Make your paraphrasing plagiarism proof with a coat of E-Prime. (Education).

David F. Mass *

I WOULD LIKE TO DEDICATE this article to the memory of my late friend and mentor, D. David Bourland, Jr. I think he would have derived tremendous satisfaction from knowing that one of his disciples had found yet another use for the E-Prime extensional device. In my opinion the biggest scourge to the English teacher (or any teacher for that matter) consists of the perennial epidemic of plagiarism, which occurs all too frequently in our schools, colleges, and universities. I have taught English for over 35 years in public and private schools, community colleges, business colleges, state colleges and universities, as well as several church-related colleges. Whether appealing to the Judeo-Christian ethic (Exodus 20:15) or stressing the legal ramifications of academic burglary, I have never had one plagiarism-free semester. Recently, however, I have had huge success in my freshman and Advanced Composition classes at Wiley College incorporating a series of paraphrase clinics using E-Prime as a major paraphrasing st rategy.

Plagiarism, I inform the class, consists of taking someone else's words and passing them off as one's own. The most egregious form of plagiarism consists of lifting an entire article or book manuscript and passing it off as one's own. Partial or a la carte plagiarism consists of simply changing the tense or the voice of the sentence, substituting past tense verbs for present tense verbs, passive for active voice, removing an occasional adjective, making the manuscript appear somewhat "different" from the original, or simply substituting synonyms without really understanding the sense of the passage.

I generally begin my paraphrase clinics by telling a personal story of the guilt I felt when my eighth grade English teacher gave me an A+ on a paper I had plagiarized, pinning it to the bulletin board next to my desk, leaving it there for three weeks. My ears often glowed crimson during that display.

I then go on to routine problems of lead-ins and in-text page citations, stressing the need to include introductory phrases such as, "According to Smith" or the generic "One authority states" for every piece of documentation, whether precis, summary, paraphrase, or direct quotations. I emphasize that page numbers also need to be used for every borrowed entry, including Web sources, reminding the students that when they download the article as hard copy, page numbers magically appear.

As the students have acquiesced to the idea of proper documentation, I take them through a sentence-combining workshop in which they learn concision in their writing by replacing relative clauses and subordinate clauses with participial phrases or prepositional phrases, and replacing phrases with single word qualifiers or punctuation. Students go through exercises splicing clauses with relative pronouns, participial phrases, or other such modifying devices.

I then take the students through an extemporaneous fluency exercise developed by my late speech Professor, Dr. Edward Palzer, who demonstrated that from one compound complex sentence, a student can get up to ten variations. The student makes variations by changing the word order, breaking it up into shorter sentences, using subordinating devices such as subordinating conjunctions, participles, or other subordinating, modifying devices, or finding synonyms.

After we have begun the research paper unit, the students having selected their topics and framed the tentative thesis, I then distribute paraphrase worksheets which the students fill out every Friday, six weeks before the due date. I emphasize to the students "You can write a research paper in twenty hours, but you can't write a research paper in twenty hours," explaining the conundrum by suggesting that the students cannot coalesce the hours together, but they must intersperse them over a period of time allowing plenty of time for rest and recharging the nerve batteries. Paraphrasing, I remind them, takes a great deal of cerebral energy. If a student does it correctly, his forehead should feel almost hot enough to fry an egg. Consequently, to keep students from burning-out or succumbing to the temptation of plagiarizing, I encourage them to paraphrase in short daily segments, collecting and processing the data incrementally. I also ask them to complete the following paraphrase exercise form, turning in one written out of class and one composed during class on a weekly basis.

Dr. Mark Hopkin, Professor of Education and media specialist at Wiley College, has prepared an electronic template of my handout. The template appears in the format below.

Paraphrase Assignment

Student Name: Your Name Here

Date: Month 00, 2002

Original Material

Title:

Author:

Page (s)

Text

(Erase these lines then type your original text here.)

Text

Text

More Text

My Paraphrase

Text

(Erase these lines then type your paraphrase text here.)

Text

Text

More Text

At the end of the paraphrase clinic session, the students turned their completed assignments in to me. After the second paraphrase clinic, I introduce the E-Prime unit, using the following handout:

COMFTF12-E

Composition

First Things First

E-Prime Unit

(E')

Make your paraphrasing plagiarism-proof with a coat of E-Primer

Dr. David F. Maas

Dr. Karen L. Cruey, MD, in her informative chapter, "A Linguistic Tool in Psychiatric Evaluation," has provided a succinct definition of E-Prime:

Briefly, E-Prime encompasses all of the English language (E) minus any form of the verb to be:

E' = E - to be.

Its use prohibits present tense (am, is, are), past tense (was, were), progressive forms (being), past participle (been), abbreviated forms of the preceding tenses ('m, 's, 're), the infinitive (to be), as well as dialectal forms such as ain't.

E-Prime does not permit use of to be as an auxiliary for the passive voice, and excludes linking a noun phrase with an adjective phrase or another noun phrase with any of its forms. (Cruey: p.403)

The Passive Voice

The passive voice displaces the role player, often recasting the objects in the subject slot using the following pattern:

Noun phrase + verb phrase [including to be].

* The gun was fired.

* The gun was fired by John.

* The report was written. (Cruey: p.405)

Possible alternatives using E-Prime

* A policeman fired the gun.

* John fired the gun.

* John, the chairman of the Department of Psychology, wrote the report. (Cruey: p.405)

* The newly appointed members of the steering committee wrote the report.

The "is of identity"

The "is of identity" connects two noun phrases with a form of the to be or the copula verb using the following pattern:

Noun phrase + [to be] + noun phrase. (Cruey: p.405)

The false to fact construction often makes an occasional behavior equivalent to a person's identity, such as in:

* I am a procrastinator.

* I am a slob.

* She is a doctor.

One could just as easily connect up the noun phrases:

* Joe is a nose picker.

* Jane is a yawner.

Possible alternatives using E-Prime:

* I didn't turn my assignment in until after the break.

* I left my socks, shoes, and jacket on the hall floor.

* She began her residency in internal medicine last July.

The "is of predication"

The "is of predication" connects a noun phrase to an adjective phrase using a form of the verb to be with the following pattern:

Noun phrase + [to be] + adjective clause. (Cruey: p.405)

This false to fact construction detaches the nervous system from the evaluation, ascribing qualities called predicates, such as color, taste, texture, etc. to a subject, such as:

* The rose is red.

* The road is rough.

* I am fat.

* He is evil.

These constructions invalidate the vital role played by the nervous system in the evaluation.

Possible alternatives using E-Prime:

* I see the rose as red.

* The rose looks red to me.

* Mary said, "I think I look fat." She gained 50 pounds because of compulsive eating and now weighs 300 pounds.

* His mother called him evil because he stole a nickel from her purse.

Rewording the "Is of Identity"

Labeling

A

1. Fred is retarded.

2. Susan is a public offender.

3. Bill was an alcoholic.

E-Prime

B

1. Fred reads at a second grade level.

2. Susan has served five years in the state reformatory.

3. Bill's drinking has caused him to lose his job.

Rewording "Is" When Leading To Predication of Qualities

Projected Impression

A

1. Mary was generous.

2. Tom is insecure.

3. They are unmotivated.

E-Prime

B

1. Mary gave Fred half of her lunch.

2. Tom has a difficult time making decisions.

3. They do not finish their assignments on time.

Another handout I use with the class I derived from an article by James C. Brolin and Michael J. Lesnik, "To Be or Not to Be: Reducing Language Traps in the Rehabilitation Process," containing several tables illustrating how to reword "is of identity" and "is of predication" statements into E-Prime (Brolin, p.478, p.480).

D. David Bourland, Jr. in his article, "How to Earn Better Grades in College Writing Classes," realizes that students feel more secure with a set of instructions rather than the simple suggestion "Just stop using to be verbs," and offers the following guidelines:

A. Most importantly, fight against "is structure" sentences: "The rice is cooked" may become "Ed cooked the rice," or "The rice bas finally cooked," etc. "The music is good" may become "I always enjoy that song," or "She played that piece very well," etc. "She is a teacher" may become "She teaches at State U.," "She has taught for four years," or "She used to teach," etc.

B. Emphasize the so-called Linking Verbs: sense descriptions such as see, hear, look, etc.; tentative verbs such as seem, appear, and become. Watch out for the tendency to overuse the latter, for they too can become addictive. Good writing in E-Prime does not just amount to replacing one verb family with another.

C. In the beginning you may find yourself converging onto a structure that will involve a form of the verb "to be." Stop and reconsider what you have begun to say, and see if you can't find a better way to do it.

D. Avoid the passive voice. If you must use such a construction, perhaps the scruffy verb "to get" can help, as in "The work got done." If you do not like the way that sounds, and neither do I, try reformulating what you want to write or say. (p.428)

As a class exercise I give the class a list of sentences to recast in E-Prime, such as:

1. The crowd was angry.

2. Howard and Betty were incompatible.

3. Tom was unfriendly.

4. The humidity was unbearable.

5. Bill was absentminded.

6. The banker was stingy.

7. Steve's car was unsafe.

Some of the responses my students have given include:

1. The crowd threw trash at the referee.

2. Howard and Betty have argued incessantly.

3. Tom snarled at the passer-by.

4. The perspiration soaked right through my new shirt.

5. Bill couldn't find his glasses on his forehead.

6. The banker wouldn't give his mother a loan.

7. Steve's car had four bald tires.

After these initial exercises, the students have progressed to the next level, including longer sentences such as:

We live in a world in which it is commonplace to blame others for our shortcomings, when negative messages about our worth are common. (Padus, p.114)

Responses I have received include:

According to Padus, we live in a world where people commonly blame others for their shortcomings and reveal oversensitivity to messages about their power and self-worth. (p.114)

Padus suggested that in our world, people routinely blame others for their shortcomings, showing susceptibility to negative self-esteem messages (p. 114).

After I take the class through the E-Prime exercises, I warn them that only the E-primed paraphrases will qualify for a higher grade. I also insist that all the before and after paraphrases must be appended to their final research paper. The following paraphrase from one of my international students from Maranga, Kenya, Mary Kahama, illustrates a sample successful application of a coat of E-Prime to her paraphrases.

Paraphrase Assignment

Original Material

Name: Mary Kahama

Title: The Effects of Divorce on a Child

Author: Alan L. Frankel

Page 2

School-age children may exhibit some of the same signs as younger children, but may also display more overt signs of anger, worry, or sadness. Others may act like "they don't care" and put on an air of indifference while some kids will blatantly deny their parents are divorcing. Sometimes kids in this age try to be "extra good," as if they could behave perfectly, then maybe their parents won't separate. This stems from the all too common belief that children have that divorce is somehow their fault. It's usually a good idea to let them know that divorce is "grownup business" and is certainly not their doing. In contrast to the child who is working overtime to "be good," are some kids who start to become overtly oppositional, aggressive, or even hostile to a parent, perhaps blaming one of them for divorce. Some children are subtler in their resentment, and may display aggressive behaviors, such as spilling things, losing things, and frequently forgetting things.

Paraphrase

Title The Effects of Divorce on a Child

Author: Alan L. Frankel

Page: 2

Alan L. Frankel, in his article, The Effects of Divorce on a Child, states that school-age children, exhibiting similar signs as younger children, sometimes get irritated, anxious, or sad, while others acting like nothing matters have an air of indifference. Others repress their feelings, entering into a state of self-denial, in some cases attempting to behave perfectly in an effort to stop their parents from separating. Such behavior derives from the common belief among children that they have actually caused the divorce. Parents enlightening them should ensure that they know the real causes for their divorce. In contrast to the above, some children become contrary, hostile, continually spilling, losing, and forgetting things. (2)

WORKS CITED

Bourland, D. David, Jr. "How to Earn Better Grades in College Writing Classes," (423-430) in E-Prime III! A Third Anthology, Ed. D. David Bourland, Jr. and Paul Dennithorne Johnston. Concord: ISGS, 1997.

Brolin, James C. and Michael J. Lesnik. "To Be or Not To Be: Reducing Language Traps in the Rehabilitation Process," (pp.473-484) in E-Prime III! A Third Anthology. Ed. D. David Bourland, Jr. and Paul Dennithorne Johnston. Concord: ISGS, 1997.

Cruey, Karen L. "A Linguistic Tool in Psychiatric Evaluations," (pp.401-422) in E-Prime III! A Third Anthology. Ed. D. David Bourland, Jr. and Paul Dennithorne Johnston. Concord: ISGS, 1997.

Padus, Emrika. The Complete Guide to Your Emotions and Your Health. Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1986.

* David Maas, Ed. D., Professor of English at Wiley College, Marshall, Texas, author of many ETC articles, currently serves as VP/Education, ISGS.

POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS

Professor David Maas has created PowerPoint presentations for learning how to Make Your Paraphrasing Plagiarism Proof with a Coat of E-Prime.

To obtain free copies of these presentations, go to www.generalsemantics.org.