Paraphrasing: Rephrasing an author’s text

5.4 Writing definitions: Defining your understanding
In addition to making paraphrased notes for your collection of ideas and
themes for your paper, you can also note definitions of concepts or phenome-
na. The reason why one writes concise, clear definitions of concepts is not
only to explain them to oneself (although that is a good way of finding out
what one knows). There is also another reason. When putting together the
sections of your essay, you will find that you need to explore, describe and
analyse some of the concepts that you use in your argument. If you keep an
organised file of definitions, with the bibliographic details, you can use them
when needed. These definitions are preferably not direct citations, because
even if you give this type of quoted definition you have to explore it in your
own words, giving your own interpretation.
CHAPTER 5 USING KNOWLEDGE BY MAKING AND MANAGING NOTES
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3 At this stage you are still exploring the literature, and the outline that you have in mind is by
no means final. As you read and write, your outline will change. Keep this in mind when you
try to compose an essay with books and articles spread out on your desk. You need to capture
the content of the texts first, so that you can identify the main themes in the literature. You
can then also decide what the sections and subsections of your essay are going to be. That is
why we say that the outline is temporary – as is the thesis statement. You can change both as
you “travel on”.
Task 5.2:
Writing definitions
Write a definition of a term in your field, stating what it is, what it consists of
and what its function is. Refer to the advice given at the beginning of this
chapter on how to compose a definition. Keep in mind that the adverbs
“when” and “where” are often used inappropriately in definitions.