Paraphrasing and Synthesising

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Introduction

One of the essential skills in academic writing is the ability to paraphrase the work of other authors. This means to express their opinions or findings in your own words. Many lecturers prefer paraphrase to direct quotations as too many direct quotations can break up the 'flow' of your writing. Also, through paraphrasing, you can often express the information from your sources more concisely, by picking out the essential elements of the extract you are rewording. But remember that after paraphrasing, it is still essential to cite the authors of your sources within your paragraph and to reference them correctly at the end of your assignment. This is necessary to avoid the accusation of plagiarism, which is cheating by copying other people's work and claiming it as your own. Synthesising refers to the process by which you refer to not one, but multiple sources, to support your argument when writing an essay or research paper.

For paraphrasing it helps to have a good awareness of common academic synonyms. To begin with, you can try the following exercises to check your knowledge of these and practise using them at sentence level : Academic Synonyms for Paraphrasing

Objectives

• To raise awareness of the essential elements of a good paraphrase
• To suggest useful techniques when paraphrasing from a published source
• To provide an opportunity to practise writing paraphrases from extracts
• To suggest ways that sources can be synthesised to support your arguments



Activity 1: The essential elements of a good paraphrase

Before going any further, we suggest you write a definition of "management", which might include the most important roles of "managers", in the box below.




Now imagine that a student at Queen Mary has been given the following essay title:

Compare and contrast what managers are supposed to do, according to textbook models, with what they actually do, according to empirical studies of management.

She decides that it would be a good idea to define the term "management" in her introduction and copies out the following definition from a business encyclopedia she consults in the library.

Instruction

Read the original extract and the three paraphrases that follow it. Choose which of the sentences that follow the extracts accurately describe the different paraphrases.

Management is a process that is used to accomplish organizational goals; that is, a process that is used to achieve what an organization wants to achieve. An organization could be a business, a school, a city, a group of volunteers, or any governmental entity. Managers are the people to whom this management task is assigned, and it is generally thought that they achieve the desired goals through the key functions of (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) directing, and (4) controlling.

LUFT, R.L., 2000. entry on "Management". In MALONIS, J.,ed.,"Encyclopedia of Business", 2nd. ed. Detroit: Gale Group
Paraphrase 1

In Luft's entry on "Management", in the "Encyclopedia of Business" (Malonis J. (Ed.) 2000), he states that the way a group of people working together achieves its aims is through its managers. He then divides their responsibilities into four key roles: 'planning', 'organising', 'directing' and 'controlling'.

Paraphrase 2

Luft in his entry on "Management" in the "Encyclopedia of Business" (Malonis J. (Ed.) 2000), states that management is the method that is used to achieve organisational aims; that is, the method that is used to achieve what an organisation wants to achieve. He makes clear that an organisation could be a business, a school, a town, a group of people working voluntarily, or any governing body. Managers are the people who this task is given to, and it is agreed that they achieve what they want through the key activities of planning, organising, directing and controlling.

Paraphrase 3

Management can best be defined as the system that is used for any organisation to succeed in meeting its objectives. This organisation can take many forms and be large or small. The key people in the accomplishment of these objectives are the managers. Their most important roles in the process are, planning, organising, directing and controlling.

Now decide which of the following five sentences about the above paraphrases are true and which are false.

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1.) All the above paraphrases are acceptable because key vocabulary has been changed.
2.) None of the above paraphrases is acceptable because the last four "key functions" have not been changed.
3.) The second paraphrase is unacceptable because it is too close to the original.
4.) The first paraphrase is unacceptable because it is shorter than the original.
5.) The third paraphrase is unacceptable because it does not include a citation.

Activity 2: Synthesising from multiple sources

 

Instruction

Now read these other definitions of management.

management (noun)
1 [uncountable] the activity of controlling and organizing the work that a company or organization does

"management". In Longman English Dictionary Online. Retrieved June 8 2009 from
http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/management

management (noun)
1 : the art or act of managing: the conducting or supervising of something (as a business)
2 : judicious use of means to accomplish an end

"management". In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Retrieved June 8 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/management

We define management as the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, accomplish efficiently selected aims.

KOONTZ, H., and WEIRICH, H. 1988 Management 9th international edition, Singapore: McGraw-Hill. p.4

Management is tasks. Management is a discipline. But management is also people. Every achievement of management is the achievement of a manager. Every failure is a failure of a manager. People manage rather than "forces" or "facts". The vision, dedication and integrity of managers determine whether there is management or mismanagement.

DRUCKER, P.F. 2007 Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices London: Transaction Publishers.p.xiii

Management is a process that is used to accomplish organizational goals; that is, a process that is used to achieve what an organization wants to achieve. An organization could be a business, a school, a city, a group of volunteers, or any governmental entity. Managers are the people to whom this management task is assigned, and it is generally thought that they achieve the desired goals through the key functions of (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) directing, and (4) controlling.

LUFT, R.L., 2000. entry on "Management". In MALONIS, J.,ed.,"Encyclopedia of Business", 2nd. ed. Detroit: Gale Group

Now write a synthesis of the definitions given above, concluding with your own preferred definition. Use paraphrase to do so, not direct quotation. Be careful to cite the sources in the paragraph and also list the full references below your paragraph.

For further online advice about paraphrasing, using quotations and synthesising from different sources, you might like to try the following websites:
Paraphrasing: advice and activities from RMIT university
Paraphrasing source material: advice from Colorado State University
Quoting and paraphrasing sources: advice from University of Wisconsin-Madison
Quoting, paraphrasing and summarising: advice from Purdue University

References:

DRUCKER, P.F. (2007) Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices London: Transaction Publishers.

KOONTZ, H., and WEIRICH, H. (1988) Management 9th international edition, Singapore: McGraw-Hill.

Longman English Dictionary Online, entry on "Management". Retrieved June 8 2009 from [http://ldoceonline.com/dictionary/management]

LUFT, R.L., (2000). entry on "Management". In MALONIS, J., ed., Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd. ed. Detroit: Gale Group,

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, entry on "Management". Retrieved June 8 2009 from [http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/management]

© William Tweddle, Queen Mary, University of London, 2009, photo used under the terms of an attributive CC license: courtesy of Nenyaki