraphrase” (from the Greek, meaning literally “equivalent sentence”) is defined as “restatement of the sense of a passage in other words.” It is “the reproduction of a text in one’s own natural style of the full sense of a passage written in other style.”

To understand it in a very easy manner, merely by the word ‘Paraphrase’ we can understand what a Paraphrase is? It is a bit unconventional but once you get the grasp you will not forget it.

If we break the word ‘Paraphrase’ into two, i.e. Para and Phrase.

Para is short for Paragraph which means dividing text into various subdivisions.
Phrase means an expression consisting of one or more words forming a sentence.

So how do you relate this division to its meaning, just like various formulas, consider this as a formula as well! Phrases are words whose meaning is not direct and we need to understand them before we can use them. So Para-a-Phrase can be used as a clue to convert a paragraph in the way you understand it without straying away from the meaning of original content.

What is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing Definition – A restatement of a text or passage in another form or other words, often to clarify meaning. Rephrasing or Rewording a passage or a paragraph using your own words to express someone else's ideas without changing the original idea, is a simple way to understand it. A simple example in day to day life is the way a teacher teaches us an academic lesson. He/she uses her own style to explain the original matter in an easy to understand manner.

Uses of Paraphrasing

Some time it is said that paraphrase “usually takes the form of converting good English into bad.” But this need not be so at least every time; and if in any case it is so, then the paraphrase in question is a bad paraphrase and this cannot be generalized. Rather It should be the aim of the pupil to improve his English by the practice of paraphrasing, and of the teacher to see that the English in which his pupil’s paraphrases are written in good English thereby breaking this myth that paraphrasing means converting good English to bad English.

Paraphrasing has two very important uses:-

1. As an Exercise in Composition.

It is a good test of a learner’s ability to understand what he reads; and is, therefore, an excellent method of training the mind to concentrate on what one reads and so to read intelligently. For it is impossible to paraphrase any passage without a firm grasp of its meaning.
Secondly it is considered as a fine training in the art of expressing, what one wants to say, simply, clearly and directly. Incidentally, it gives valuable practice in grammatical and idiomatic composition.

2. A second use of paraphrase is that it forms a valuable method of explanation. Infect, it is the best way of explaining an involved or ornate passage of prose or of an obscure piece of poetry.

NOTE: “it is enough if in age we can get as absolute a knowledge of Right and Wrong, Good and Evil, Changing and the Eternal, as we have of our own hands.”

How to Paraphrase?

Characteristics of Good Paraphrasing

Translation:-

Paraphrasing is really a species of translation not from one tongue into another, rather from one man’s words into the words of another in the same language. And as a translation must be accurate and explanatory to be of any value, so a paraphrase must faithfully reproduce and interpret the thought of the original passage.

A passage written in a very terse or compressed style has to be expanded in translation. Here is a humorous illustration given by Ruskin in a lecture of Oxford:-

He said that, whereas in his youth he might have informed a man that his house was on fire in the following way- “Sir, the abode in which you probably passed the delightful days of your youth is in danger of inflammation,” then, being older and wiser, he would say simply, “Sir, your house is on fire.”

Fullness:-

Paraphrasing is entirely different from summarizing/ précis-writing. Nothing in the original may be left unrepresented in the paraphrase. It is, therefore, a full reproduction.

Everything original is to be represented in the paraphrase without any kind of additions. To insert ideas or illustrations of your own is not allowed.

There is no rule for the length of paraphrase as compared with the length of the original passage; but, as in paraphrasing we have to frequently expand concise sentences to make their meaning clear, a paraphrase is usually as long as, or even longer than, the original text.

Wholeness:-

In paraphrasing, the passage to be paraphrased must be treated as a whole. The practice of taking the original line by line or sentence by sentence and simply turning these into different words is not paraphrasing at all. Until the passage is grasped as a whole, no attempt should be made to paraphrase it. What we have to try to do is to get behind the words to the idea in the author’s mind which begot them. This is not a cake walk task and requires a lot of imagination and concentration of mind and thought; but unless we can do it, we shall never produce a good paraphrase.

A Complete Piece of Prose:-

Lastly, a good paraphrase is so well constructed and written that it will read as an independent and complete composition in idiomatic English. It should in itself be perfectly clear and intelligible.

Important: All the explanation required must be in the paraphrase itself. The insertion of explanatory notes is a confession of failure in paraphrasing. To be successful in paraphrasing, it is necessary to keep these four points always in mind.