R & R: Rephrase and Replace

By: David Bowman
Submitted: 2008-06-11 15:48:15
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

Often when we are editing, we come across sentences that we can revise in several ways. When we cannot easily select a particular revision, we employ a strategy we call R & R, which stands for "Rephrase and Replace."

Rephrasing the sentence is creating a new sentence that follows the same sentence structure as the original and that contains the same problematic words. We do this so that we can evaluate the structure and word choice in a simpler, easier to understand sentence.

For example, we were recently revising a sentence and came up with two options. Option one was "The book is fearless as it rips through the veils of illusion." Option two was "The book is fearless. It rips through the veils of illusion." We were having a difficult time deciding which option we preferred. The main reason we were having a hard time deciding is that the context of the sentence was unfamiliar to us.

We used the Rephrase part of this strategy to rephrase each option, giving them a more familiar context. The first option is one long sentence with two parts joined by the word "as". We rephrased this as, "The man was fearless as he walked into his boss's office," because we wanted to simplify the context. This proxy (i.e., substitute) sentence, like option one, is one long sentence with two parts joined by the word "as." The second option is two short sentences divided by a period. We rephrased this as, "The man was fearless. He walked into his boss’s office." This proxy sentence, like option two, is two short sentences divided by a period.

When examining these two proxy sentences, we noticed that each one conveyed a slightly different meaning. The first one seemed to indicate fearlessness during a specific event. The second one seemed to indicate a general fearlessness, and, perhaps, an example of that fearlessness. We believe that the first meaning was more representative of the author’s intention than the second.

This completed the rephrasing part of this strategy.

Replacing means replacing the words of the rephrased sentence with the applicable words from the original sentence, while keeping the same sentence structure. Thus, we replaced the words "The man" with the words "The book," and the words "he walked into his boss’s office" with the words "rips through the veils of illusion."

Having used the Rephrase and Replace strategy we were able to make our choice: "The book is fearless as it rips through the veils of illusion."

When you edit your writing, see if the R & R strategy is useful to you. This simple strategy has helped us revise unclear writing into easy-to-understand writing. It has also helped us determine which potential revision, among several, will most effectively communicate the author's meaning.

David Bowman is the Owner and Chief Editor of Precise Edit, a comprehensive editing, proofreading, and document analysis service for authors, students, and businesses. Precise Edit also offers a variety of other services, such as translation, transcription, and website development.

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Writing category

  • Beginners Guide to Writing A Press Release - By: Paul Haughney
    If the thought of writing a press release makes you want to cry, don't worry, here are some helpful tips on making an outstanding press release. Learning the basics of a standard press release is simple and if you follow these instructions you will have a great press release at the end of this article.
  • Pacing Your Ideas for Impact and Understanding - By: David Bowman
    Pacing improves reader understanding and increases the impact of your ideas. In this article Precise Edit discusses pacing and how to use it effectively.
  • English Dissertation Writing Guidance - By: Maki Kopper
    English dissertation refers to papers written in English or on English literature. Since English is the most widespread language used in lots of colleges, writing a good English dissertation is a vital skill that you must develop early in your academic career.
  • 10 Overused Words in Writing - By: David Bowman
    All words are good words, but some are overused in writing. We created a list of 10 overused words, based on documents we have edited during the last 5 years. Which of these do you overuse?
  • Child Protection in Sport Unit - By: Jon Oliver
    Child Protection in Sport Unit is a subject that is beginning to gain a lot of attention in today's gigantic world of communication.
  • Writing Tips for Computer Science Dissertation - By: Maki Kopper
    Computer Science Dissertation and research papers are typically considered to be one of the most demanding and difficult types of written assignment...
  • Cultural and media studies dissertation - By: Maki Kopper
    If you want to make a perfect Media dissertation, you should get to know more about its structure it is important to follow the rules and present the information in the right order. Media dissertation gives the students a huge possibility to demonstrate their skills not only in writing and balanced thinking, but to learn additional about varied media recourses, to express individual point of view and to converse with people.
  • Advice On Writing - By: Janice Jenkins
    Writing can be a scary thing in the world of advertising. What you write down cannot ever be taken back. Your writing will be spread around for hundreds or thousands of people to see and if you did not do something right you might be in a position of bringing an advertisement down.
  • 5 Considerations Before You Write Your Brochure - By: Lynne Saarte
    Brochures are a great way to get your detailed product info to customers or as a way to generate sales leads. Brochures can work alone or they can support other sales and marketing materials. Before you even start writing your brochure or even think about the brochure printing process, though, there are a few considerations to think about. Check out the following essentials you need to iron out before you even start writing.
  • Using "Lay" and "Lie" Correctly - By: David Bowman
    "Lay" and "Lie" are called irregular verbs, but "perplexing" would be a better adjective to describe them. Once you get past the present tense, they change in some surprising ways. This brief guide will help you use them correctly.