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10 Working with other people’s ideas and voices

Activity 10.9 Evaluating paraphrased text

Read the following short text and the two examples of paraphrase which follow it.
Which example is a better paraphrase and why? Remember to take into account the
paraphrasing tips above.

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by a severe decrease in eating. The

literal meaning of the word ‘anorexia’ suggests a loss of appetite, but people with this dis-
order generally do not lose their appetite. (Martin et al., 2007: 606)

Paraphrase 1
An extreme reduction in food consumed by a person may indicate they have the eating dis-
order anorexia nervosa. Although the term ‘anorexia’ literally means losing your appetite,
this is generally not the case with sufferers. (Martin et al., 2007)

Paraphrase 2
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder indicated by an extreme reduction in eating.
‘Anorexia’ literally means a loss of appetite, but people with this disorder do not generally
lose their hunger. (Martin et al., 2007)

Activity 10.10 Paraphrasing text

Using the information provided in this chapter on paraphrasing, paraphrase the fol-
lowing texts. Use the paraphrasing tips on page 191 to check your work.

Text 1
One study found worse outcomes among children adopted from an at-risk register than
among those fostered or returned home. The explanation for this finding is not clear.
Possibly the adoptive parents chosen were less thoroughly assessed than would have
been the case if they had been offered more ‘popular’ children for whom the competition
would have been greater. (Wilson et al., 2008: 502)

Text 2
The shift toward segmented marketing and the explosive developments in information and
communications technology have had a dramatic impact on marketing communications.
Just as mass marketing once gave rise to a new generation of mass-media communica-
tions, the shift towards targeted marketing and the changing communications environment
are giving birth to a new marketing communications model. (Kotler et al., 2008: 693)

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