Academic Writing--Marked Paraphrasing Group Exercises

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Your marked paraphrasing group work is posted below, as jpeg files. To read the content, click on the image, and it will be large enough to read.

The links are to the original essays.

Group 1--Should Dangerous Sports be Banned? Yes!


Groups 2 and 3--Save Our Sports!


Group 4--Should Parents Resort to Physical Punishment in Order to Discipline Their Children?


Group 5--Should Animals be Tested for the Advancement of Scientific Research?

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Academic Writing—Merging Two Closely Related Texts into a Summary/Paraphrase (For in-class on 12/21 Class)

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For the 12/21 in-class exercise, each group will work with integrating two closely related texts into one summary and one paraphrase. You will merge the following texts, which can be found in the Unit 2, Part 3 handout.

Group 1:

Texts A and C

Group 2:

Texts B and D

Group 3:

Texts C and D

Group 4:

Texts A and D

Group 5:

Texts A and B

Instructions
1. Designate one reliable person in your group to type and submit your group text to me via email. You may submit this text in the body of an email message.

2. In your summary and paraphrase, please incorporate a signal phrase that includes an APA in-text citation for one of your sources. In addition, include (within your summarized and paraphrased text) in-text citations for both your sources.

3. Using the APA style, create a References list for your two sources.

4. For your reference, please see the text done by Groups 1, 3, and 4, which are marked up with my comments.

5. If you have any questions before Monday's class, please ask. On Monday, I will circulate around the room to help your groups.
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Academic Writing--Summarizing and Paraphrasing (Marked Group Work From 12/14)

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Thank you, Groups 1, 3, and 4 for submitting the results of your in-class group projects that you did in-class on December 14.

We did this particular group project for two reasons:

1. Practice for you.

2. A platform for me to see what you know and what you need to learn yet, so that we can finish up the semester with the solid summarizing and paraphrasing skills you will for next semester, when you will be writing 5- or 6-paragraph persuasive essays.

I have marked each group's work, using Microsoft Word Markup.

I have scanned images of these marked papers and posted them below. I suggest that you study all three papers and my remarks, given that this material will be on your final exam.


Group 1: "Second Officer Resigns" (Text A)

For a larger and more readable view, please click on the image.
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Group 3: "Gay? You're Fired!" (Text C)

For a larger and more readable view, please click on the image.
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Group 4: "Being Outed is a Real Violation" (Text D)

For a larger and more readable view, please click on the image.
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I hope you will find these helpful!
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Academic Writing--Paraphrase (Group 5, Paragraph 5)

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Image of Marked Up Version of Group 5 Paraphrase
(Click on Image for Larger Version)
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The emotion Louise feels after finding out about her husband’s death is called “monstrous joy” (para.12) , and this description fits perfectly her state of mind at its highest intensity and indicates to the reader that the most important thing for Louise is her freedom. The joy is monstrous, not only because it is forcefully felt, but also because of her awareness that popular opinion would condemn it. Thus, it illustrates once more the conflict between Louise’s private thoughts and her surroundings. The monstrosity of her joy and the liveliness and passion of her inner existence also runs contrary to the way she is described physically, as a perfectly angelic Victorian lady, “young with a fair, calm face” (para. 8) and with “two white, slender hands” (para. 10.).

Reference
Smith, N. (2009). “Story of an hour” by Kate Chopin: Language,
-----emotion and marriage. Article Myriad.
-----Retrieved from http://www.articlemyriad.com/story_hour.htm
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Academic Writing: Summarizing and Paraphrasing a Poem--Results of the In-class Exercise from 11/23

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On November 23, my Academic Writing students were asked to do an in-class exercise during which they were to summarize and paraphrase--both line-by-line and prose version--a poem.

For others accessing this page: please bear in mind that this exercise was done during class in a limited amount of time.

In addition, for these students, English is a second language.

The students' summaries and paraphrases are presented in green, my notes in purple.

Group 1: (Katerina Angelkovska, AElica Atanasovska, Gorjan Kostovski, Aleksandra Tomeska)

“Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

The writer talks about a snowy dark night in the woods where he's passing through on his way to somewhere.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better).

I think I'm familiar with this place.
But his house is not here;
And he won't see me now
while I watch the snow falling.

My horse is confused
Stopping far away from a farmhouse
In the middle of the woods and a frozen lake
In the darkest evening of the year.

His horse shakes his head
Wondering why they stopped
The only sound they can hear
is the sound of the wind and the flakes

He praises the woods
but he has to go
and keep his promises
before he finds a spot to sleep.

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

Group 1 did not finish the prose version; however, the line-by-line version is good, and this was the longest poem of the five assigned. This group started their paraphrase with the following:

The writer is travelling somewhere and is passing through the woods where he stops for a moment

This is still more of a summary than a paraphrase, but had they more time, I suspect that, after completing the prose version, they would have reworked the first sentence.

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Group 2: (Biljana Dijaniseva, Goran Dimitriev, Mila Dimoska, Sandra Mijalkovska, Natasha Stojanovska)

“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

The poem is about the two possible ways in which the world will end--in fire or in ice.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better).

Some people think the world will end in fire,
others think that it will freeze over.
From the poet's experience in desire
he supports the first group.
But if the world was given a second chance,
the poet recognizes hatred as the strongest emotion
which will destroy the world with ice.
An ending that is great and sufficient.

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

Robert Frost talks about the two beliefs about the ending of the world. According to the poem, some people believe that the world will end in fire, while others believe it will end in ice. From his experiences with passion, the poet supports supports those who believe the world will burn in the end. However, if the world had to end twice, the poet recognizes hatred as the cause for the world's destruction. And so the world will freeze over and end in ice, which is an appropriate ending.

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Group 3 (Frosina Angelkoska, Kosta Bojcheski, Biljana Nedelkoska, Biljana Zdravkoska):

“Yesterday is History,” by Emily Dickinson

Yesterday is History,
'Tis so far away
Yesterday is Poetry
'Tis Philosophy

Yesterday is mystery
Where it is Today
While we shrewdly speculate
Flutter both away

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

While dwelling on the past, we lose focus on present, and when thinking about the future, past and present fly away.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better. For this poem, this may be a bit difficult, but give it your best effort).

Yesterday is already gone,
It can never come back.
As past memories leave mark on us,
So does poetry on all humanity.

Evoking thinking about everything.
From the point of today, yesterday is a blur.
While wasting our time thinking about future,
Both yesterday and today are gone.

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

We shouldn't pay attention to the past because we can't change it. What's done is done. The author compares yesterday to poetry and philosophy because they are both contemplative processes, leaving deep trails on our minds. The mysterious face of yesterday is unknown because it is gone for good, and concentrating on the future makes both past and present unexisting.

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Group 4 (Aleksandar Dimitriev, Ivana Jovevska, Burkurie Kajoli, Biljana Mojsoska, Katerina Nikolovska, Maja Ristovska):

“Gypsy,” by Carl Sandburg

I asked a gypsy pal
To imitate an old image
And speak old wisdom.
She drew in her chin,
Made her neck and head
The top piece of a Nile obelisk
and said:
Snatch off the gag from thy mouth, child,
And be free to keep silence.
Tell no man anything for no man listens,
Yet hold thy lips ready to speak.

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

The poem is about the men's desire for gypsy wisdom.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase.

He asks a gypsy friend
to depict something ancient
and utter something wise
she made a face
and imitated
the head of a Nile Obelisk
and told him
remove the cloth from your mouth boy
enjoy silence
and don't bother others 'cos they don't pay attention
but be prepared to communicate.

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

The poet asks his female gypsy friend to depict something ancient. To look more convincing, she imitates a Nile Obelisk and tells him to remove the piece of cloth from his mouth. He should be ready to speak, but, however, keep silent because no one pays attention.

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Group 5 (Filip Aslimovski, Tihomir Davchev, Nikola Gjelimcheski, Vanja Tripunoska):

“An Epitaph,” by Walter de la Mare

Here lies a most beautiful lady,
Light of step and heart was she:
I think she was the most beautiful lady
That ever was in the West Country.
But beauty vanishes; beauty passes;
However rare, rare it be;
And when I crumble who shall remember
This lady of the West Country?

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

Beauty is transient.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better).

The poet starts by introducing a most beautiful lady who was light of step and heart and according to the poet's opinion the most beautiful lady ever seen in the West country.

In the second quatrain, he suggests that even the exceptional beauty fades with the years and he poses the question of who will remember this lady of exquisite beauty when he passes away.

NOTE: This is really a prose paraphrase of the poem with a bit of literary analysis.

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

The poem operates with the themes of beauty and transience. The first quatrain is very romantic-like in the depiction of a lady with exquisite beauty. Conversely, in the second quatrain he suggests the transience of beauty, a theme in many other poems. Finally, he ends the poem with a rhetorical question, revealing that what remains of a human life in only a rhyming couplet.

NOTE: this is really a literary analysis of the poem, which suggests that this class exercise might have been too elementary for this group and, perhaps, the entire class.

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Academic Writing: Assignment #5—Paraphrasing a Literary Analysis

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For Assignment #5, please paraphrase “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin: Language, Emotion and Marriage, a literary analysis (due December 15).

This assignment must be typed (not handwritten). You may submit this electronically, as an attached MSWord .doc or .docx file. IF you have access only to email (and no MS Word processing program), you may submit this in the body of the email, but I prefer an attached file because it makes much less technical work for me.

Please remember to put your name on your document.

Thanks!

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NOTES

Note #1:

When paraphrasing a literary analysis, please remember to use the appropriate

• Transition signals

• Reporting verb + that + subject + verb (Pattern 1)

• Reporting verb + somebody/something + for + noun/gerund (Pattern 2)

• Reporting verb + somebody/something + as + noun/gerund/adjective (Pattern 3)

(Refer to Unit 2 handout or click here).

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Note #2:

Article by Nicole Smith (http://www.articlemyriad.com/story_hour.htm)

Access Kate Chopin’s story The Story of an Hour.

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Note #3--Print copy only

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Note #4--Works Cited Styles:

Official MLA citation for this literary analysis, an online source:

Smith, Nicole. “‘Story of an Hour’ by Kate Chopin: Language, Emotion and Marriage.”
-----Article Myriad. 2009. Web. 25 Nov. 2009.

Official APA citation for this literary analysis, an online source:

Smith, N. (2009). “Story of an hour” by Kate Chopin: language, emotion and marriage.
-----Article Myriad. 2009. Retrieved from
http://www.articlemyriad.com/story_hour.htm

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Academic Writing: Paraphrasing a Literary Analysis—In-class exercise

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For Monday's class (November 30), your group will paraphrase an assigned paragraph from this literary analysis:

Group 1: Paragraph 1

Group 2: Paragraph 2

Group 3: Paragraph 3

Group 4: Paragraph 4

Group 5: Paragraph 5

Ms Siegel: Paragraph 6

I will collect your group paraphrases and post them on this website so that everyone has access to what each group has paraphrased.

However, each student will be responsible for completing Assignment #5 on his or her own and in his or her own words.
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Academic Writing--Assignment #4: Summarizing and Paraphrasing "The Story of an Hour" (Kate Chopin, 1851-1904)

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Kate Chopin, 1851-1904
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Instructions for Assignment #4 (Due November 30):

1. ALL GROUPS: In one or two sentences, summarize “The Story of an Hour,” by Kate Chopin.

2. Paraphrase your assigned passages:

Group 1: paragraphs 1-4

Group 2: paragraphs 5-9

Group 3: paragraphs 10-13

Group 4: paragraphs 14-18

Group 5: paragraphs 19-23

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The Story of An Hour

by

Kate Chopin
1. Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

2. It was her sister Josephine who told her, in broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards was there, too, near her. It was he who had been in the newspaper office when intelligence of the railroad disaster was received, with Brently Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.

3. She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

4. There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul.

5. She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves.

6. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

7. She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

8. She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.

9. There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it, creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color that filled the air.

10. Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.

11. When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.

12. She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial.

13. She knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in welcome.

14. There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.

15. And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!

16. "Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.

17. Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhole, imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."

18. "Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of life through that open window.

19. Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

20. She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.

21. Some one was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella. He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to screen him from the view of his wife.

22. But Richards was too late.

23. When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that kills.

(1894; Also appeared in A Vocation and A Voice, an 1897 story collection)

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Biography of Kate Chopin

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The Story of an Hour -- A Modern Interpretation


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Academic Writing: Summarizing and Paraphrasing Poems (Group Exercise)

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Time permitting (on 11/16), we will do this as a group exercise (during second half of class). No need to print this page out; I will give each of you a copy of your group poem.

Because many of you will be engaging in literary analyses and translations, I thought it might be a good idea to start your summarizing and paraphrasing unit with some short poems to summarize and paraphrase. Later on (probably for the 11/23 class), I will include some short literary passages.

Finally, just before your semester exam, we will work on some topical passages.

I will soon post Assignment #4, probably after Monday's class.

The Poems:

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Group 1:

“Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening,” by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better).

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

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Group 2:

“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better).

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

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Group 3:

“Yesterday is History,” by Emily Dickinson

Yesterday is History,
'Tis so far away
Yesterday is Poetry
'Tis Philosophy

Yesterday is mystery
Where it is Today
While we shrewdly speculate
Flutter both away

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better. For this poem, this may be a bit difficult, but give it your best effort).

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

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Group 4:

“Gypsy,” by Carl Sandburg

I asked a gypsy pal
To imitate an old image
And speak old wisdom.
She drew in her chin,
Made her neck and head
The top piece of a Nile obelisk
and said:
Snatch off the gag from thy mouth, child,
And be free to keep silence.
Tell no man anything for no man listens,
Yet hold thy lips ready to speak.

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase.

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

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Group 5:

“A Poem,” by Walter de la Mare

Here lies a most beautiful lady,
Light of step and heart was she:
I think she was the most beautiful lady
That ever was in the West Country.
But beauty vanishes; beauty passes;
However rare, rare it be;
And when I crumble who shall remember
This lady of the West Country?

1. In one sentence, summarize the poem.

2. Write a line-by-line paraphrase (to help you understand the poem better).

3. Write a prose paraphrase.

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Academic Writing: Why You Need to Learn How to Summarize and Paraphrase Text/Articles

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Summarizing:

When writing academic papers, you will often need to condense the text of articles and books written by noted writers and researchers in your field. Often, a source may offer important information but may be a somewhat minor source for your paper.

Also, in all fields of study, most formal academic papers present a section called “Review of the Literature” or “Literature Review,” which presents one or two sentence summaries of the sources referenced in the paper.

Paraphrasing:

When writing academic papers, you will need to present the ideas formulated and research conducted by noted writers and researchers in your field, but in your own words and incorporating your own unique sentence structure and syntax.

Techniques You Will Use in Writing Academic Papers
Paraphrased text:

Use when the original writer’s research and ideas are important and integral to your paper, but the original wording of the text is undistinguished.

Summary:

Use for a minor source that strengthens a major source’s premise or adds another dimension to it, but is not relevant enough to warrant a full paraphrase or quotation.

Direct quotations:

Use when the quotation itself is so distinguished that rendering the text into a paraphrase would diminish its quality greatly. Do note that most academic text, even from noted writers and researchers, is mundane and should be paraphrased.

Inferences:

The ideas, concepts, and interpretations that the student takes away from the experts who have been quoted, paraphrased, and summarized in the paper. This technique reveals the depth of a student’s critical thinking skills because it demonstrates that he/she, as a researcher, is capable of more than just parroting someone else’s ideas.

Student’s own opinion:

The student offers his/her opinion on the topic, which has been supported by his/her sources as solid evidence. Usually, the student’s opinion (overtly stated or implied) has been stated in the thesis sentence and restated (in different words and more forcefully) in the conclusion.

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Academic Writing: Paraphrasing and Summarizing Articles: "The Owl at Purdue"

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I am going to ask you to go off this site and onto "The Owl at Purdue" because this educational site offers some good information on paraphrasing.

I cannot copy the text here because it is copyrighted, and it is illegal and unethical to copy someone else's work on a website, unless you first obtain permission. In this case, it is better to simply offer you the links to the Owl site.

Here are some good articles that I would like you to read:

Paraphrase: Write it in Your Own Words

Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

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