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Lesson planC265 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Say It Differently: Paraphrasing and summarising
Students practise paraphrasing without changing meaning and summarising the main points of a text, then write a short summary for a newsletter.
Skills · Paraphrasing · Summarising · Reading · History
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Plan at a glance
Aims
- Practise paraphrasing and summarising
- Learn and use 14 words and phrases in 2 sets: The language of summary, Verbs for reporting a writer's position
- Read for detail: the Hollinsby archive
- Writing task: a summary
Stages · 65 min
- 5 minLead-in: Pairs talk about history and share ideas with the class.
- 5 minVocabulary: Ex. 1
- 5 minLanguage focus: Go through the grammar notes together and check understanding.
- 15 minControlled practice: Ex. 2–3
- 5 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 4
- 5 minControlled practice: Ex. 5
- 15 minReading: Ex. 6
- 10 minWriting: Ex. 7
Printables
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Download all (ZIP, 2 PDFs)Grammar notes
A faithful paraphrase
- Change the structure and the words, but keep the meaning: rose sharply → there was a steep rise.
- Keep the writer's level of certainty: may be inaccurate is not the same as is inaccurate; suspects is not the same as has shown.
- Keep the scope: some, a few and most are not the same as all or many.
- Keep cause and effect the right way round, and don't add opinions the writer did not express.
Language for summaries
- Report the writer's stance: argues, contends (that), concedes (that), dismisses, questions.
- Refer to something briefly or indirectly: alludes to, touches on, mentions in passing.
- Leave out examples, figures and repetition; keep the salient points and the overall argument.
Study tips
- Before you paraphrase, cover the original and say the idea aloud in your own words; then check you haven't changed how certain or how general it is.
- When summarising, write one sentence for the main argument first, then add only what supports it.
Glossary
- The language of summary8 items
- Verbs for reporting a writer's position6 items
Complete the exercises, then check your answers.
1
The language of summary
Match each definition with the correct word or phrase. There is one extra word.
Tap an item…
…then its match
2
Which paraphrase is faithful?
Read each sentence. Choose the paraphrase that keeps the original meaning.
- a
Few members anticipated how contentious the project would become.
- b
Digitisation was not a luxury but the only realistic means of preserving the collection.
- c
Requests to see original documents have also risen, which Varley attributes to curiosity sparked by the website.
- d
The volunteers' concerns have not been entirely dispelled.
- e
The compromise was more modest than either side had wanted.
- f
Online visits have far exceeded expectations.
3
What has the paraphrase changed?
Compare each original (before the arrow) with its paraphrase (after the arrow). Is the paraphrase faithful, or has it changed how certain or how general the idea is?
- a
Some volunteers objected. → The volunteers objected.
- b
The notes may be inaccurate. → The notes are inaccurate.
- c
Online visits rose sharply. → There was a steep rise in online visits.
- d
Varley suspects the website is responsible. → Varley has shown that the website is responsible.
- e
A few photographs were damaged. → Many photographs were damaged.
- f
Achebe opposed the plan at the meeting. → At the meeting, Achebe spoke against the plan.
- g
The project will probably be extended. → The project will be extended.
- h
Most requests came from local residents. → All requests came from local residents.
- i
The society postponed the second phase. → The second phase was put off by the society.
4
Paraphrase with a key word
Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first. Use the word given and between two and five words.
- a
The chair argued firmly that digitisation was necessary.
CONTENDED
The chair was necessary.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- b
The report mentions the 1953 flood, but only indirectly.
ALLUDES
The report the 1953 flood.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- c
Achebe's words captured the volunteers' fears perfectly.
ENCAPSULATED
Achebe's words perfectly fears.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- d
The summary leaves out the most important points of the debate.
SALIENT
The summary omits of the debate.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- e
I understood the general meaning of his speech, but not the details.
GIST
I got his speech, but not the details.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- f
The newspaper gave a false picture of the volunteers' position.
MISREPRESENTED
The newspaper position.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
5
Reporting what writers do
Complete the sentences from a summary with the words in the box. There is one extra word.
Word box
Tap a gap, then a word, or type the answer.
- a
In her report, Varley that the archive cannot survive without digital copies, a view she has defended for years.
- b
Admitting a weakness in her own project, she that the first notes were written too quickly.
- c
The newspaper headline the story: the volunteers never opposed digitisation altogether.
- d
Achebe's essay only briefly to the society's money problems.
- e
The editor the twenty-page report into a single paragraph.
- f
One sentence from the meeting the whole debate: 'a letter on a screen is not a letter in the hand'.
6
Read: the Hollinsby archive
Read the text. Are the sentences true, false, or is the information not given?
When the Hollinsby Local History Society announced, in the spring of last year, that it intended to digitise its entire collection of parish records, letters and photographs, few members anticipated how contentious the project would become. The society's chair, Imogen Varley, had argued for years that the collection, housed in two damp rooms above the public library, was deteriorating faster than anyone cared to admit. Digitisation, she contended, was not a luxury but the only realistic means of preserving it. Opposition came from an unexpected quarter. Several long-standing volunteers, who had catalogued the material by hand over three decades, feared that a searchable online database would encourage visitors to treat documents as isolated curiosities, stripped of the context that gave them meaning. One of them, Desmond Achebe, put it bluntly at a members' meeting: a letter read on a screen, he said, is not the same object as a letter held in the hand, and pretending otherwise misrepresents what an archive is for. The compromise eventually reached was more modest than either side had wanted. Only material considered fragile or frequently requested would be scanned in the first phase; everything else would remain available on paper, by appointment. Each digital file would be accompanied by a short note explaining where the original was found and how it related to neighbouring items. Eighteen months on, the results are mixed. Online visits have far exceeded expectations, but requests to see original documents have also risen, which Varley attributes to curiosity sparked by the website. The volunteers' concerns about context, meanwhile, have not been entirely dispelled: the explanatory notes, written in haste, are uneven in quality, and some amount to little more than a date and a reference number.
- a
Most members expected the digitisation plan to cause disagreement.
- b
Varley believed that digitisation was essential to save the collection.
- c
The opposition came from people with no previous involvement in the archive.
- d
Achebe argued that reading a letter online is the same as holding the original.
- e
The society intends to scan the rest of the collection next year.
- f
Varley thinks the website has made people more interested in the original documents.
- g
Some of the explanatory notes contain very little information.
- h
Achebe has since changed his mind about the project.
7
Write: a summary
Write a summary.
Summarise the text about the Hollinsby archive in 90–110 words for a local newsletter. Use your own words: don't copy phrases from the text. Include the aim of the project, the main objection, the compromise and the results so far. Keep the writer's level of certainty, and leave out details that aren't essential. Try to use some of these: contend, concede, allude to, salient, encapsulate, distort.
Suggested minimum: 90 words
0 words · aim for at least 90
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Revise with a game
This lesson's own words and questions. Play on your own, or in teams on the classroom screen.
- Step UpAnswer the lesson's questions to climb to the top.
- Pair UpMatch the lesson's words to their meanings against the clock.
- SnapA word and a meaning: do they go together? Answer fast.
- Quiz BoardTeams choose questions worth 100 to 500 points.
- Retro arcadeWord Invaders, Word Snake, Word Maze and Word Crossing: classic arcade games with the lesson's words.
Glossary
The 14 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in 2 sets.
The language of summary
- distort
- to change facts or ideas so that they are no longer accurate
- misrepresent
- to give a false account of someone's views or intentions
- condense
- to make a text shorter while keeping its main content
- encapsulate
- to express the most important features of something in a few words
- salient
- most important or noticeable; formal, often in 'the salient points'
- contend
- to argue firmly that something is true; formal, common in academic writing
- allude to
- to mention something indirectly rather than naming it clearly
- gist
- the general meaning of something, without the details
Verbs for reporting a writer's position
- concede
- to admit that a point against your own view is true
- dismiss
- to reject an idea as not worth serious attention
- attribute to
- to say that something is caused by something else
- object
- to say that you disagree with or oppose something
- argue
- to give reasons for a view you hold
- suspect
- to think something is probably true without being certain; weaker than 'show' or 'prove'
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