Paraphrasing is a process of intellectual reproduction consisting of expressing in one’s own words what other people have said or written. The purpose of paraphrasing is to achieve a language more adapted to personal style and thus achieve better communication with others.
It can be affirmed that it is a didactic resource, since the paraphrase is based on the accommodation of what others have expressed to their own language. At the same time, it is a way of acquiring knowledge. In this sense, if we are able to communicate something complex in a simpler way, we are doing an intellectual exercise in understanding.
Types of paraphrases
Not all paraphrases are the same, but there are several types. There is mechanical paraphrasing, which consists of substituting words for equivalent synonyms, thus producing minimal syntactic changes. For example, if I say “the student is disciplined” we could replace this sentence with another very similar one “the pupil is disciplined”. There is also the so-called constructive paraphrase, which consists of reworking a statement giving rise to another with different characteristics but maintaining the same overall meaning. For example, “generosity is the quality that I value the most” could be converted into “I consider that altruism is a value that stands out from the others” (here it can be seen that the two sentences maintain the same essence and are equivalence in terms of value). meaning).
General guidelines for making a paraphrase from a text
The first step would be to carry out a general reading of a text. Then you can underline the words or phrases that are most significant and susceptible to change. From here it is possible to configure the paraphrase. However, it is convenient to finally compare the paraphrase with the original text, since what is important is that both texts are comparable and have the same semantic value.
General considerations
Paraphrasing has a formative purpose and, consequently, it is used as an exercise in the teaching-learning process.
It is a more complex strategy than simple copying, which only allows you to practice spelling or punctuation.
Do not confuse paraphrasing with the traditional summary. While the first has the purpose of helping in the understanding of some knowledge, the summary is oriented to memorization. In conclusion, the paraphrase is something more than a simple summary, since it implies a new explanation, usually clearer than the original one.
Finally, it should be noted that paraphrase can be confused with another similar term, periphrasis, since both words are a paronym, that is, they have a great spelling similarity. While the paraphrase is based on a semantic question, the periphrasis is a rhetorical figure, which consists of using a phrase in substitution of a word (instead of saying I traveled to Madrid, a periphrasis would be I traveled to the capital of the kingdom of Spain).
Photos: iStock, sturti/Steve Debenport
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