1. Paraphrasing Practice to Improve Writing

2. Take a paragraph from an academic text and rewrite it
Take a paragraph from an academic text and rewrite it. Put the writer’s ideas into your own words. This will help you get used to restating ideas found in the academic passages that appear throughout many examinations.

3. People trying to interpret a situation often look at those around them to see how to react.
(base reactions on)
People trying to interpret a situation often base their reactions on those around them.

4. There are three things bystanders must do if they are to intervene in an emergency.
(necessary)
Three things are necessary for bystanders to intervene in an
emergency.

5. In a crowd, then, each person is less likely to notice a potential emergency than when alone.
(tends to ... less)
In a crowd, then, each person tends to notice a potential
emergency less than when alone.

6. Even if a person defines an event as an emergency...
(decides)
Even if a person decides that an event is an emergency....

7. (may feel less inclined)
... the presence of other bystanders may still make each person less likely to intervene.
(may feel less inclined)
...each person may feel less inclined to intervene in the presence of other bystanders.

8. But Americans consider it bad manners to look closely at other people in public.
(think that)
But American think that it is bad manners to look closely at other people in public.

9. The bystander’s reactions are shaped by the actions of others...
(influence)
The actions of others influence the bystander’s reaction.

10. The actions of others influence the bystander’s reaction.
The actions of others influence how bystanders react.

11. Jacques Cousteau

12. "The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is the source of our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques] Cousteau told the camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and its upwellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity."

13. According to Jacques Cousteau, the activity of people in Antarctica is jeopardizing a delicate natural mechanism that controls the earth's climate. He fears that human activity could interfere with the balance between the sun, the source of the earth's heat, and the important source of cold from Antarctic waters that flow north and cool the oceans and atmosphere.

14. The Twenties

15. The twenties were the years when drinking was against the law, and the law was a bad joke because everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could be had. They were the years when organized crime ruled the cities, and the police seemed powerless to do anything against it. Classical music was forgotten while jazz spread throughout the land, and men like Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of the young.

16. The flapper was born in the twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short skirts, she symbolized, perhaps more than anyone or anything else, America's break with the past.

17. During the twenties lawlessness and social nonconformity prevailed
During the twenties lawlessness and social nonconformity prevailed. In cities organized crime flourished without police interference, and in spite of nationwide prohibition of liquor sales, anyone who wished to buy a drink knew where to get one. Musicians like Louis Armstrong become favorites, particularly among young people, as many turned away from highly respectable classical music to jazz.

18. One of the best examples of the anti-traditional trend was the proliferation of young "flappers," women who rebelled against custom by cutting off their hair and shortening their skirts.

19. Bicycling

20. Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head.

21. The use of a helmet is the key to reducing bicycling fatalities, which are due to head injuries 75% of the time. By cushioning the head upon impact, a helmet can reduce accidental injury by as much as 85%, saving the lives of hundreds of victims annually, half of whom are school children

22. Sears Tower

23. While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building.

24. How much higher skyscrapers of the future will rise than the present world marvel, the Sears Tower, is unknown. However, the design of one twice as tall is already on the boards, and an architect, Robert Sobel, thinks we currently have sufficient know-how to build a skyscraper with over 500 stories

25. Galileo Galilei

26. In 1610, Galileo Galilei published a small book describing astronomical observations that he had made of the skies above Padua. His homemade telescopes had less magnifying and resolving power than most beginners’ telescopes sold today, yet with them he made astonishing discoveries: that the moon has mountains and other topographical features; that Jupiter is orbited by satellites, which he called planets; and that the Milky Way is made up of individual stars.

27. Galileo was able to make some amazing discoveries with his telescope
Galileo was able to make some amazing discoveries with his telescope. He made discoveries about the moon, about Jupiter, and about the Milky Way. He was able to do this with a telescope that was less powerful than even today's most basic telescopes.

28. Introverts

29. In American society, Introverts are outnumbered about three to one
In American society, Introverts are outnumbered about three to one. As a result, they must develop extra coping skills early in life because there will be an inordinate amount of pressure on them to “shape up,” to act like the rest of the world. The Introvert is pressured daily, almost from the moment of awakening, to respond and conform to the outer world. Classroom teachers unwittingly pressure Introverted students by announcing that “One-third of your grade will be based on classroom participation.”

30. There are many more extroverts than introverts in America
There are many more extroverts than introverts in America. This puts a lot of pressure on introverts to fit in and be like everybody else. Even in school, teachers add to this pressure by making class participation part of the student's grade. Consequently, introverts have to acquire additional skills to deal with these pressures.

31. Michelangelo

32. "Michelangelo was a man of tenacious and profound memory,” Vasari says, “so that, on seeing the works of others only once, he remembered them perfectly and could avail himself of them in such a manner that scarcely anyone has ever noticed it." That “scarcely anyone has ever noticed it,” is easy to understand. For, Michelangelo, when exploiting the “works of others,” classical or modern, subjected them to a transformation so radical, that the results appear no less “Michelangelesque” than his independent creations.

33. Michelangelo had a tremendous memory
Michelangelo had a tremendous memory. He could remember the details of works of art after having seen them just once. He copied these works, but changed them dramatically--he created copies in his own, unique style. As a result, few people ever realized some of his works were actually copies.

34. British troops

35. By mid-December, 1914, British troops had been fighting on the Continent for over five months. Casualties had been shocking, positions had settled into self-destructive stalemate, and sensitive people now perceived that the war, far from promising to be “over by Christmas,” was going to extend itself to hitherto unimagined reaches of suffering and irony.

36. After more than five months of fighting, the British had lost so many men and they were unable to make progress. People began to realize that the war would not end before Christmas. Instead, it would continue for longer and be more ironic than they had ever imagined.

37. Dante

38. It has never been denied that Dante the political philosopher as well as Dante the poet assimilated to the full the political doctrines by which his century was moved. In fact, Dante held a key-position in the political and intellectual discussions around 1300, and if in a superficial manner he has often been labeled reactionary, it is simply the prevalence of the imperial idea in Dante’s works—different though it was from that of the preceding centuries—which obscured the overwhelmingly unconventional features of his moral-political outlook.

39. Both as a poet and as a philosopher, Dante's political outlook was formed by the period in which he lived. During his lifetime he even participated in important debates that were of a political and intellectual nature. Though it is true that certain themes in his writing broke with the past, Dante was more than a simple reactionary. His moral and political views were both quite extraordinary for his time.

40. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, Anchor Publishing, 1977, p. 219
American Education

41. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, Anchor Publishing, 1977, p. 219
A key factor in explaining the sad state of American education can be found in overbureaucratization, which is seen in the compulsion to consolidate our public schools into massive factories and to increase to mammoth size our universities even in underpopulated states.

42. The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. Few succeed. Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience. If there is a single stumbling block on the road to the future, it is the bureaucracy as we know it.

43. acceptable Unacceptable
This is unacceptable. This paragraph retains most of the original author’s ideas, as well as his way of structuring and expressing them. The writer has not only made no effort to acknowledge the original author, he used the expression “I believe” in a way that suggests that the ideas in question are his own.
American education is overly bureaucratic. This is manifest in the increasing size of educational institutions, even in small states. Bureaucracies are bad because they tend to work to promote their own survival and growth rather than that of the institution, as was their initial objective. Most bureaucracies fail because they have a conscience or a soul. I believe that bureaucracies are the biggest stumbling block on the road to the educational future.
acceptable
Unacceptable

44. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, Anchor Publishing, 1977, p. 219
A key factor in explaining the sad state of American education can be found in overbureaucratization, which is seen in the compulsion to consolidate our public schools into massive factories and to increase to mammoth size our universities even in underpopulated states.

45. The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. Few succeed. Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience. If there is a single stumbling block on the road to the future, it is the bureaucracy as we know it.

46. acceptable Unacceptable
Bureaucratization has proved to be a major stumbling block on the road to our educational future. American institutions have become factories that are more conducive to the growth of bureaucratic procedures than to the growth of the students who attend them. Bureaucracies have to work long and hard to keep from promoting their own survival rather than the educational goals that were their primary objective.
This is unacceptable. This paraphrase retains most of the original author’s ideas and several key phrases, although it juggles their order around and rephrases them. The writer has not acknowledged the original author.
acceptable
Unacceptable

47. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, Anchor Publishing, 1977, p. 219
A key factor in explaining the sad state of American education can be found in overbureaucratization, which is seen in the compulsion to consolidate our public schools into massive factories and to increase to mammoth size our universities even in underpopulated states.

48. The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. Few succeed. Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience. If there is a single stumbling block on the road to the future, it is the bureaucracy as we know it.

49. acceptable Unacceptable
Bureaucratization has proved to be a major stumbling block on the road to our educational future. American institutions have become factories that are more conducive to the growth of bureaucratic procedures than to the growth of the students who attend them. This means that, as Edward T. Hall says in his book, Beyond Culture, today's educational institutions "have no soul, no memory, and no conscience".
This is unacceptable. The writer does credit the original author, but she only credits him one of the ideas/phrases she uses and she misrepresents what the author says by omitting a key word from her quote.
acceptable
Unacceptable

50. Edward T. Hall, Beyond Culture, Anchor Publishing, 1977, p. 219
A key factor in explaining the sad state of American education can be found in overbureaucratization, which is seen in the compulsion to consolidate our public schools into massive factories and to increase to mammoth size our universities even in underpopulated states.

51. The problem with bureaucracies is that they have to work hard and long to keep from substituting self-serving survival and growth for their original primary objective. Few succeed. Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience. If there is a single stumbling block on the road to the future, it is the bureaucracy as we know it.

52. In his book, Beyond Culture, Edward T
In his book, Beyond Culture, Edward T. Hall discusses the problems posed by the increasing bureaucratization of American educational institutions. Hall maintains that overbureaucratization is one of the key factors governing the state of education in America today. He points to the tendency of bureaucracies to promote their own growth and survival first and foremost, and observes that few overcome that tendency.

53. acceptable Unacceptable
This is acceptable. The writer has avoided too many of Hall’s phrases and clearly attributes his ideas to him without distorting their meaning.
He believes that this is responsible for the fact that many public schools bear a closer resemblance to factories than to educational institutions. In Hall's words, "Bureaucracies have no soul, no memory, and no conscience."
acceptable
Unacceptable