Writing the Discussion Section
5- 9
meaning. When you paraphrase, take care to substantially reword and restructure the sentences rather than replacing or rearranging only a few words.
Consider the following example:
Original: Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is most frequently associated with remote or current intravenous drug use and blood transfusions before 1992, although as many as 20% of infected patients have no identifiable risk factor. (Adapted from Herrine SK. Approach to the patient with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Ann Intern Med 136:747 – 757, 2003.) Poor paraphrase: Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is most often associated with past or current intravenous drug use and with blood transfusions before 1992, but up to 20% of infected patients do not have an identifiable risk factor. 1 Good paraphrase: The most common risk factors for chronic hepatitis C virus infection are use of intravenous drugs, either currently or in the past, and receipt of blood transfusions before 1992. However, in up to 20% of patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection, no risk factor can be identified. 1 Summarizing involves creating a concise, shortened version of the original text that includes the main information but not all the details. This technique is the one used most often in describing others’ studies. Like paraphrasing, summarizing invol ves putting others’ statements into your own words. However, whereas paraphrasing often involves rewording individual sentences, summarizing usually involves a larger amount of information.
Consider the following example:
Original: We observed a striking inhibition of hepatic preneoplasia by upregulation of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-I (IGFBP-I) in transgenic mice. This inhibition may have been caused by increased binding of insulin-like growth factor-I and/or -II by IGFBP-I within the preneoplastic lesions, which would decrease the mitogenic activity of the growth factors. Our results suggest that liver cancer development might be affected by glucoregulatory hormones, growth factors, cytokines, and nutritional factors that regulate hepatic IGFBP-I expression. The study added new evidence to the notion that the insulin-like growth factor axis plays a critical
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