Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Paraphrasing exercise

In this short excerpt from David Crystal’s English as a Global Language, take note of the way that power relationships rather than the number of speakers influenced Latin language use.

“Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful.” 

Paraphrase: Latin came to be the international language in the Roman Empire as their power enabled them to conquer many countries.

As you paraphrase the following paragraph, present the “expected” general features of the nuclear reactors from Declan Butler’s “Nuclear power’s new dawn,” taken from Nature, 20 May, 2004 (Vol. 429, p. 238).

“These new reactors would all operate at high temperatures, improving their efficiency.  And they would include simplified safety features that do not rely on sophisticated backup systems or experienced operators — all are, in principle, ‘meltdown proof’ and can cool themselves down in the event of an accident with minimal, if any, human intervention. . . . Experts agree that reactors will need to be a lot cheaper to run. And to sway a nuclear-averse public, the next generation of reactors will need to produce much less radioactive waste at terrorist-proof facilities.” 

Paraphrase: Being able to work at higher temperatures and not producing much radioactive waste would aid in improving the efficiency of nuclear reactors. In the case of an accident, they require little human intervention with the improved safety features. 

Summarizing Exercise

“In any one nation, there are both very wealthy and very poor individuals and families. When sociologists conduct research on these disparities, they frequently analyze secondary data that originally were collected by the World Bank and the United Nations. These data focus on quality-of-life indicators such as wealth; income; life expectancy; health; sanitation; the treatment of women; and education for high-income, middle-income and low income nations.”

Source: Kendall, D. (2004). Social problems in a diverse society (3^rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Summary: Sociologists research on the uneven distribution of wealth via the data collected by the World Bank and the United Nations of quality of life indicators.

“Why a language becomes a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do with who those speakers are. Latin became an international language throughout the Roman Empire, but this was not because the Romans were more numerous than the peoples they subjugated. They were simply more powerful. And later, when Roman military power declined, Latin remained for a millennium as the international language of education, thanks to a different sort of power – the ecclesiastical power of Roman Catholicism.”

Source: Crystal, D. (1997). English as a global language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Summary: There are several ways for a language to become an international language, and that can be by conquest and the spread of religion.

 Summarise the effect of spending too much time on Facebook in one or two sentences, using the underlined information, which needs to be expressed in your own words.         

       

Summary: Research has shown that daily users of Facebook suffered from lower grades due to the amount of time spent on that website.