Haddaway’s introduction 

“For the tales, for all their popularity among the people, were regarded with condescension and contempt the Arab literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth century.”

Paraphrasing: 

-During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and although the tales were popular, they were disrespected. 

-Withstanding their popularity, Arab literature took offense to the tales during earlier centuries. 

-In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Arabian works of literature disapproved of the tales, disregarding their popularity. 

Waters’ introduction

“When my parents divorced, an awful disassembling and resorting of these scrapbooks took place, as my mother decided what would be hers to keep, what would be my dads and what would be my brothers, and what would be mine. These were the records of our lives.”

-My parents divorce further divided my family as my mother sorted through the scrapbooks of mine and my brother’s lives. She decided what she, my dad, my brother and what I would keep. She divided our family and our memories. 

-My mother dismantled our family and our scrapbooks as she separated who got what memories following her divorce with my dad. 

-Splitting up what parts of the scrapbook my mom, dad, me and my brother would be getting were the events following my parents divorce. These scrapbooks held memories from my childhood, they told a story. 

Reflection: 

I found this assignment very helpful in my understanding of the texts. I chose a passage from Haddaway’s introduction that discussed the disapproval from the Arabs on the tales. I found Haddaway to be more challenging to paraphrase because the words were written from another language so the order of sentences didn’t line up with the modern English language. I also chose a passage from Waters’ introduction discussing her parents divorce and the impact the scrapbook had on their family. Not only did her parents divide their family, her mom divided their childhood memories in the scrapbook. Rereading these sentences makes me see many new things I didn’t initially see. It also helped me see and understand the text as a whole better. I learned that paraphrasing is not easy and that in the future it can help me better understand books and all forms of literature.