Cruzpero, Kristine Joyce M

Most often, one incorporate the ideas of the sources we read by paraphrasing. When
writing, he or she includes the source material as evidence. Sometimes this evidence
supports ones argument(s). At other times, most may believe the evidence to be invalid
and want to argue against it. Either way, borrowed ideas must be represented accurately
and clearly. Otherwise, ones arguments will be ineffective and our writing will be
confusing.
The paraphrase is a kind of translation from one register of language to another that
makes more transparent the meaning of the discourse. A paraphrase tries to restate every
word or phrase in a new way. A paraphrases goal is to clarify the content by re-seeing and
re-creating each word in every line thus, paraphrases may actually be longer than the
original source. A good paraphrase is accurate, fair, entirely in your own words,includes
the authors ideas and is properly cited.When one produces a good paraphrase, it
indicates his or her understanding and interpretation of the original passage.
Register is a set of specialized vocabulary and preferred syntactic and rhetorical
devices/structures, used by specific socio-professional groups for special purposes thus, is
a property or characteristic of a language, and not of an individual or a class of speakers.
Registers can be classified into five different types presented by Nihol (2011):
An intimate register, a highly informal language is used among family members or close
friends. It can be in a form of a private vocabulary or nonverbal cues exclusive to the
group. A casual register is the informal language of a broader but still well-defined
social group, and includes slang, elliptical and elided sentences, and frequent
interruption. A consultative register is moderately formal language that marks a mentorprotege or expert-novice relationship, such as that between a doctor and a patient or a
teacher and a student. A formal register is language spoken between strangers or in a

Cruzpero, Kristine Joyce M

technical context. A frozen register is ritualistic or traditional, as in religious ceremonies
or legal proceedings.

3
Because some say that language and communication are synonymous to each other but
linguistics says otherwise. First, language is a sub-set of communication. But,
communication, of itself, consists of a vast and nearly all-encompassing property of
animals, and even some plants. (include some more from the site.) Language is a system
of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
Though translation is associated with interpretation but in the field of linguistics,these
are two completely different things. On the surface, the difference between interpreting and
translation is only the difference in the medium: the interpreter translates orally, while a
translator interprets written text. Both interpreting and translation presuppose a certain
love of language and deep knowledge of more than one language. Kolawole (2013) claims
that translation is rather reserved for activities put in writing while interpretation, whether
simultaneous or consecutive, has to do with activities put orally. In order to produce good
translation, one must be able to transmit the message accurately.
There are times when one paraphrases a text, he or she commits an act of
paraphrasing plagiarism. Paraphrasing plagiarism is committed when a writer summarizes
an idea taken from another source and fails both to cite the author(s) and to provide the
corresponding reference. When is ones work considered a product of paraphrasing
plagiarism? When one uses the same word choices in ones composition and presenting
ideas similar to that of the text . But there are also ways to prevent paraphrase plagiarism.
First is to cite all sources. According to Hunter (2013), the ideas that one uses originated
from another person, so it is expected to give credit to the one ho originally thought of said
idea. It helps to write down the title, author and page number of your sources as you go
along. Second, use quotation marks for direct quotes. Also it is important that you
understand each quote and fact from your source before you use it.Third, restate the idea
in your own words. Understand the subject matter before writing your paper. If you are

4
unclear about the subject, you are more likely to rely on the exact wording of the author.

5
References
Leahey, T. H. & Harris, R.J (1997). Communication versus language. Learning and
Cognition., Prentice Hall: Saddle River, NJ
Davis, M. (n.d.). Academic Skill Support. Retrieved November 30, 2014, from http://
www.smu.ac.uk/academicskills/index.php
option=com_content&view=article&id=31:guide-to-paraphrasing&catid=2:studyguides&Itemid=3
Frick, T. (n.d.). Examples: Paraphrasing Plagiarism: How to Recognize Plagiarism.
Retrieved November 30, 2014, from
https://www.indiana.edu/~istd/example1paraphrasing.html
Lewis, J. (n.d.). When does paraphrasing become plagiarism. Retrieved November 30,
2014, from http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~cpogge/disease/plagiarism.html
Liu, S. (n.d).To put in your own words:defining language. Assumptions and approaches of
linguistics. China: Guangxi Normal University
Schiffman, H. (January 1997). Linguistic register. Retrieved from
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/messeas/regrep/node2.html
Wheeler, L.K .(n.d). Paraphrasing and Summarizing: the good, the bad, the incoherent.
Retrieved from https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/documents/paraphrase.pdf
Writing Paraphrases. (n.d.). Retrieved November 30, 2014, from http://
writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/writing-paraphrases/

6
Communication versus Language
It is important to differentiate between language and communication. First,
language is a sub-set of communication. But, communication, of itself, consists
of a vast and nearly all-encompassing property of animals, and even some
plants. What are the general properties of communication?
The myriad of definitions of communication typically boil down to:
1. a message,
2. a sender (or actor),
3. a receiver (or reactor).
Further, some intentionality is usually required between the sender and the
receiver. In other words, a sender must intend to send a message to a receiver,
who, in turn, is attempting to decipher the message. So, simply not receiving a
message is not communication, but, ignoring a message is. That distinction,
however, is often lost on the sender, who may not be able to tell the difference.
Interestingly, communication courses and workshops spend vast amounts of
time in getting people to learn (re-learn?) how to listen. They also attempt to
get senders to gauge whether or not their messages are being received.
Communication is much broader than language in several ways. First,
communication can occur at all levels of complexity whereas language is highly
complex. Second, communication can occur in any sensory channel (see
below), but language is limited to the auditory channel; at least it was before
the invention of writing. Communication may occur in channels as varied as the
chemical, tactile, visual, surface wave, electrical, and auditory (Wilson, 1975).
Evolutionarily, the auditory channel appears to be favored by its characteristic
as the best candidate for development of a complex communication system
like language. For instance, its properties allow the creation of a sufficiently
large set of short-lasting sounds. In addition, the human vocal apparatus also
seems to have evolved so as to produce such sounds. It is hard to imagine a
system like language in any of the other sensory channels.
Major Channels of Communication and Their Characteristics
Language takes place primarily in the auditory channel, but communication can
take place in many channels. Below, the major channels of communication are
listed and described (Wilson, 1975). Try to see why the auditory system may
best be suited for the evolutionary development of language. Imagine a
language system in another channel. What would it be like?

Channels
Auditory:
ADVANTAGES
Possibility of many signals
Short lasting signals
Works in dark and out of line of sight
Work at a distance
DISADVANTAGES
Localization of position

Visual
ADVANTAGES
Short lasting signals
Do not work in dark (exception: photoluminescence)
DISADVANTAGES
Limited range
Require close cooperation between sender and receiver
Chemical
ADVANTAGES
Work in dark and out of line of sight
Energy, little required to produce signal
DISADVANTAGES
Long lasting signal
Limited number of signals
Slow fade out of signal

Assumptions and Approaches of Linguistics

By Shaozhong Liu
Guangxi Normal University, China
2.3 To put it in your own words and in one sentence:
Defining language
How we understand and define language will largely determine how we are
to teach and learn it. And how we are to teach and learn it
will largely affect how well we can use it.

2.3.1 What is language?

This sounds like a naive question. Naive, because we used to taking things for granted. Our initial
survey of Ni chi guo le? resulted in 16 answers. And similarly, our experiences reveal that given
the question What is linguistics?, we are likely to encounter two kinds of situations. First, laymen
do not even know how to give a definition. Second, professionals try to define it from their own
point of view, hence none is satisfied with the others definition.
So it is very necessary for us to raise and answer the question What is language? in a serious and
systematic manner.
2.3.2 Laymens definitions
----Language is a what we do things with.
----Language is what I think with.
----Language is used for communication.
----Language is what I speak with.
----Language is what I write with.
.
2.3.3 Pedagogical definition of language
----Language is a medium of knowledge.
----Language is a medium of learning.
----Language is part of ones cultural quality.
----Language is part of the many requirements for a future citizen.
----Language is an element of quality education.
.
2.3.3. Lexicographical definition
The word language means differently in different contexts:
Language means what a person says or said. E.g.: What he says sounds reasonable enough, but
he expressed himself in such bad language that many people misunderstood him. (= concrete act

of speaking in a given situation)

A consistent way of speaking or writing. E.g.: Shakespeares language, Faulkners language (=
the whole of a persons language; an individuals personal dialect called idiolect
A particular variety or level of speech or writing. E.g.: scientific language, language for specific
purposes, English for specific purposes, trade language, formal language, colloquial language,
computer language.
The abstract system underlying the totality of the speech / writing behavior of a community. It
includes everything in a language system (its pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, writing, E.g.:
the English language, the Chinese language, childrens language, second language. Do you
know French?
The common features of all human languages, or t be more exact, the defining feature of human
language behavior as contrasted with animal language systems of communication, or any
artificial language. E.g.: He studies language. (= He studies the universal properties of all
speech / writing systems, not just one particular language.)

2.3.4 Linguists responses

Hence, there have been dozens of definitions. Wed like to cite some here.
----Language, as well as the faculty of speech, was the immediate gift of God. (Noah Webster,
American Dictionary, 1828)
----Language is the highest and most amazing achievement of the symbolistic human mind. The
power it bestows is almost inestimable, for without it anything properly called thought is
impossible. The birth of language is the dawn of humanity. The line between man and beast
between the highest ape and the lowest savageis the language line. Whether the primitive
Neanderthal man was anthropoid or human depends less on his cranial capacity, his upright posture,
or even his use of tools and fire, than on one issue we shall probably never be able to settle
whether or not he spoke. (Susanne K. Langer, The Lord of Creation, Fortune, January, 1944)
----In his whole life man achieves nothing so great and so wonderful as what he achieved when he
learnt to talk. (Ascribed to a Danish philosopher in Otto Jespersen, Language, 1922)
----Most people, asked if they can think without speech, would probably answer, Yes, but it is not
easy for me to do so. Still I know it can be done. Language is but a garment! But what if language
is not so much a garment as a prepared road or groove? It is, indeed, in the highest degree likely that
language is an instrument originally put to uses lower than the conceptual plane and that thought
arises as a refined interpretation of its content. The product grows, in other words, with the
instrument, and thought may be no more conceivable, in its genesis and daily practice, without
speech than is mathematical reasoning practicable without the lever of an appropriate mathematical
symbolism. (Edward Sapir, Language, 1921)
----Language, in its most important and characteristic aspect, is the reverse of what it is generally
supposed to be. Instead of consisting of a bundle of labels which name the thing to which they are
attached; and these things, like all else in the world, are forever changing, and with them changes
the meaning of the labels. (A. S. Diamond, The History ad Origin of Language, 1959)
---- Language is cognition.
----Language is what we perceive things with.
----Language is our minds.
.
2.3.5 Assessing definitions
Language is a tool for human communication.
Yes: it is for communication, and this tells the instrumental aspect or function of language.
No: it doe snot say anything about the defining features or properties of language, and it does

10
not exclude many other systems (secret codes, traffic signals, for example) performing the same
function.
Implications: Communication is basically verbal; and teaching means to teach speaking and
fluency is the ultimate goal.
Language is a set of rules.
Yes: it is true that language contains rules
No: it says nothing about the function of language, it does not exclude the other systems
containing rules
Implications: Teaching means to impart grammatical rules; and learning a language is for the
sake of learning it (knowing as much knowledge as possible)
1.1.6. Recommended definitions

1991, p.1
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. (This is a
definition that linguists seem to be in broad agreement about, because this definition reflects
some of the important characteristics of human language)
Yes: This definition does not appear to be very original at first sight, but each word in it has
been chosen with great care to capture an important aspect of language.
system: language must be a system, since elements in it are arranged according to certain rules;
they cant be combined at will or deliberately; they cant be learned by parts; they must be studied
through fragments and facts, rather than the system which is a relative and abstract concept that
represents the totality of parts, but which does not come before the parts are thoroughly examined
and understood. If language were not systematic, it could not be learned or used consistently. For
instance, we dont hear people say the following in English:
* bkli (as a possible word)
* He table a green (as an acceptable sentence)
arbitrary: Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no intrinsic connection between the
word pen and the thing we use to write with. The fact that different languages have different words
for it (+pen) speak strongly for the arbitrary nature of language. E.g.: bi ( ) in Chinese, plume
(crayon) in French, plumo in Esperanto.
symbolic: The symbolic nature of language means that words are associated with objects,
actions, ideas by convention. Or what we can read from between the lines are only literal messages,
and utterance meanings should be inferred from contexts. E.g.: A rose by any other name would
smell as sweet (Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet)
vocalic: By this it is meant that language has the primary medium in sound no matter how well
developed are their writing systems. (1) All evidence shows that writing systems came much later
than the spoken forms and that they are only attempts to capture sounds and meaning on paper.
2)The fact that children acquire spoken language first before they can read or write also indicates
that language is primarily vocal.)
human: language is human-specific, very different from the communication systems other
forms of life, such as bird song and animal cries, possess.
2.3.7 Significance in forming a self definition
The purpose of scientific research is to perceive the underlying laws, adapt to and change the

11
world. How can we possibly actualize the ultimate goal? We have to understand who we are,
what capacity we have, and how we might utilize and enrich our capacity for that purpose. This
is an other-and-self relationship. Its paradoxical that we have to, or we are proving this, that we
depend on a preliminary understanding of other in order to see self. The study of language
serves this direction.
It is a fact that we fail to provide ready answers for things or events at hand. Here are two
examples: Air is around us, no matter where we are and wherever we go. Without air, we will
not survive. However, the importance of air is not felt because we do survive. I think if air is in
want or it is polluted we are easily feel the change of it. And in accordance we begin to revolt
and do something to maintain it.
The same thing is true about our language. Just as air is all around us, we live in a world
of words. Hardly any moment passes without someone talking, writing, or reading. Indeed,
language is most essential to mankind.
What is more, the significance of language becomes all the more evident with the raise of
civilization. 1) Students are taught to learn another language apart from his own native tongue.
That is why it is true in saying that none of us nowadays is merely a monolingual speaker. In
other words, we are most bilingual speakers while polyglots are found very often among our
pals (Larry-Smith, 1997). 2) Even machines are learning to use human language in order to
facilitate or boost social development.
Unfortunately, we are not able to explain many things about our language, not to say to
give ready answers for it. For example, we do not for sure how we acquire language and how it
is possible for us to perceive through language, nor do we understand precisely the
relationships between language and thought, language and logic, or language and culture. Still
less do we know how language originated.
One reason for our inadequate knowledge of language is that we as language users take
too many things for granted. Language comes to every normal person so naturally that few of
us need to stop and question what language is, much less do we feel the necessity to study it.
As we shall see as our course goes on, language is far more complex than most people have
probably imagined and the necessity to study it is far greater than some people may have
assumed.
A knowledge of things usually well suggests how we approach them. It is exactly the same
thing, for instance, in language teaching and learning. How we understand language largely
determines how we are to teach and learn it. It is imperative for language teachers to formulate,
upgrade and update their own philosophy about language. It is never too much to emphasis the
in-depth comprehension about the nature of language.
2.3.8 Conclusions
The definition, the design features and functions of language all strongly imply that
We must try to benefit from what we are capable of by language, and proceed with our practices (in
teaching, learning, and research) in line with our findings about language. The new curriculum
reform in Chinas foundational education, for instance, is advocating lots of ideas. We need to
provide theoretical supports as well as experimental outcomes.

12

How to Recognize Plagiarism

Paraphrasing

13
Example 1 of 5
Paraphrasing plagiarism is committed when a writer summarizes an idea taken
from another source and fails both to cite the author(s) and to provide the
corresponding reference.
If the summary contains a sequence of 7 or more words taken from that
source which is not properly acknowledged, then word-for-word plagiarism
is also committed.

School of Education
201 North Rose Ave.
Bloomington, IN 47405-1006
Comments or questions? E-mail us.
This file was last updated on October 1, 2014 by T. Frick
Copyright 2014, Trustees of Indiana University
Copyright Complaints

What Is Plagiarism?
Adapted from the LAC Writing Lab handout, with additional material by July
Lewis
Plagiarism is the unlicensed usage of another person's work. This can include:
v

Taking the words or ideas of another and either copying or

paraphrasing without giving credit to the source (e.g. endnotes,
quotation marks, in-text citations).

14
v

Copying a paper off the internet and turning it in as your own.

Cutting and pasting sections from an internet source into your own
paper.

Letting someone else do your paper, or turning in a paper that has

been heavily edited by a tutor.
What can I do to avoid plagiarism?

Cite all sources. Use quotation marks for direct quotes. It helps
to write down the title, author and page number of your sources as
you go along.

Paraphrase, don't copy. Restate the idea in your own words.

Make sure to give an in-text citation for the use of the idea.

Understand the subject matter before writing your paper. If

you are unclear about the subject, you are more likely to rely on
the exact wording of the author. Also it is important that you
understand each quote and fact from your source before you use it.
How can I tell if I'm paraphrasing or plagiarizing?

When paraphrasing sources, it is often difficult to judge how much we need to

reword the source material in order to avoid plagiarism. Students who are
learning English may have an especially hard time with rephrasing. What
makes it even harder is that what is acceptable practice in other countries can
be considered plagiarism in the U.S.! Here are some guidelines to follow when
paraphrasing:
v

Use synonyms. Avoid using the same word choices as the source.

Vary sentence structure. Changing the words but not the

structure can still be considered plagiarism.

Mix it up. Don't present the ideas in your paper in the same order
as the source that you are using. Incorporate your own ideas and
those of other authors (properly cited, of course) to make your
writing as fresh and original as possible. And of course

Cite your sources!

Linguistic Register.

15
The concept of linguistic register has been described by Trudgill (1983:101) as
follows:
Linguistic varieties that are linked ... to occupations, professions or topics have
been termed registers. The register of law, for example, is different from the
register of medicine, which in turn is different from the language of
engineering---and so on. Registers are usually characterized solely by
vocabulary differences; either by the use of particular words, or by
the use of words in a particular sense.
Registers are simply a rather special case of a particular kind of language being
produced by the social situation.
Halliday, McIntosh and Strevens (1964) devote a long section to register in
their 1964 work. They also refer to register as `distinguished by use.'
I would suggest an improvement on Trudgill's definition by expanding the
definition of register to include, in many cases, a preference (or even a
dispreference) for particular syntactic patterns or rhetorical devices.
A close examination of many different kinds of registers shows that they tend
to prefer or eschew

the passive voice;

the APA recommends using Active voice: As a general rule, use the active
voice rather than the passive voice. For example, use "We predicted
that ..." rather than "It was predicted that ..."
metaphors ( APA warns against them!)
imperative verbs;
sexist or racist language;
short sentences
as well as having a preference for certain lexical devices (such as acronyms or
blends) as well as certain more established lexical items and resources, such as
Greco-Latin vocabulary (western European languages) or other classical
languages, e.g. Sanskrit or Chinese.
When I say `registers prefer' etc. I mean, of course, that decision-makers who
control the standards of the register prefer or disprefer, and may explicitly
state these preferences in style-manuals for various journals, etc. Some
researchers have noted that register is related to uses rather than users.
Scherer and Giles (1979:51-3) devote two pages to a description of both
differences in lexicon and the `complex, unusual semantic relations
amongst perfectly commonplace words' found in certain registers.

Example: While traveling by air to another city recently, I overheard two people
next to me discussing an issue in their discipline, which turned out to be highenergy physics. One man kept using the word 'quench' in a way I had never
heard used before. In a lull in their conversation I interrupted and asked about
this usage, explaining that I was a linguist. They explained that in their register,
it meant rapidly decrease the temperature of a hot gas. My own understanding
of this word was more like 'put out a fire; alleviate a person's thirst.'

16
Let us tentatively propose the following definition of Register:
A set of specialized vocabulary and preferred (or dispreferred) syntactic and
rhetorical devices/structures, used by specific socio-professional groups for
special purposes. A register is a property or characteristic of a language, and
not of an individual or a class of speakers.
Crucial for our discussion of register in the context of multilingualism and
language policy is the fact that some languages lack certain registers: in
western industrial societies they may lack ethno-scientific registers (folk
taxonomies for classifying plants, animals or natural phenomena), or
specialized poetic registers, specialized politeness systems, or registers for
speaking in a trance.

I use this example because of a situation that arose during my

observation of a Toda ritual in the Nilgiris District, Tamilnadu, India. A
shaman went into a trance and began devining the future. Although I did
not understand any Toda, the speech of the shaman while in a trance was
to me impressionistically quite different from samples of Toda I had heard
up to that point. One frequent sentence-final utterance, delivered with

rising intonation [ariyo: ] sounded like a possible borrowing from

Malayalam, with the probable meaning `do you know?'. I asked the Toda
informant guiding us what the utterances meant, and he explained them
without hesitation. But when I asked him to repeat some of the words, he
said that he couldn't say those words unless he was in a trance.) Toda
also has a register for songs that is phonologically so different from
spoken Toda as to be unrecognizable to someone who only knows spoken
Toda (Emeneau, personal communication).
This illustrates how even a numerically small and preliterate language like Toda
may have three registers that are so different linguistically that they constitute
separate and mutually-unintelligible codes, i.e., the existence of complex
registers is not just a characteristic of post-industrial western languages.
In pre-industrial societies the languages lack legal, technical, scientific, and
medical registers and subvarieties of these (for example, the register that
airline pilots use to communicate with air traffic controllers). Such languages
either function without such registers, which relegates them to a marginal
status within a larger multilingual society (Stewart's `g' [group] function), or
the members of such linguistic cultures acquire proficiency in these registers in
other languages. In many postcolonial societies, of course, the registers they
acquire proficiency in are registers of English or another ex-colonial language.
What this illustrates, of course, is that registers for a particular language may
be di- or even tri-glossic: certain registers are in the domain of the H variety
(religion, literature, ethno-history), some in the domain of the L-variety
(conversation, jokes/stories, intimacy/courtship, auto-mechanical,
building/construction trades etc.) and certain registers (high-tech, highereducation) may be in the domain of a totally different language.

17

Harold Schiffman
Wed Jan 29 12:05:21 EST 1997

Paraphrasing and Summarizing:

The Good, The Bad, The Incoherent:
Students often confuse summarizing and paraphrasing literature. When a
student summarizes a text, the student condenses many lines of material into
a single sentence or so while keeping the content clear. A bad summary merely
describes what the content is but leaves out context. I.e., often a bad summary
is so short the original meaning gets lost. Here's an example using the first
four lines of Sappho's "Hymn to Aphrodite," as it appears in Elizabeth
Vandiver's translation:
ORIGINAL VANDIVER TRANSLATION: Iridescent-throned Aphrodite, deathless
Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you, Don't--I beg you, Lady--with
pains and torments
Crush down my spirit . . . .
GOOD SUMMARY:
In the opening lines, the speaker prays to Aphrodite, asking the goddess not to
hurt her.
BAD SUMMARY:
This is a prayer to Aphrodite.
A poetic paraphrase, on the other hand, tries to restate every word or phrase
in a new way. The goal in a paraphrase is to clarify the content by re-seeing
and re-creating each word in every line. Thus, paraphrases may actually be
longer than the original source (if that length makes the original easier to
understand). Here are the main points to keep in mind:
(1) A good paraphrase captures every single word in the original without
leaving out any ideas, description, or phrasing.
(2) A good paraphrase doesn't merely repeat parts of the original using the
same words.
(3) A good paraphrase might re-order the lines slightly to improve the ease of
understanding.
(4) A good paraphrase might be longer than the original passage.
(5) A good paraphrase helps you understand a confusing passage.
(6) A good paraphrase helps you see multiple possible meanings in a passage
you thought you
understood on the first reading.
GOOD PARAPHRASE:
Aphrodite sitting on the many-colored throne, immortal

18
Daughter of [the chief] god, creator of many tricks, now I ask a favor of you,
Please do not destroy my soul by flattening it with tortures and agonies
--I plead with you, noble female.
ANOTHER GOOD PARAPHRASE:
Goddess of love enthroned in light, never-dying
Offspring of the God-king, [lady who] weaves together clever plans, I beg you
now, Do not pulverize my soul--I ask you meekly, Mistress--with heartaches and
suffering.
If it is necessary to add extra words for clarity, use brackets [like this] to show
that you have added some words that weren't in the original. On the next
page, I have included some paraphrases that I think are poor in quality for
contrast, using the same passage as the source.
ORIGINAL VANDIVER TRANSLATION: Iridescent-throned Aphrodite, deathless
Child of Zeus, wile-weaver, I now implore you, Don't--I beg you, Lady--with
pains and torments
Crush down my spirit . . . .
BAD PARAPHRASE #1 (too close to original): Iridescent-throned Aphrodite,
immortal
Child of Zeus, I now beg you, wile-weaver
Don't--I implore you, Lady--with torments and pains
Crush down my spirit.
BAD PARAPHRASE #2 (leaving out important ideas, words, or concepts)
Aphrodite sitting on the throne,
Divine girl, trickster, I ask you
Not to smash me with tortures and sorrow.
BAD PARAPHRASE #3 (changing from first to third person)
The speaker asks Aphrodite on the glowing throne, the un-killable Daughter of
Zeus, not to destroy her spirit with agony and sorrows.
BAD PARAPHRASE #4 (confusing Sappho with the poetic speaker)
The poet Sappho must have been having a bad romance, because she asks the
love- Goddess on the elaborate throne, the undying Daughter of the sky-God,
not to squish her soul with misery and pains.
Other Tips: (a) On a xerox copy, try underlining the subject of each clause once
and underline each subject's verb(s) twice in the original passage. That will
help you really see who's doing what in the original sentence if you don't
understand it. (b) Look up words when you don't know the meaning of them.
(c) When your paraphrase is done, go through your paraphrase and compare it
to the original one word at time. Place a checkmark on each word in the
original if you can find and circle the corresponding part in your paraphrase
that captures that idea. If you can't find a matching section or word in your
own paraphrase, you have a problem. (d) A thesaurus can be a big help if you
need to think of another word for the original.
If you are reading a difficult passage, and you can't figure out what it means
initially, try paraphrasing it. For a short work, try paraphrasing the entire poem.