Paraphrase

Paraphrase, according to Dictionary dot com means, as a noun, "a restatement of a text or passage giving the meaning in another form, as for clearness; rewording.''

There are two key points in that definition. One is "rewording" and the other is "meaning". Paraphrasing, to me at least, is akin to translating. You use different words, even different grammar if necessary, but your intent is to make the original meaning as clear as possible in a language that is more easily understood, hopefully. Changing the wording with the intent of either masking or altering the original meaning is not, by my definition at least, paraphrasing.

A good example of paraphrasing has come up in the online world recently. I'm a follower of Infowars dot com which recently presented a video of Oprah discussing racism saying (via copy and paste from Snopes):

Of course the problem is not solved. As long as people can be judged by the color of their skin, the problem’s not solved. As long as there are people who still… And there’s a whole generation — I said this for apartheid South Africa, I said this for my own community in the South — there are still generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, and they just have to die.

It is my opinion that Oprah wasn't referring to generations of Blacks or generations of Asians or generations of First Nations or generations of Jews. It is clear to me that she was referring to generations of white people. So if I were to paraphrase what Oprah said in order to clarify what she meant I would paraphrase it to show that she was referring to generations of white people. That is, after all, what my brain heard when it processed her statement and I suspect I'm not alone here. I seriously doubt that there were very many people whose intellectual subconscious heard Oprah say that generations of Blacks need to die.

Snopes calls it "false" and "absurd" to suggest that Oprah was referring to white people.

Go figure...