Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh

Paraphrasing is an important skill in academic writing. Poor paraphrasing may lead to a distortion of the original author’s idea, concept or message and even alleged plagiarism. It is a demanding skill since it engages both reading and writing skills. Consequently, ESL (English as a second lan...

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Main Author: Loh, Yoke Len
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kedah 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29144/
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author Loh, Yoke Len
author_facet Loh, Yoke Len
author_sort Loh, Yoke Len
building UiTM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Paraphrasing is an important skill in academic writing. Poor paraphrasing may lead to a distortion of the original author’s idea, concept or message and even alleged plagiarism. It is a demanding skill since it engages both reading and writing skills. Consequently, ESL (English as a second language) learners, particularly those with low proficiency in English, make numerous errors when paraphrasing. This study seeks to identify these errors so that preventive measures such as effective pedagogic strategies and learning activities can be devised and conducted to reduce these errors. The subjects were 50 undergraduates taking an English academic reading and writing course at a Malaysian public university. The data comprised 95 answers to two questions on paraphrasing in the final examination paper for this course. The results revealed errors at three levels, namely linguistics (grammar, syntax, and lexis), conventions (writing and paraphrasing), and semantics (content of message). In addition, there was evidence of plagiarism in the subjects’ answers. However, the focus of this paper would only be on errors related to the paraphrased content. In order to facilitate learners in horning their skills in paraphrasing, two pedagogical strategies are proposed. It is hoped that by implementing these strategies, ESL learners will be confident in using their own words to paraphrase academic texts with minimal errors.
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spelling uitm-291442020-04-07T12:12:05Z https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29144/ Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh cpit Loh, Yoke Len Academic language. Study and teaching Language and languages Paraphrasing is an important skill in academic writing. Poor paraphrasing may lead to a distortion of the original author’s idea, concept or message and even alleged plagiarism. It is a demanding skill since it engages both reading and writing skills. Consequently, ESL (English as a second language) learners, particularly those with low proficiency in English, make numerous errors when paraphrasing. This study seeks to identify these errors so that preventive measures such as effective pedagogic strategies and learning activities can be devised and conducted to reduce these errors. The subjects were 50 undergraduates taking an English academic reading and writing course at a Malaysian public university. The data comprised 95 answers to two questions on paraphrasing in the final examination paper for this course. The results revealed errors at three levels, namely linguistics (grammar, syntax, and lexis), conventions (writing and paraphrasing), and semantics (content of message). In addition, there was evidence of plagiarism in the subjects’ answers. However, the focus of this paper would only be on errors related to the paraphrased content. In order to facilitate learners in horning their skills in paraphrasing, two pedagogical strategies are proposed. It is hoped that by implementing these strategies, ESL learners will be confident in using their own words to paraphrase academic texts with minimal errors. Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kedah 2013 Article PeerReviewed text en https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29144/1/AJ_Yoke%20Len%20Loh%20CPLT%20K%2013.pdf Loh, Yoke Len (2013) Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh. (2013) Journal of Creative Practices in Language Learning and Teaching (CPLT) <https://ir.uitm.edu.my/view/publication/Journal_of_Creative_Practices_in_Language_Learning_and_Teaching_=28CPLT=29.html>, 1 (1). pp. 4-17. ISSN 1823-464X https://cplt.uitm.edu.my/
spellingShingle Academic language. Study and teaching
Language and languages
Loh, Yoke Len
Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh
title Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh
title_full Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh
title_fullStr Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh
title_full_unstemmed Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh
title_short Errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / Yoke Len Loh
title_sort errors in paraphrasing and strategies in overcoming them / yoke len loh
topic Academic language. Study and teaching
Language and languages
url https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29144/
https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/29144/