ENG2D Exam Preparation Question 1: Paraphrase

Points to Note 1.Your paraphrase is written in prose. 2.A paraphrase is not a summary. 3.You have to maintain the same sequence of ideas. 4.Why paraphrase the poem?

1. Write it in prose. The paraphrase is written in prose. It should not look like a poem; it should look like a paragraph or series of paragraphs. Do not paraphrase line by line; do not format the paraphrase as though it’s a parallel poem. Some people find it difficult to make the transition from poetry to prose. Just remember that you’re NOT going to make the lines parallel; you’re going to compose smooth coherent paragraphs with complete sentences that are punctuated properly. NOTE: Do not try to organize the paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence because this is not an essay. For the purpose of paraphrasing, just follow the sequence of ideas in the poem.

2. A paraphrase is not a summary Remember that a paraphrase says what the original text says, only in different words. In contrast, a summary is a reduction: it represents the original piece in a shorter form by glossing over the details and just capturing the main points. You’re not going to leave out any details. You’re going to say everything the original pieces says, but you’re going to write it in different words.

3. Sequence Some people want to reorganize things. You don’t take ideas from the middle of the poem and combine them with the first part, or say something from the start of the poem at the end of the paraphrase, etc. Keep the same sequence of ideas. If the poem contains punctuation, you can paraphrase sentence-for-sentence or paraphrase clauses if that’s easier. If the poem doesn’t have any punctuation to indicate thought-units, you have to use your astute reading skills to recognize when it has communicated a complete thought. Write a sentence for that complete thought, and then continue reading to the end of the next complete thought.

4. The Purpose of Paraphrasing What purpose does it serve?

You have to slow down and read to the end. Having to paraphrase causes you to slow down and carefully consider the meaning of each word and each line before you attempt to analyse the poem. Often, people jump to conclusions about the message of the poem before they even reach the end. When you paraphrase, you have to read and think about the meaning of the last lines.

Language Skills Having to reiterate what you have read in different words exercises your range of vocabulary. You have to solve the problem of how to say the original statement in different words and still represent its meaning accurately. Expressing your understanding accurately relies on the precision of your diction. The transformation of poetry, which is lineated, into clear, easy-to-read prose activates not only your range of vocabulary, but also your skills in sentence composition.

Reveals your reading fluency If, when I’m marking your exam, I see that you misunderstood the poem, the paraphrase shows me exactly where things went awry. For example, did you misunderstand a word? Did you take a metaphor literally? Did you think a hyphen was a dash? Did you misunderstand a statement because of an unusual grammatical structure? (These are actual errors from past exams.) I can then take the type of error into consideration, and I can consider your line of thinking as I follow the logic of your answers to the subsequent questions.

Here’s a sample stanza to paraphrase. A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.

Sample Paraphrase The stanza is seven lines long, but it’s a sentence: it starts with a capital letter and ends with a period. Let’s see if we can paraphrase it in one sentence: A bird that’s free rides the wind; it lets itself be carried by a steam all the way to its end; it luxuriates in flight, swaying and tipping its wing into amber sunlight; and it boldly proclaims that it owns the sky.

Don’t worry... How did you do? I didn’t change each and every word because I didn’t want it to sound weird. It’s nice if you can make your sentences sound as musical as the poem, but you don’t really have to. You’re just trying to show that you understand the poem’s statements, you have the vocabulary to put them into different words, and you can reword the them into complete, correct, properly-punctuated sentences!