Previewing and Paraphrasing

1. Previewing and Paraphrasing
ESL 272 Advanced Reading and Vocabulary

2. What is Previewing?
 Previewing (also called Pre-reading) is getting an idea of what
you will read before you read it
 Why Preview?
 If you don’t preview before you read, it’s like trying to put
your clothes in your closet without hangers. Where will the
clothes go?
 You need hangers to organize your clothes just like you
need to preview a text before you read so you can organize
the information you are about to read and have somewhere
to put the information in your mind.

3. Adapted from The Bedford Reader and The Little, Brown Reader
Previewing: Before You Start
Reading
Find a quiet place with no distractions (this means no
music, cell phone, or TV)
Look at the title
Usually includes author’s subject
Who is the author?
What you already know helps you guess something about
the writing
If biographical sketch is provided, read it

4. Previewing the Text
 In what was it published?
 Would you be more likely to believe “How to
Fight Cancer in Scientific Journal or People
magazine?
 Indicates for whom it was written
 When was it published?
 If it’s about health, will you find it more reliable
if written in 2008 or 1988?

5. Previewing Continued
 Skim the text: Skimming means to read quickly for
the main idea of a passage, including a look at the
title, headings, and the first/last sentences.
 Look at photos and captions which usually support
main ideas
 Once you have previewed the text and have a
general idea what the article will be about, you are
ready to read and annotate

6. Paraphrasing
 A paraphrase is your own version of an
important point or idea expressed by
someone else.
 When you aren’t quoting information, a
paraphrase is a legitimate way to
borrow information from someone else.

7. Paraphrasing is Not
Summarizing
 A paraphrase is a detailed restatement of one
idea by another source (approximately 1-3
sentences) and must give credit to the
original source. A paraphrase is usually the
same length or slightly shorter than the
original text.
 A summary involves putting main ideas from
a text into your own words, including only the
main points. Summaries are much shorter
than the original and give an overview of the
whole article.

8. Paraphrasing is not Quoting
 Paraphrasing still requires that you give
credit to the original source
 E.g. Adler says, According to Adler…
 Quoting requires you give credit to the
original source but it also means you
use the author’s exact words. You
cannot change any words when you are
quoting.

9. Quoting vs. Paraphrasing
 What’s wrong with this sentence:
According to the Keller, “Learning new words gave her a
positive feeling. Although she would still have
problems, it is possible to solve it.”
This is a paraphrase NOT a quote (notice use of she not I)
so it should not have quotes.

10. Tips for Paraphrasing
 Reorganize the sentence by changing
the word order while keeping the
meaning the same
 Use synonyms (words with the same
meaning)
 Change the grammar but be sure it is
still grammatically correct

11. Model Paraphrasing
 Look at this example of good paraphrasing:
Original Sentence from Keller’s story: “Anger and bitterness
had preyed upon me continually for weeks and a deep
languor had succeeded this passionate struggle.”
Paraphrase: According to Keller, she was exhausted after
fighting feelings of resentment and animosity endlessly for
weeks.
Why is this good paraphrasing? New word order, synonyms
for key words in the sentence, and credit for the source

12. Additional Resources
Previewing
http://www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/knowitall/s
tudyskills/reading.htm
Paraphrasing
 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/56
3/01/
http://projects.uwc.utexas.edu/handouts/?
q=node/37