Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing

Your goal for Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing

Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing: A summary keeps the central claim and essential support while removing examples and repetition. Success means that the learner halves a paragraph in own words using three named techniques.

Make a first attempt before reading the models

Respond to this prompt in two or three sentences: Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing. Keep the attempt. You will compare it with a second version after the lesson.

Four models with different jobs

Listen to the models

What an effective response is doing: Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing

A paraphrase changes wording and structure without changing meaning.

1. Preserve the original meaning before changing the wording.
2. Separate a source's claim from your reaction.
3. Check grammar patterns after reporting verbs.

Return to your first attempt. Underline the part that meets the outcome, then identify the exact place where the listener or reader may struggle.

Read the context before choosing the language

The technically correct sentence is not automatically the best sentence. Consider who is listening, what they already know, how much certainty you have and whether the moment calls for directness or explanation.

For Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing, keep the factual meaning stable while changing detail, register or pacing for a class discussion, a friend, a public presentation or a written response. Do not make a claim stronger than the available information.

Two errors that change the result

Move from recognition to production: Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing

1. Explain why models one and two are different.
2. Complete one controlled sentence using the lesson pattern.
3. Change the audience and rewrite the sentence without changing its central meaning.
4. Complete the production task: Halves a paragraph in own words using three named techniques.
5. Compare your two attempts for accuracy, organisation and ease of understanding.

Check the target English

Production task and self-check: Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing

Halves a paragraph in own words using three named techniques.

• The response completes the named task, not a different easier task.
• The main idea is identifiable in the opening sentences.
• Examples support the central point.
• Grammar errors do not hide the relationship between ideas.
• The second version improves one measurable feature.

Connect Shrink it: summarizing and paraphrasing to earlier English

Say Original claim: regular sleep improves concentration. from memory. Add one clause, contrast or time marker from the previous lesson. Keep the addition only if it makes the meaning more precise.

Change the audience, keep the meaning

Rewrite Paraphrase: Students may concentrate more effectively when they sleep consistently. for two settings: a conversation with a friend and a more formal class or community discussion. Notice which words change and which facts must remain stable.