2016-06-14 College Prep: paraphrasing

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - Notes from all my classes
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Homework: Write a list of (at least five) reasons why people shouldn’t learn English as a second language.
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As a group, come up with 1-2 sentences in response to each of the reasons you wrote for homework. (If someone said, “People shouldn’t learn English because it has too much vocabulary,” what would you say in response?)
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Why is it good to think of arguments against your own opinion?
- We get some good ideas from the arguments.
- To look at both sides of something.
- If you want to convince someone to agree with you, you should understand first why they disagree.
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Paraphrasing

paraphrase (verb) = say something in your own words that has the same meaning and information as the original

Reasons to paraphrase:
- so others know that you have understood the information
- to make sure you understand it yourself
- to simplify information that might be complicated to start with

summarize = say just the main overall ideas (leave out smaller details and examples)

Example:
People who sign up for organ donation freely give their hearts and other organs, but this free system limits the number of available donors and makes it difficult for recipients to access lifesaving transplants. Thus, organ donors should be financially compensated to produce more available organs and, at the same time, to decrease profitable, illegal organ harvesting activities in the black market.

Paraphrase:
Free organ donation will decrease the number of available donors and make it difficult for receivers to get transplants. So organ donors should be paid to produce more organs and decrease illegal organ trade in the black market.
- Includes all of the important details (and similar sentence structure), but the sentences and vocabulary are simpler and easier to understand.
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Note: You still have to say where you got the information, even if you paraphrased it into your own words. It is plagiarism if you don’t do this.
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Homework: handout p. 167/299 - Try to paraphrase the paragraph about vitamin supplements.

Are you among the millions of Americans who take vitamin supplements? If your answer is “yes”, why do you use them? Many people take multiple vitamin/mineral supplements as an “insurance policy” in case their diets are not nutritionally adequate. Other people use specific vitamin supplements because they think this practice will result in optimal health. Vitamin supplements are effective for treating people with specific vitamin deficiency diseases, metabolic defects that increase vitamin requirements, and a few other medical conditions. However, scientific evidence generally does not support claims that megadoses of vitamins can prevent or treat everything from gray hair to lung cancer.