Lesson 2 | Expansion
Encouragement & Review
As you work on your first draft of a paraphrase, consider the flood-and-filter principle. Don’t be afraid to flood your paraphrase with description and expansion at the outset. But once you have a working draft, you may notice that particular details don’t align with the passage or add clarity to your paraphrase. It’s time to filter down to what is most helpful.
Let’s review before applying the flood-and-filter principle to your own paraphrase.
What we learned this lesson...
- Five characteristics of a paraphrase:
- Expands upon the text
- Adds detail and description
- Unpacks the connections
- Keeps the complexity of the original
- Restates the whole in your own words
- Five characteristics of a summary:
- Contracts the text down
- Distills the message to the main point
- Emphasizes the primary supports
- Simplifies complex ideas
- Restates the essential core in your own words
- Seven Principles to Unpack the Text:
- Add contextual details
- Consider all angles
- Rearrange ideas
- Highlight emotion
- Demonstrate internal reasoning
- Make good use of imagery
- Use definitions of keywords and concepts
- Comparing sound translations inspires vivid description in our paraphrase.
- Don't get stumped! …by overstating your case.