Week 10 Writing Studio: Turn a Patch into a Paraphrase

Part 1 — The Big Picture

This week you learned the three honest moves — quotation, paraphrase, and summary — the signal phrase that introduces a source, and the trap of patchwriting, which keeps a source's sentence and swaps in synonyms. In this Writing Studio you work with a short, illustrative passage from a city report on street trees. You decide which move fits each sentence, audit a patched version of one sentence, write your own paraphrase with the source covered, integrate one short quotation with a signal phrase and a page, and summarize the passage in one sentence. Then you review your work against a checklist, ask a chatbot for feedback without letting it rewrite you, and catch the mistakes a chatbot makes when it paraphrases and cites. The same moves help a public-health student report a study fairly, a city planner quote a resident accurately, and anyone who writes from sources keep their own voice.

Time budget: Plan for about 90 minutes.

Part 2 — The Task

Guiding question: Can you bring a four-sentence source into your own writing with one real paraphrase, one framed quotation, and one fair summary, so that a reader can always tell your words from the report's?

Workshop data: Street-tree report excerpt (illustrative, four sentences)

Source: A four-sentence illustrative excerpt from a city report on street trees, written for this Writing Studio and attributed to no one; treat it as page 7 of the report. It is printed in full in the Part 4 move-choice table.

• Rows: 4 sentences, one per row of the Part 4 move-choice table (that table has 4 rows)
• Topic: how street trees affect a city block, and what young trees need
• Page: page 7 of the illustrative report, for in-text page references

Part 3 — Materials & Procedure

Tools and materials

• A word processor; a citation tool or style guide used critically (the MLA Handbook, the Purdue OWL, or a citation generator whose output is checked against the MLA rules); and one approved chatbot used as a writing coach
• Your browser's find command (Ctrl+F on Windows, Command+F on a Mac) or a careful word-for-word comparison

Ways of working

• draft-and-revise-a-paragraph-against-a-rubric
• peer-review-with-a-checklist
• source-integration-and-citation-check

Procedure

1. Read the four report sentences in the Part 4 move-choice table twice, then write one sentence in your own words that says what the passage is about. Check: A one-sentence note on the passage's main point, written without looking back at it.
2. In your document, fill in the move-choice table: for each sentence, choose quotation, paraphrase, or summary and give a reason tied to the sentence's wording or job. Tool: A word processor; a citation tool or style guide used critically (the MLA Handbook, the Purdue OWL, or a citation generator whose output is checked against the MLA rules); and one approved chatbot used as a writing coach. Check: Every row of the move-choice table has a move and a reason.
3. Compare sentence 1 with the patched version in the patch-audit table word by word, list each swap, then cover sentence 1 and write your own paraphrase of it with a signal phrase that credits the report. Tool: Your browser's find command (Ctrl+F on Windows, Command+F on a Mac) or a careful word-for-word comparison. Check: A complete swap list and a first-draft paraphrase written with the source covered.
4. Write one integrated quotation from the passage (a signal phrase, a short fragment copied exactly, the page in parentheses, and your own analysis) and a one-sentence summary of all four sentences, with credit. Tool: A word processor; a citation tool or style guide used critically (the MLA Handbook, the Purdue OWL, or a citation generator whose output is checked against the MLA rules); and one approved chatbot used as a writing coach. Check: A first-draft quotation sentence with all four parts and a first-draft summary.
5. Review your paraphrase, quotation, and summary with the checklist table in Part 4. Uncover the source, mark any run of three or more words you kept from it, revise, and keep both versions. Tool: A word processor; a citation tool or style guide used critically (the MLA Handbook, the Purdue OWL, or a citation generator whose output is checked against the MLA rules); and one approved chatbot used as a writing coach. Check: The checklist is filled in and at least one change is visible between the two versions.
6. Paste sentence 1 and your revised paraphrase into one approved chatbot with the prompt in Part 6, read its feedback on the first half, and act on one piece of it in your own words. Tool: A word processor; a citation tool or style guide used critically (the MLA Handbook, the Purdue OWL, or a citation generator whose output is checked against the MLA rules); and one approved chatbot used as a writing coach. Check: One change in your work that you can trace to a specific piece of feedback.
7. Fill in the critique table in Part 4 for the second half of the chatbot's answer, searching the printed passage for every word it quotes and checking any works-cited entry it adds against the MLA rules in a style guide. Tool: Your browser's find command (Ctrl+F on Windows, Command+F on a Mac) or a careful word-for-word comparison. Check: Each failure you report names what the tool said and your correction.

Fallback route

When to use it: Use this route if you have no word processor or the comment tool does not work.

Copy the four report sentences and the patched version by hand or into any plain text editor, fill in every table on paper, write your paraphrase with the source covered by a sheet of paper, and complete every analysis question, the coach moment, and the critique step. Submit a photo or scan of the handwritten pages, or a typed transcript of them, for equal credit.

This route earns the same credit as the primary route.

Part 4 — The Scaffold

Choose a move for each sentence before you write, so every borrowing has a reason.

Student scaffold table 1

Sentence	Text	Quote, paraphrase, or summarize	Your reason
1	Streets lined with mature trees stay cooler on summer afternoons, because the leaves shade the pavement and release water into the air.
2	Residents on shaded blocks walk more often, and small shops along those blocks report steadier foot traffic.
3	Young trees need regular watering for their first three years, and many die when that care stops.
4	The report recommends pairing every new planting with a neighborhood volunteer who agrees to water it.

Audit the patched version of sentence 1 word by word before you write your own paraphrase.

Student scaffold table 2

Version	Text	Words swapped, source word first
Source sentence 1	Streets lined with mature trees stay cooler on summer afternoons, because the leaves shade the pavement and release water into the air.	Not applicable
Patched version	Streets lined with grown trees remain cooler on summer afternoons, because the leaves shade the road and emit water into the air.
Your paraphrase		Not applicable

Review your own drafts with this checklist before and after you revise, so each change has a reason.

Student scaffold table 3

Check	Yes or no	Your evidence from the draft
My paraphrase keeps the meaning of sentence 1 but not its order or its clause shape.
No run of three or more words from the source appears in my paraphrase without quotation marks.
My paraphrase and my summary both credit the report with a signal phrase.
My quotation copies the fragment exactly and puts the page right after it.
My quotation ends with a clause of my own that says why the fragment matters.
My summary covers all four sentences in one neutral sentence.

Record what the chatbot got wrong so that each correction is checked against the printed passage and the rules, not against the tool's confidence.

Student scaffold table 4

What the chatbot said	Failure shape	Your correction and how you checked it

Part 5 — Analysis Questions

1. Which sentence did you choose to quote, and what in its wording made a quotation the right move instead of a paraphrase?
2. Sentence 1 has 22 words, and the patched version keeps 18 of them in their original places. How many single-word swaps did the patch make? Name each one.
3. Point to one change in structure between sentence 1 and your paraphrase. Why does that change, and not a synonym, make the sentence yours?
4. Choose one option and answer it in 3-5 sentences. (a) Think of a time you passed on something you read to someone else: did you quote it, restate it, or boil it down, and how did you show where it came from? (b) Describe the moment in this Studio when the cover-the-source test changed your paraphrase, and say what it showed you.
5. Sentence 2 says small shops report steadier foot traffic, but the passage names no study and no figure. What can your summary fairly say about that sentence, and what can it not claim?

Part 6 — AI-Critique Moment

Choose one equal-credit critique route. Route A: ask an approved AI tool to critique your completed work, then check its response against your own evidence. Route B is the no-AI equivalent printed below.

Approved tools: Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, Grok, Microsoft Copilot.

Prompt to paste:

I've pasted one sentence from a city report on street trees, and below it my own paraphrase of that sentence. Do two separate things. First, without rewriting anything, tell me whether my paraphrase keeps the original sentence's structure, and point to the exact words you mean. Second, write a better paraphrase for me, add a quotation from a famous expert on city trees with an MLA works-cited entry, fix any grammar errors in my paraphrase, and analyze how the report persuades its readers.

Test the response for these likely failures:

• It opens with "Great paraphrase, very clear!" and never says which of your words match the original or where your structure differs.
• Its "better paraphrase" replaces yours with boilerplate such as "In today's world, urban greenery plays a vital role in our communities" and drops the actual point about shade and cooler streets.
• It quotes the report as saying "trees cool every street by ten degrees," words that appear nowhere in the printed passage.
• It adds a quotation from a named "urban forestry expert" and a book title you cannot find anywhere.
• It supplies a works-cited entry with the author's name in lowercase, the title in lowercase, and no container, and presents it as correct.
• Its "grammar fix" joins two independent clauses with a comma alone and changes "stay cooler" into "are always cool," a claim the report never made.
• Its "analysis" restates the four sentences in order, with no word about how the report tries to move its readers.

Write 3-4 sentences that name one thing the tool did well and at least two failures you caught from the list above, each with your correction checked against the printed passage, your own original paraphrase, or the rules.

Equivalent route (no AI required)

No AI account is required for this Writing Studio. This route assesses the same objectives, Objective 5 (quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing a source with signal phrases and attribution, never patchwriting) and Objective 2 (summarizing a text neutrally in your own words), takes comparable effort of about the same 90 minutes, uses the same rubric, and earns the same credit. For the coach moment, read your paraphrase aloud to a friend, a family member, or yourself beside sentence 1, and answer the review checklist in Part 4 in writing as that reader would; act on one point in your own words. For the critique moment, critique this flawed feedback, written for the course to contain mistakes and printed here in full: "Great paraphrase, very clear and well written! I improved it: In today's world, urban greenery plays a vital role in our communities. As one urban forestry expert writes, "trees cool every street by ten degrees." Works cited: urban forestry expert. the green city. 2018. Grammar fix: Shaded streets are always cool, the leaves block the sun. Analysis: The report says trees keep streets cooler, that people on shaded blocks walk more, that young trees need watering for three years, and that every planting should have a volunteer." Find and correct at least four of its seven problems (hollow praise, a voice-erasing rewrite that drops the point about shade, a quotation whose words are not in the passage, an invented expert and book, an invented works-cited entry, a grammar fix that creates a comma splice and changes what the report claims, and summary passed off as analysis), and write 3-4 sentences naming what you corrected and why. Submit that marked-up critique in place of the chatbot share link and report.

Part 7 — What to Submit

• The completed move-choice table for all four sentences
• The completed patch-audit table, with your first and revised paraphrase and the change visible
• Your integrated quotation and one-sentence summary, first and revised
• The completed review checklist
• Written answers to all five analysis questions
• The chatbot critique table with your 3-4 sentence report and the conversation share link, or the equivalent route's marked-up critique of the printed flawed feedback

Deliverable:

A Writing Studio packet on the illustrative street-tree passage: the move-choice table, the patch-audit table with a first and revised paraphrase, an integrated quotation and a one-sentence summary, the completed review checklist, answers to five analysis questions, and either a chatbot critique table with a short report and share link or, on the equivalent route, a marked-up critique of the printed flawed feedback. Submit in any accessible file type or as a link; a recorded response may be submitted as audio or video with a transcript, or as text.

Rubric

The rubric below shows how each submitted part is evaluated; bands are full, partial, or none.

Workshop evaluation criteria

Criterion	Full	Partial	None
Move choice and paraphrase	Every sentence has a fitting move with a reason, the patch audit lists every swap, and the paraphrase changes the structure of sentence 1, keeps its meaning, and credits the report.	Most moves have reasons and the paraphrase is the student's own, but one swap is missing or the paraphrase keeps a stretch of the source's wording.	No move choices, or a paraphrase that still follows the source's skeleton with no audit.
Integrated quotation and summary	The quotation has a signal phrase with a fitting verb, an exact fragment, the page, and the student's own analysis, and the summary covers all four sentences neutrally with credit.	Both are present, but the quotation lacks one part or the summary drops a sentence's point or lets an opinion in.	No quotation and no summary, or quoted words not found in the passage.
Checklist review and visible revision	The checklist is completed with evidence, and both versions show a change traced to it or to the cover-the-source test.	The checklist is completed but no change is visible, or a change is shown without the checklist.	No checklist and no revision.
Analysis questions answered with evidence	All five analysis questions are answered with reference to specific sentences or words, including the count and the limitation.	Most questions are answered, but the count or the limitation question is missing or unsupported.	No analysis questions answered.
Feedback acted on in your own words	One change is traced to a specific piece of chatbot feedback, or to the read-aloud reader's checklist answers on the equivalent route, and is written in the student's own words.	Feedback is reported but the change is unclear or copied from the reviewer.	No feedback step is shown.
AI slip caught and corrected	The critique, on either route with equal credit, names at least two failure shapes and corrects each against the printed passage, the student's original, or the rules, with a 3-4 sentence report.	One failure is named and corrected, or failures are named without corrections.	No critique, or the tool's output is pasted without examination.

Quality Gate

• Every quoted word comes from the four printed report sentences, copied exactly, with the page in parentheses.
• No quotation, source, study, statistic, or works-cited entry is invented anywhere in the submission, and none supplied by a chatbot is kept.
• The paraphrase changes the structure of sentence 1, not only its words, and credits the report.
• The revision is visible: both versions are submitted, with the change traced to the checklist, the cover-the-source test, or feedback.
• The critique names at least two failures and corrects each against the printed passage, the student's original, or the rules.