Learning from Another Writer: Paraphrase

Like a synopsis, a paraphrase conveys the meaning of the original piece of literature and the relationships of its parts in your own words. A paraphrase, however, converts the original poetry to your own prose or the original prose to your own words in a passage about as long as the original.

As Jonathan Burns read through “The Lottery” preparing to write his analysis, he paid close attention to several of the characters that he planned to mention. To sharpen his understanding of Old Man Warner, he wrote a paraphrase of that character’s comments in paragraph 32.

Jonathan BurnsStudent Paraphrase

A Paraphrase from “The Lottery”

Old Man Warner criticized people who were willing to give up the lottery as stupid idiots or uppity young people who were not satisfied with anything. He claimed that such people would be content to quit work and move to caves. Then he repeated an old folk expression about a good corn crop following the June lottery and claimed that without it the villagers would end up living on weeds and nuts. Finally, he maintained that the lottery had been a tradition forever. He even criticized Mr. Summers as a youngster, faulting him for not being serious enough about the lottery (255–56).

Questions to Start You Thinking

Meaning

  1. In what ways do you think this paraphrase helped Jonathan Burns understand Old Man Warner better?

  2. Why isn’t a paraphrase as interesting as the original passage in a story?

278

Writing Strategies

  1. To what extent does Burns paraphrase clearly and accurately? Would you add or drop any details or comments from his paraphrase?

  2. How does this paraphrase differ from Burns’s synopsis?

Learning by Doing Collaborating on a Paraphrase

Learning by Doingimage Collaborating on a Paraphrase

Working with a classmate or small group, select from “The Lottery” a short paragraph that describes or reveals a character in the story. Either (1) collaboratively compose a paraphrase, line by line, of that paragraph, or (2) separately write a paraphrase, then exchange and comment as peer editors on each of your drafts. Either way, present the meaning of the passage, but stick to your own words and sentence structures.