For beginning college students, effective paraphrasing is the most difficult of the research-writing skills they must learn and demonstrate. Many students understand summarizing, and the frequent appearance of unwieldy block quotations in their essays suggests their preference for using a source's exact words. But the art of paraphrasing escapes…

Adapts a classical concept to the composition classroom in a prewriting exercise which offers a wide range of benefits. (RS)

Describes a freshman composition class in which students write essays about pollution. Explains that students classified and divided problems, cited examples, explored pollution's processes, used narrative, and offered comparisons. Describes how students prepared cause-and-effect oral presentations and then wrote persuasive letters. Concludes that…