Paraphrasing in English Grammar for Business Communication

Paraphrasing is a technique that involves changing a test matter, so that it is quite dissimilar to the main source. But we should be careful to retain all the meaning of the passage. This skill is useful while expanding the taken notes or vice-versa. Effective paraphrasing avoids the risk of plagiarism. You should remember some important points in the process of paraphrasing. They are –

1. Although paraphrasing techniques are used in summary writing, it does not aim to shorten the length of a text, merely to restate the text.

E.g.: Evidence of a lost civilization has been found off the coast of China.

This could be paraphrased as –

Remains of an ancient society have been discovered in the sea near China.

2. A good paraphrasing is significantly different from the wording of the original, without altering the meaning at all. Read the text below and then decide which is the best paraphrase –

Text: Ancient Egypt collapsed in about 2180 BC. Studies conducted of the mud from the River Nile showed that at this time the mountainous regions which feed the Nile suffered from a prolonged drought. This would have had a devastating effect on the ability of Egyptian society to feed itself.

a) The sudden ending of Egyptian civilization over 4000 years ago was probably caused by changes in the weather in the region to the south. Without the regular river flooding there would not have been enough food.
b) Research into deposits of the Egyptian Nile indicate that a long dry period in the mountains at the river’s source may have led to a lack of water for irrigation around 2180 BC, which was when the collapse of Egyptian society began.

3. Techniques:

a) Changing vocabulary – studies > research

Society > civilization

Mud > deposits

b) Changing word class – Egypt (n) > Egyptian (adj.)

Mountainous regions (adj. + noun) > in the mountains (n)

c) Changing word order – Ancient Egypt collapsed > the collapse of Egyptian society began.

The chapter will improve your writing skills. It has been taken from Business Communication book of SMU MBA. It is the next chapter of strategies of note taking.

Strategies of Note Taking for SMU MBA MB0023 of Business Communication

There are strategies that help you to organize a note card and view it in the process of presentation. Some of the important strategies are discussed below:

a) An effective strategy includes an efficient, systematic approach that assists in identifying major points of emphasis and separates them from minor considerations. A format should be developed to write the notes and understand it without difficulty. According to this strategy you have to recognize the major and minor points. Then they should be separated with the help of indicators that you develop. The minor points can be written as bullets under this main point. They can also be written in different coloured links.

b) An effective strategy should include abbreviations, emphasis and important indicators such as circling, underlining, numbering, asterisks, etc. These are used to give clear indication to the writer who develops the notes or the speaker who uses the notes for presentation.

c) The next strategy is that you should follow a proper writing order to assist you during the writing/presentation period. Your note taking should have continuity of thoughts, so that the development of that notes into draft or presentation is well organized.

d) It is often helpful to write out opening statements, support statements that may be confusing.

e) A review often can reduce errors and quality note preparation provides an opportunity to have outstanding results in writing or presentation. You should not forget to review the note to check for the continuity or if the matter taken down is correct or not. This will avoid the dilemma at the stage of developing the notes into draft or at the time of presenting the matter to the audience.

Strategies of note-taking for SMU MBA MB0023 of Business Communication are the next chapter of an introduction of note taking. The book completely deals about the note-taking.

An Introduction of Note Taking from MB0023 of SMU MBA for Business Communication

Note taking is the foundation or road map of good presentation either oral or written. Well-prepared notes are a result of organization and mental preparation prior to presentation. Practice and methodical approaches to note taking help you to maintain concentration and have more organized set of notes. Although you are the only person who will read your notes, clarity and organization are of utmost importance while taking or making notes.

The practical uses of not taking are:

A good note-making technique leads to accurate essays or final drafts

To keep a record of reading / lectures

To revise for exams

To help remember the main points of instructions

As mentioned above, a correctly written down note can be developed into a well organized draft. It could also lead to a productive presentation.

Effective note taking is a part of the sequence: The note-taking forms the link in the sequence of communication. Prior to note taking, there is the aspect of listening or reading. Then you have to recognize and select the key items or concepts. These are taken down as notes in your own style. You can equip your own method for taking down notes; develop your own abbreviations, short-cut methods, etc. However, remember that you will be building up the draft or presentation with the help of these notes. Therefore, you have to be careful while selecting the abbreviations and any symbols because later on, you should know what it means. From this stage, note taking is further linked to ‘writing or speaking.’ The written down notes are expanded to explain the concept either in writing draft or presently it orally.

The chapter is also taken from MB0023 books of SMU MBA from Business Communication in the continuation of Extensive and Intensive types of reading and skimming and scanning types of reading.

Extensive and Intensive Types of Reading from MB0023 of Business Communication

Extensive Reading:

As we already mentioned our way of reading is influenced by the purpose of our reading. Most of us have the habit of reading especially when we are free or have a lot of leisure time. We might get hold of a novel, a comic strip, a magazine etc.

When we read for the pure pleasure of reading we call it extensive reading. But, we should not give it a lesser priority because it is extensive reading. It is enjoyable as well as informative. Here, we practice rapid reading to get the global/overall understanding of the matter.

Intensive Reading:

When we read shorter texts like a research paper, for getting specific details / information we read slowly with a lot of concentration. This is intensive reading. When you read a book as a resource material for research you read it intensively because the overall understanding is not the objective/purpose of our reading.

When you read an article in order to write a review on it, you read it intensively. We use all the skills of reading when we do intensive reading.

For example - Every star is a sun, like our own sun. This means that stars are huge balls of glowing gases. They are so hot that if a piece of steel were placed there, it would disappear in a cloud of gas! In many of the stars, the gases are very thin. This is because the particles or atoms of matter in the gas are far apart.

But stars do have matter in them. We know, for example that the sun contains more than sixty of the chemical elements present in the earth. Among the elements in the sun are hydrogen, helium, iron calcium and magnesium.

In cooler stars, the matter may be more nearly liquid, somewhat like the boiling iron in a blast furnace. In some very old and cold stars, the matter may be so closely packed that a cubic inch of it would weigh a ton.

It is the next chapter of skimming and scanning types of reading which is taken from Business Communication of SMU MBA MB0023 book.

Skimming and Scanning Types of Reading from MB0023 of SMU MBA

As we have already said, we read in different ways depending on the purpose for which we are reading a text. Let us look at skimming and scanning types of reading.

Skimming:

Let’s say that you are a student of Management; and as suggested by your professor, you need to buy a reference text book on Investment Management or you need to write a paper on Computer Graphics. You go to a book store and see a rack full of books, with the same title, but different authors. You don’t have time to read the pages before deciding on buying the book. Hence, you quickly go through the contents, title page and the blurb (it is a slang meaning, a short piece of writing that praises and promotes something, especially a paragraph on the cover of a book).

By now, you have decided to buy one book. The type of reading that you did in the bookstall is “skimming.” Thus, skimming means, “looking quickly over a text/book to get a general superficial idea of the content.”

Scanning:

As you read a text, editorial or an article, you suddenly come across a word that is not familiar to your. Naturally, you would like to know the meaning of the word, for your own benefit.

So you get the dictionary and carefully find the word. You see the spelling, pronunciation, meaning and also the various uses of the same word (if any). This type of careful reading, to find out the specific, clear details, is known as Scanning. Here you don’t just run your eyes across the page, but look into the information for specific details.

Skimming and scanning types of reading have been taken from Business Communication (MB0023) Book of SMU MBA. It is the next chapter of reading and purpose of reading.