Revoice! Paraphrasing Will Help You Learn

And will also make you more fun at parties

Welcome to Extra Muros, a blog that helps its readers acquire the skills, attitudes, knowledge, and habits that will enable them to provide themselves with a first-class liberal education. If you like what you see, please share Extra Muros with your friends. (If you don’t like what you see, please send the following link to your enemies.)

Nicolas Monsiau, Aspasie s’entretenant avec les hommes illustres

The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man's observation, not overturning it."

 Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

In the world of case teaching, case teachers often use a technique called paraphrasing. Also known as revoicing, this happens when the case teacher responds to a plan put forward by a student with a short, uncritical summary of what just said.

When a case teacher paraphrases, he tells all concerned, both the student who offered a solution to the problem at hand and everyone else in the room, that he is paying attention to what students have to say. At the same time, he gives the class as a whole a second chance to hear the student’s plan. (He may, moreover, reinforce this effect by writing a few words, or drawing a simple diagram, on the blackboard.)

The autodidact can use this technique in a number of ways. When you read (or listens to a podcast or audiobook), you can, from time to time, interrupt that activity to write a précis of the main points that were made. When other people describe a plan of their own, explain something that is going on, or interpret events, you can say things like:

• “So, what you are telling me is …”

• “If I am not too badly mistaken, you are saying that …”

• “So, the essence of what you are saying is …”

When doing this, take pains to avoid composing a caricature of the report, story, or proposal in question. After all, the point of the exercise is the production of a faithful summary, not a critique.

At times, however, a faithful summary will expose a flaw in the logic of the original statement: “So, your plan is to buy high, sell low, and make up the losses by selling in bulk.” (When this happens, the secret to success is to lay out the logic as plainly as possible, carefully avoiding any hint of irony, let alone sarcasm.)