Activity: This activity enables you to consider examples of effective and ineffective paraphrasing.

Please read this piece of text, taken from the University of Birmingham's website. Then consider the two examples of paraphrasing below it. Which do you think is the most appropriate and effective example of paraphrasing?

Original Text

The University's 250 acre campus was recently listed in the top ten most beautiful universities in Britain by The Telegraph. It is a campus that is expanding and improving all the time with our most recent investments being in the planned building of a brand new multi-million pound sports centre, a redeveloped library with a cultural hub and a brand new student hub housed in the iconic Aston Webb building.

University of Birmingham (2014) About Birmingham. Available at: www.birmingham.ac.uk/undergraduate/birmingham/About-Birmingham.aspx (Accessed: 6 May 2014).

Paraphrase 1

The University's large campus was recently listed by The Telegraph in the top ten most beautiful in Britain. It is a campus that is growing and developing all the time with its most recent investments being in the planned building of a new multi-million pound sports centre, an improved library with a cultural hub and a brand new student hub housed in the famous Aston Webb building.

Paraphrase 2

The University of Birmingham's (2014) website reports that its campus was recently listed in The Telegraph's 'top ten most beautiful universities in Britain.' It goes on to highlight that the campus is being continually developed. Future plans include a new sports centre, a state-of-the-art library and a student hub.

Which summary do you think is the best?