Paraphrase Practice for Research Papers

CATESOL 2017: C. Boyd “From Past De-contextualized Paraphrasing to Future Contextualized Success”

Paraphrase Practice for Research Papers

The purpose of this activity is to practice paraphrasing as you would for a real academic assignment.

The goal is to work with a partner to write a paraphrase of some relevant information from a provided source.

Directions:

To understand the overall task, read this handout completely.
Keep in mind the context of the writing task, the outline of topic sentences, your individual topic sentence idea and the audience; all contribute to a good paraphrase.
Your topic sentence is indicated with an . Be sure to focus on the idea in your topic sentence not just individual words; source info supports the idea in your topic sentence.
Review/skim/scan the source for evidence that can support your topic sentence idea. There may be more than one option. DO NOT spend a lot of time debating; just choose one & paraphrase it. (You can also use information from multiple places in the source and combine in your paraphrase, also.)
Write the paraphrase to include as part of a fully developed paragraph. Use the Paraphrase Well steps to help you. The paragraph will ultimately include other evidence, but do not worry about that for now.
Please do not write on sources. Use a Post It Note/s to indicate the relevant part/s of the source you paraphrased.

Writing Task/Context: Prewriting work for a research-based essay/paper in a university class.

Audience: Classmates and teacher, non-experts, international students, high intermediate/low advanced readers and writers, non-native speakers, unfamiliar with topic.

Thesis: Artificial ingredients in processed foods can negatively affect children’s health and behavior.

TS1: A lot of the food eaten these days is processed.

TS2: Processing can change food dramatically from its natural state.

TS3: Because foods are processed, they often include various artificial ingredients.

TS4: Many types of artificial ingredients are used to flavor foods.

TS5: To increase food appeal, some additives improve the color and texture of processed foods.

TS6: Processed foods are often unhealthy due to these added ingredients.

TS7: Some mainstream Internet health websites suggest artificial ingredients may not be as unhealthy as some people claim. (Yes, this sentence is about the other side’s opinion).

TS8: Despite these mainstream claims, artificial ingredients have been connected to health problems. In particular, reduced concentration and increased symptoms of ADHD have been found in children.

TS9: In addition, some additives have been shown to make children more hyperactive.