Ex.2 Read the sentences and paraphrase them in your own words.

1. There are a number of methods of joining metal articles together, depending on the type of metal and the strength of the joint which is required.

2. In general, the population was spread irregularly with large numbers in the east and fewer people in the north. There were still, however, even in densely populated areas like Warwickshire, areas of forest with few people.

3. Mankind is always searching for a better life. One way of improving it is to plan work so that it corresponds to the capacities and needs of the worker. Ergonomics is concerned with fitting work to man. It doesn't limit its goal to the elimination of physical hazards to health, but aims at making the work more satisfying to the worker.

4. In most developing countries, two-thirds or more of the people live in rural areas, with few, if any, of the services the city-dweller takes for granted. Water taps in houses, for example, are almost unknown. At best, there may be a village well. Often the only source of water is a lake or a stream, perhaps several kilometers away. The drudgery of water-carrying can take up the better part of every day.

5. The way I see it, people need to be made far more aware of safety in ordinary everyday situations - a classic example, of course, is the child reaching for the bottle of tablets Mum forgot to lock away - and it seems to me that the cinema would be the ideal place in which to get the message across. A film about safety tucked at the end of the forthcoming attractions and advertisements would then be seen by a large section of the population.

(http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm)

 

Listening

Script 18

Ex.3 Listen to two students, Peter and Alice, discussing the article «Rules for Effective Paraphrasing» and make a note of anything which you find particularly interesting or surprising, or that you didn't know before.

Ex.2 Listen to the dialogue for the second time and complete the table below with the number of the four tips they consider the most helpful.

	Peter	Alice
	Tip no ………………………….. Tip no ………………………….. Tip no ………………………….. Tip no …………………………..	Tip no ………………………….. Tip no ………………………….. Tip no ………………………….. Tip no …………………………..

(Based on an exercise from Cotton D., Falvey D., Kent S. Market Leader. Pre-intermediate English course Book. Longman, 2008)

Ex. 4 Sum up useful tips on writing a summary and make a short report on the topic.

Out-of-class Writing Assignment

Good writing is informative and interesting.

Writers are able to make their writing interesting by digging deeply into the topics. In other words, good writing has depth of thought. "Depth" is the noun for "deep," which is the opposite of "shallow." If a professor com­ments that a paper is shallow, it means that the writer did not dig deeply into the topic. The ideas are very general, and the support is lacking. In effect, shallow writing might be thought of as uninteresting because of weak critical-thinking skills. The following analogy presents a more vivid analogy of "depth of thought" (500-600 words, every other line).

Vocabulary

to paraphrase	to break up	in one’s own words	to change
alternative	to combine	to claim	to maintain
to identify	meaning	to misuse the source	to make a list of smth.
to specialize	meaning relationships	original meaning	to rewrite

Summarizing

Objectives In this unit you will:	learn what a process of summarizing is;
	learn to write a summary; discover how to analyze the original source.

Starting up

Ex.1 Do you think there are any differences between the processes of paraphrasing and summarizing? Which ones? State your point of view. Give arguments.

Introduction

A summary is a shortened version of a text. It contains the main points in the text and is written in your own words. It is a mixture of reducing a long text to a short text and selecting relevant information. A good summary shows that you have understood the text. Please remember, though, that even when you summarize someone's work, you must acknowledge it.

 

Example

Source: The amphibians, which are the animal class to which our frogs and toads belong, were the first animals to crawl from the sea and inhabit the earth.

Summary:The first animals to leave the sea and live on dry land were the amphibian.

The phrase "which is the animal class to which our frogs and toads belong" is an example, not a main point, and can be deleted. The rest of the text is rewritten in your own words.

The following stages may be useful:

1. Read and understand the text carefully.
2. Think about the purpose of the text.
1. Ask what the author's purpose is in writing the text?
2. What is your purpose in writing your summary?
3. Are you summarizing to support your points?
4. Or are you summarizing so you can criticize the work before you introduce your main points?
3. Select the relevant information. This depends on your purpose.
4. Find the main ideas - what is important.
1. They may be found in topic sentences.
2. Distinguish between main and subsidiary information.
3. Delete most details and examples, unimportant information, anecdotes, examples, illustrations, data etc.
4. Find alternative words/synonyms for these words/phrases - do not change specialized vocabulary and common words.
5. Change the structure of the text.
1. Identify the meaning relationships between the words/ideas - e.g. cause/effect, generalization, contrast. Express these relationships in a different way.
2. Change the grammar of the text: rearrange words and sentences. Change nouns to verbs, adjectives to adverbs, etc., break up long sentences, combine short sentences.
3. Simplify the text. Reduce complex sentences to simple sentences, simple sentences to phrases, phrases to single words.
6. Rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences. Combine your notes into a piece of continuous writing. Use conjunctions and adverbs such as 'therefore', 'however', 'although', 'since', to show the connections between the ideas.
7. Check your work.
1. Make sure your purpose is clear.
2. Make sure the meaning is the same.
3. Make sure the style is your own.
4. Remember to acknowledge other people's work.

4b/c. Distinguish between main and subsidiary information. Delete most details and examples, unimportant information, anecdotes, examples, illustrations, data etc. Simplify the text. Reduce complex sentences to simple sentences, simple sentences to phrases.

Examples:

1. People whose professional activity lies in the field of politics are not, on the whole, conspicuous for their respect for factual accuracy. Politicians often lie.
2. The climatic conditions prevailing in the British Isles show a pattern of alternating and unpredictable periods of dry and wet weather, accompanied by a similarly irregular cycle of temperature changes. British weather is changeable.
3. It is undeniable that the large majority of non-native learners of English experience a number of problems in attempting to master the phonetic patterns of the language.
   Many learners find English pronunciation difficult.

(http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm)

Listening

Script 19