HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH

CODE:

17

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GRADUATION THESIS
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDIES

SEVERAL WAYS IN PARAPHRASING FOR
THIRD YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS
AT HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

Supervisor

: PHẠM THỊ MINH PHƯƠNG

Student

: PHẠM HƯƠNG TRANG

Date of birth

: 23/05/1993

Course

: K18A2 (2011 – 2015)

Student

Ph¹m H-¬ng Trang – K18A2

Supervisor

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ 1
PART A: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 4
1. Rationale ................................................................................................. 4
2. Scope of the study. .................................................................................. 5
3. Aims of the study .................................................................................... 5
4. Methodology ........................................................................................... 6
5. The design of the study ........................................................................... 6
PART B: DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................... 8
Chapter I LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................... 8
1.0 .Introduction.......................................................................................... 8
1.1.Definition of paraphrasing..................................................................... 8
1.2. The importance of paraphrasing ......................................................... 11
1.3. Summary............................................................................................ 13
CHAPTER II : PARAPHRAING SENTENCES AND PARAPHRAING
PARAGRAPHS ........................................................................................... 15
* PARAPHRASING SENTENCES ............................................................. 15

people, ideas and event etc .................................................................... 43
2.2.1.4 Using one of the strategies to find your own words to rephrase
the paragraph ......................................................................................... 46
2.2.2 Summary ....................................................................................... 50

CHAPTER III: SOME USEFUL WAYS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING
PARAGRAPH. ............................................................................................ 51
3.1. Some ways in teaching paraphrasing ................................................. 51
3.2 Some ways in studying paraphrasing............................................... 58
PART C : CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 64
Appendix ...................................................................................................... 66
References .................................................................................................... 68

Part a
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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
Nowadays, English has become an international language and it is spoken
by most of the people throughout the world. It is widely used in all fields of
society such as : diplomacy, science. Technology and foreign trade and so on.
The purpose of language open usage is to communicate ideas among

else’s ideas to support their writing without copying her or his exact words.
The writer can use many ways to do this such as: quotation, summary and
paraphrase. However, paraphrase is better than others because we can rewrite
preciously published information in different words without changing its
original meaning. That is the reason why the writer choose this topic for my
graduation paper.
The thesis hopes that the small work on this field would be useful for
English learners, especially third year students English majors at HOU

2. Scope of the study.
In this thesis, because of the

time limit and knowledge relating

paraphrasing ; therefore, this thesis will concentrate on some ways in
paraphrasing for third year students.
This thesis decide to devote one chapter for literature review about the
paraphrase’s theories ( the definition, the importance). Other chapters are
intended the good methods in paraphrasing sentences and some steps in
paraphrasing paragraph.

3. Aims of the study
This study mentions the ways so as to help learners in general and third
year students in particular at HOU to improve their paraphrasing skills.
The study is concerned about:

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Ph¹m H-¬ng Trang – K18A2

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

• Part C : The CONCLUSION with the summary of the main
points discussed in the previous parts.
In this paper, due to the time limit and knowledge of the
author, inevitable shortcoming are not avoidable, and the writer
would like to express my thanks to my teacher, learners and
friends for their comments and suggestions.

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

PART B : DEVELOPMENT
Chapter I
LITERATURE REVIEW
1.0 .Introduction

In the St. Martin’s Guide to Writing (p.452), Charles R. Cooper defined
that “Paraphrasing is restating something the writers have read using your
own words”. As a critical reading strategy, paraphrasing can help to clarify
the meaning of an obscure or ambiguous passage. It is one of the three ways
of integrating other people’s ideas and information into our own writing along
with quoting (reproducing exactly the language of the source text, and
summarizing (distilling the main ideas of gist of the resource text) the writer
might choose to paraphrase rather than quote when resource\s the language is
not especially corseting or memorable. The writers might paraphrase short
passages but summarized longer ones.
Another view about paraphrasing written by DeliJaJ. Valiukennas in
Writing with Authority – A guide to Research Process (p.109) is that: “ when
you want to take quote material from notes and put it into his/her own words,
the writers are said to be paraphrasing.”
James A.W. Hefferman is Writing a College Handbook (p.245) defined
as follow: “paraphrasing is restating a short passage in your own words.”
Besides, demonstrating the writer’s understanding of what he/she read,
paraphrasing enables we to discuss text without quoting every words from
them and thus to avoid interrupting our essay without long quotations. If the
writers plan to analyze a particular passage in detail, we should quote it in
full. But if the writers simply want to convey essential point of the passage,
they can paraphrase all or part of it.

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for


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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

credit they use someone’s ideas, but paraphrasing gives them a chance to say
it in his/her words instead of using a direct quotation. By stating it his/her
way, the information may fit better into what they are writing allowing their
writing ro flow more easily from one ideas to the next.
The writers should be awareness of the differences between paraphrasing
and summarizing. Paraphrasing may sound suspiciously like summarizing,
but they are actually two different methods of a rewriting a text. In both
methods, the writers are putting the text in their own words, though
summarizing sometimes uses some example to illustrate this statement:
“ The fox talked its prey in the moonlight, it’s large ears and bright eyes on
high alert for the rabbit’s next move”. (original)
“ The rabbit stayed still in the light of the moon while the fox surveyed the
land using its spectacular hearing and night vision”. ( paraphrasing sentence)
“ Foxes hunt rabbits at night using their ears and eyes.” (summarization)
All in all, there are many different definitions of paraphrasing which were
written by many famous writers. All the writers expressed their point of views
about paraphrase in different ways. But all of them have the same point of
views about paraphrase that is using your own words and different structure to
paraphrase sentences or paragraphs without changing its original meaning.
And the paraphrase aims to clarify and simple the original.

1.2. The importance of paraphrasing

needs to have a good understanding of the words, their synonyms and
antonyms too.
The ability of paraphrasing is an important skill. Even though changing
the words of the original text does not necessarily mean that the person has to
change each and every word of the sentence, but it is a convention that a
person does not use more than three words from a single row. This rule
ensures that a writer will use his/ her set of words without completely
changing the idea behind the original passage.

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

In fact, many students is the chance of plagiarism increase if a student
copies and pastes whole sentences and paragraphs without paraphrasing them
and sometimes even without any reference. Paraphrasing skills help students
to understand and rewrite the idea in their own words while providing proper
references to ensure that it is not their ideas.
Paraphrasing helps in fulfilling the ethical responsibility of a writer as
well. It is the responsibility of students not to cheat in any sense. Whether it is
cheating in the exams or cheating from someone else’s paper without
referencing and re – wording his ideas. Another advantage associated with
paraphrasing is it gives a sense of fulfillment of the ethical responsibility as a
student.
The writers easily find the differences between paraphrasing or quoting.


CHAPTER II : PARAPHRAING SENTENCES
AND
PARAPHRAING PARAGRAPHs

• PARAPHRASING SENTENCES
2.0. Introduction.
In daily life we usually borrow someone else’s ideas to support our
thoughts. We use our own words to express the same ideas. However, we
when we usually make mistakes in using structures, choosing words and
styles when we rewrite the author’s ideas in other ways. Therefore, we are
confused at the ways to deal with paraphrasing sentences without changing
the meaning of the author. In scientific report, the writer would like to
introduce several ways in paraphrasing sentences so that this helps the
learners , especially the third year English majors at Hanoi Open University
know how to paraphrase sentences in rewriting sentences. Not all learners of
English can change a sentence into another sentence by different grammatical
structures without changing its meaning, There are 8 ways in paraphrasing
sentences this scientific report would like introduce.

2.1.1 Some ways in paraphrasing
sentences.
2.1.1.1 Using different word order.
In written English, many learners think that they cannot change the order
of words in sentences , but it is a mistake. However changing the word order
is a good way in paraphrasing sentences. With the same quality of words, the

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voice. The passive voice show that a person or a thing denoted by the subject

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

of the sentence is not the agent (the doer) of the action expressed by the
predicate verb. It is the object of the action. The subject of passive verb does
not act but it is undergone as an action, and the active voice shows that the
subject performs or its is responsible for the action of the verb.
The positive degree of adjective denotes the simple quality of one person.
The following sentences are good examples:
Another name for fruit shop is a green grocer. (Original)
Green grocer’s name is a fruit shop. (Paraphrase)
In this sentence, with the same quality of words, the write can make a
new sentence without changing of the original sentence. Therefore, the
readers can understand the content of the author’s idea after reading new
sentence. Another example:
The strain will not run tomorrow because of the strike. (Original)
Because of the strike, the train will not run tomorrow. (Paraphrase)
In the above example, the writer has changed the position of words to
emphasize the reason why the train will not run tomorrow. This makes the
meaning of sentence more important. The writer has paraphrased the original
sentence into another sentence by using different word order but the readers
can understand what the author wants to express.

Changing the word order of a phrase or sentence is usually safer than
using synonyms because the words are the same, so the meaning must be the
same. However, its is not always easy to decide which words to move which
position the words should be moved. Also, when the writers move the word,
the writers might need to change some other words, add some other words or
cut some other words to ensure that the new sentence is grammatically
correct. Here are two suggestions for how to change the word order without
making errors:

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

- If the original sentence has two or more clauses, change the order of the
clauses
“ If they have some help, most people can paraphrase effectively.
However, practice is important because paraphrasing is difficult.”
(Original)
“ Most people can paraphrase effectively, if they have some help.
Paraphrasing is difficult, so practice is important.” (paraphrase)

- If the original sentence has an adjective and noun, change the adjective
into a relative clause.
“ Writing essays can be a challenging task”. (Original)
“ Writing essays can be a task which is challenging”. (Paraphrase)

He burnt the dinner. (Active)
The dinner was burnt. (Passive) (He can be omitted)
In some cases. Passive sentence express more effectively than active
sentences. For example :
Tom ordered “Let kill Julia” ( Active)
“ Let kill Julia” was ordered by Tommy ( Passive)
The writers not only change from active structures into passive one but
they can change from passive structure into active one. For instance:
Boxes of eggs were sent to the market (Passive)
He sent boxes of eggs to the market. (Active)
In this example, with the same idea “ boxes of eggs were sent to
the market”, the writer can express in two ways with the same meaning.
In the first sentence because of unknowing the doer so they can use

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

passive voice, but in the second sentence they emphasize the doer does
action; therefore, the writers change from passive into active.
It is quite necessary to choose those constructions in certain
situation so as to achieve our objectives in writng and speaking.
For example:
This tree was planned by my father. (Passive)
My father planted this tree. (Active)

speech
According to Mr. James A.W. Hefferman (1990, p43) any statement,
whether spoken or written can be reported directly by quotation of the
actual words or it can be reported indirectly – by paraphrasing those
words. Therefore, this part introduces using different speech in
paraphrasing sentences, another way to rewrite sentences without
changing the meaning of the original sentence.
There are two kinds of speech, which are direct and in direct
speeches. When the writer use directly words of original statement are
memorable or important. Enclose the words in quotation marks, the
writer uses direct speech when the exact words of the original statement
are less important than their content. The writer does not use quotation
marks is direct speech.
The writer can use different speech (direct or indirect) to
paraphrase sentences when he/she wants to borrow somebody’s ideas to
support thoughts without having any changes in meaning. For example:
What time is it? She said. (Direct)
She asked me what time it is. (Indirect)
In the first sentence, the writer use direct speech whenever they
speak. The term “ direct speech” can be used to describe the way to

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Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University


Graduation paper
Several ways in paraphrasing for
third year English Majors in Hanoi Open University

This question about the place where I was born can be presented in two
ways without changing in the fact reported. The first sentence is in the
indirect speech. The second one is in the direct speech, both sentences
are surrounding “ where I was born?”
Only some above examples, the writers can see that they can see
that they can use different ways pf speech to rewrite sentences to
express the same ideas. It , therefore, is another way that they can use
in paraphrasing sentences and the meaning is the same as the original
one.

2.1.1.4. Using different parts of
speech.
Using different parts of speech is another good way in paraphrasing
sentences. It has function keeping the original meaning. According to
Mr. Diane Larsen – Freeman (1993) eight parts of speech ( nouns,
pronouns, verbs, preposition, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions and
interjections.) make up sentences. As we study the various parts of
speech, we should remember that many words can be used as different
parts of speech in different contexts; for example the word “hate” can
be in different ways:
I hate pain.
His expression reveals hate.
The senator received many hate letters.

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