LANG1402 Chap.6 Reading and Paraphrasing Sources Accurately
Reading and Paraphrasing Sources Accurately
Two reading strategies, two purposes
The lesson presents skimming and scanning as two speed-reading strategies, neither of which should be running all the time; a flexible reader picks one to suit the purpose. Skimming looks for general or main ideas, works best on factual material, and trades overall comprehension for speed.
It has a structure rather than being random: read the first few paragraphs properly to learn where the piece is going, then take the opening sentence of each paragraph while letting your eyes fall down the rest for names, dates and figures, and read the final paragraphs properly because they often carry a conclusion.
Scanning looks for one specific fact and needs you to know how the material is arranged, which is why a source you have never skimmed is slow to scan.
In your own work the two map onto two moments: skimming decides whether a source belongs on a shortlist, and scanning pulls the figure you need once it is already in.
Summary, paraphrase and quotation
A summary condenses and a paraphrase restates, and length is the diagnostic.
A summary comes out short because it is an overview; a paraphrase keeps the level of detail and therefore comes out at about the length it started. Both are legitimate, and the label has to match what you actually did.
The published note-taking procedure is deliberately physical: reread until you understand, set the original aside and write without looking, add a line about how you intend to use it and a keyword at the top, then check your version against the original, mark any distinctive phrase you kept with quotation marks, and record the source with its page.
Seven techniques, and what must not move
Effective paraphrasing changes a word's part of speech, uses synonyms, recasts numbers into a different form, changes word order, varies the definition structure, changes the attribution signal, and restructures the sentence with different connectives.
The guidance is explicit that using only one of these is not effective paraphrasing. What never changes is the substance: key terms and proper nouns stay exactly as they are, and a figure may be converted into an equivalent form but never softened into a different quantity.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Skimming as a structured path rather than a random one
- 02
Why scanning depends on knowing the arrangement first
- 03
What you give up when you skim, and why it is worth it
- 04
Summary, paraphrase and quotation separated by length and purpose
- 05
Six steps that stop you writing with the source open
- 06
Seven rewriting techniques, and why one is never enough
- 07
Key terms, proper nouns and figures that must not move
- 08
Doing it by hand first, then comparing
Paraphrase one data-carrying sentence and name the techniques
- 3Rewrite using at least three of the seven techniques.
- 2Name each technique you used and where.
- 1Confirm that nothing factual moved.
Key terms
- Skimming
- Reading for general or main ideas by taking the opening in full, then topic sentences, then the close, accepting lower comprehension in exchange for speed.
- Scanning
- Reading for one specific fact without reading anything around it, which requires knowing in advance how the material is arranged.
- Topic Sentence
- The first sentence of a paragraph, which normally carries its main idea and is therefore what a skimming reader reads.
- Summary
- A compressed account of a source's main points, markedly shorter than the source itself, used to give a reader the argument before you analyse it.
- Quotation
- Wording reproduced exactly inside quotation marks, reserved for phrasing that is itself the point and always kept short.
- Nominalisation
- Turning a verb or clause into a noun phrase, which is one of the recognised paraphrasing techniques and also a marker of formal academic register.
Reading and Paraphrasing Sources Accurately FAQ
How do I know whether my paraphrase is close enough to the original to be a problem?
Read it aloud without the original in front of you. If you can still hear the source sentence underneath yours, you have changed words rather than writing. The published test is structural: a version that swaps only synonyms has used one technique, and the guidance says a single technique is not effective paraphrasing.
Should I paraphrase or summarise a source in my literature review?
Both, for different jobs. Summarise when you need to give the reader a source's overall argument before analysing it. Paraphrase when you need one specific point carried across at the same level of detail. Because a paraphrase keeps the detail, it comes out about as long as the portion of the original it covers.
Am I allowed to change the numbers when paraphrasing?
You may change their form and never their value. Thirteen per cent may become less than one in seven, because that is the same quantity expressed differently, and the lesson names this as one of the seven techniques. Softening it to around fifteen per cent changes the fact, which is no longer rewriting.
Assessment move
Skim all three of your shortlisted sources in one sitting before scanning any of them. The relationship between them is what the literature review has to describe, and reading them a week apart leaves you with three separate impressions and a paragraph structure that reads as one source after another.
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