Getting soldiers to follow dangerous orders requires manipulating their emotions and perceptions of reality. Commanding officers must persuade soldiers to reinterpret dangerous situations in a way that makes risky actions seem necessary rather than reckless. This involves tricking soldiers into believing the commander's version of events over their own initial assessment. Effective military leadership relies on this ability to reshape soldiers' sense of reality.
1. Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing = putting something in your
own words
Paraphrase is often combined with quotation.
Summarizing involves picking out the most
important ideas and paraphrasing them
(along with an occasional quotation).
Quotation marks are not used, but the source
must be credited for paraphrases
2. Imitation
This is a form of plagiarism
Literal paraphrase—changing some of
the words to synonyms
Wording too close to the original –
merely rearranging the order and form
of some of the words.
3. Example: Rearranging words
“It’s increasingly clear that the biggest
roadblock to improving the achievement of
U.S. students is violence and disorder in our
schools.” Albert Shanker
Albert Shanker believes that clearly, we can
increasingly realize that disorder and
violence constitute the biggest roadblock for
U.S. schools who want to improve their
students’ achievement.
4. Example: Literal Paraphrase
“It’s increasingly clear that the biggest
roadblock to improving the achievement of
U.S. students is violence and disorder in our
schools.” Albert Shanker
According to Albert Shanker, it becomes
constantly more apparent that the largest
hurdle to bettering the performance of
American students is violent and disorderly
behavior in our schools.
5. Example: Literal Paraphrase
with a Thesaurus
“It’s increasingly clear that the biggest
roadblock to improving the achievement of
U.S. students is violence and disorder in our
schools.” Albert Shanker
Shanker professes progressively
unambiguously that the prevalent barricade to
humanizing the triumph of U.S. students is
carnage and mayhem in our schools.
6. How can you avoid imitation?
One of the best ways is to read a
passage, then look away and try to
recall the important points from
memory. This makes it difficult to
remember the original well enough to
imitate it.
7. Potential problem
If the passage is very difficult and you
can’t fully understand it you may have
problems with
Misreading
Guessing
Projection
Leaving things out
8. Simplification method
Make the sentences simpler.
Paraphrase a sentence at a time using your
own words and sentence structure.
Drop any non-essential ideas.
Combine the sentences.
Add the source’s name and edit to make
transitions,vary sentence structure, re-order
and combine short sentences.
9. Inducing soldiers to comply with dangerous orders, in
short, is mostly an emotional game with mirrors, requiring
psychological sleight of hand. At the decisive moments,
effective leadership consists in persuasively redefining the
situation, reconstructing the soldiers’ sense of reality, so
that what initially seems a foolhardy or even suicidal
course of action comes to seem possible, even
indispensable. By Mark J. Osiel
10. Simpler sentences
Inducing soldiers to comply with dangerous
orders can be compared to an emotional
game with mirrors.
It requires psychological sleight of hand.
Effective leadership consists in persuasively
redefining the situation.
Redefining the situation involves
reconstructing the soldier’s sense of reality.
11. Simpler sentences continued
Under this reconstruction of reality,
what initially seems a foolhardy or even
suicidal course of action is viewed
differently.
It comes to seem possible, even
indispensable.
12. Paraphrase each sentence
Inducing soldiers Getting soldiers to
to comply with follow dangerous
dangerous orders orders without
question involves
can be compared tricking them and
to an emotional manipulating their
game with emotions.
mirrors.
13. Itrequires It is necessary to
psychological mislead them.
sleight of hand.
14. Effective Persuading them
leadership to view the
consists in situation in a
persuasively different way from
redefining the their instinctive
situation. response is a
crucial skill for
military officers.
15. Redefining the The soldier must be
situation involves made to believe,
reconstructing the through the skills of
soldier’s sense of his commanding
reality. officer, that the
reality is different
from what he
perceives.
16. Under this The soldiers’
reconstruction of opinions are
reality, what changed so what
initially seems a at first appeared
foolhardy or even reckless,
suicidal course of desperate, or
action is viewed likely to cost their
differently. lives, is accepted.
17. It comes to seem The soldier now
possible, even thinks that the
indispensable. mission is not
only achievable
but necessary;
the order is made
to seem the only
plausible one.
18. Put it together
Getting soldiers to follow dangerous orders involves
tricking them and manipulating their emotions. It is
necessary to mislead them. Persuading them to view
the situation in a different way from their instinctive
response is a crucial skill for military officers. The
soldier must be made to believe, through the skills of
his commanding officer, that the reality is different
from what he perceives. The soldiers’ opinions are
changed so what at first appeared reckless,
desperate or likely to cost their lives is accepted. The
soldier now thinks that the mission is not only
achievable but necessary; the order is made to seem
the only plausible one.
19. Add source’s name and revise
Because people are instinctively reluctant to risk their
lives, Mark Osiel believes that a crucial leadership
skill for military officers is the ability to persuade
soldiers to reinterpret dangerous situations. Getting
soldiers to follow orders involves tricking them and
manipulating their emotions. Through the skills of the
commanding officer, the soldiers must be made to
feel that what at first appeared reckless, desperate or
likely to cost their lives is not only a plausible course
of action but a necessary one.
20. Breakdown/build-up
There is also a more time-consuming
and extreme version of this technique.
It is worthwhile to use when
paraphrasing important points for
students who have trouble
paraphrasing without plagiarism. It is
also useful for helping anyone
understand a difficult passage.
21. Breakdown/build-up
Break the sentences down into smaller
units of meaning.
Using a dictionary (or, with caution, a
thesaurus) as necessary, try to find
another way of saying each unit
Eliminate non-essential units
Recombine the rephrased units without
looking back at the original.
22. Al Shanker:
“It’sincreasingly clear that the
biggest roadblock to improving the
achievement of U.S. students is
violence and disorder in our
schools.”
23. Step 1
Something( A) is A= Something (B)
increasingly clear is the biggest
roadblock to
doing something
(C)
B= Violence and C= Improving the
disorder in our achievement of
schools U.S. students
24. Step 2
Something( A) is A is becoming
increasingly clear easier to see
A is becoming
more obvious as
time passes
25. Step 2
A= Something B is the main
(B) is the biggest obstacle to C; B is
roadblock to the main thing
doing something standing in the
(C) way of C; The
continuation of B
is preventing C;
Getting rid of B is
the key to C
26. Step 2
B= Violence and B = disruptive and
disorder in our violent students in
schools the classrooms; B
= classroom
disturbances
caused by those
who start fights or
misbehave
27. Step 2
C=- Improving C = helping
the achievement American pupils
of US students learn better
C= Increasing
academic
performance in
American
classrooms
28. Step 3
Take the materials in step two and use
them to build a new sentence without
looking back at the original.
If you decide that one part is non-
essential (such as the idea of
becoming increasingly clear) you can
leave it out
29. Some good paraphrases
Getting rid of students who start fights,
bring weapons to school, or distract
other students is the key to improving
student learning in America’s schools,
claims Albert Shanker.
30. Some good paraphrases
Albert Shanker argues that it is
becoming more and more obvious that
if we want to improve the academic
performance of American students, we
must first banish violence from our
classrooms and re-establish order.
31. Some good paraphrases
According to Albert Shanker, permitting
disruptive and violent students to
remain in American classrooms is the
main thing that is preventing our
students from learning more effectively.