On 5/24/08, Relata Refero <refero.relata(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Several! But I'm not putting them on the mailing
list. That would indeed
have a chilling effect, and would overly personalise - and trivialise - the
issue. In case someone doesn't wish to believe its a problem, I'm definitely
not going to wrangle over email whether a random example I pick changed
meaning sufficiently to be a good example.
The point remains: do you think that close paraphrases are sometimes
necessary? If so, do you think that such paraphrases can be, ont the
average, re-written without reference to the source so that they do not
alter meaning? These are not questions that require specific examples.
A good copy editor should be able to change a text without changing
the meaning. In very contentious articles, it's unfortunate that close
paraphrasing (to the point of copying word for word) or quoting is
often necessary throughout the entire text. It means those articles
often look like lists of quotations, with no narrative flow at all.
I do think an example or two would be helpful.
Sarah