Concept in Definition ABC

Paraphrasing is a process of reproduction intellectual consistent in expressing in your own words what other people have said or written. The purpose of the paraphrase is to achieve a language more adapted to the personal style and thus achieve a better communication with the rest.

It can be said 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 of understanding.

Types of paraphrases

Not all paraphrases are the same, but there are several types. There is mechanical paraphrasing, which consists of replacing words with equivalent synonyms, so that minimal syntactic changes occur. For example, if I say "the student is disciplined" we could replace this sentence with a 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 global meaning. For example, "generosity is the quality that I value the most" could become "I consider that

altruism it is a value that stands out above the others "(here it can be seen that the two sentences maintain the same essence and an equivalence in terms of meaning).

General guidelines for paraphrasing from text

The first step would be to do a general reading of a text. Then the words or phrases that are most significant and susceptible to change can be underlined. From here it is possible to configure the paraphrase. However, it is convenient to finally compare the paraphrase with the original text, since the important thing is that both texts are comparable and with the same semantic value.

General considerations

Paraphrasing has a formative purpose and, consequently, it is used as an exercise in the teaching-learning process

Is a strategy more complex than simple copying, which only allows you to practice orthography or punctuation marks.

Do not confuse the paraphrase with the traditional summary. While the first has the purpose of helping in the understanding of some knowledge, the summary is oriented to memorization. On conclusion, the paraphrase is more than a simple summary, since it implies a new explanation, usually clearer than the original.

Finally, it should be noted that paraphrase can be confused with another similar term, periphrase, since both words are a paronymy, that is, they have a great orthographic similarity. While the paraphrase is based on a question semantics, the periphrasis is a Figure of speech, which consists of using a phrase in place of a word (instead of saying I traveled to Madrid, a periphrasis would be I traveled to the capital of the kingdom of Spain).

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