**Paraphrasing**
# Paraphrasing techniques
Characterie is built to easily allow for the users to take non-verbatim notes if they desire. There are some features of the design of Characterie which make it easier to take non-verbatim notes.
## Use Characterical Synonyms
One of the methods unique to Characterie is the ability to save writing time by picking a characterical synonym. So if you want to express *above*, we saw before that this can be written as *aover*. If we are looking for non-verbatim transcription, perhaps the word *over* is sufficient. If so we can save some time writing.
 
This can also be true if there are common phrases which convey the same meaning, like perhaps a phrase like *high in the sky, above our heads* can be in some contexts simply shortened to *over*.
This can also be done to turn dissenting derived words into simple negations of the characterical word, if that reflects the proper meaning.
## Drop Descriptors
This is not unique to Characterie, but you may also freely drop descriptors if they are not serving any purpose. This can be done by reducing phrases like *the hot sun* to just *the sun*.
 
## Divided Terms
Long phrases can also be merged, and then optionally marked to be unmerged. For instance, long phrases like *all the stars, planets, and galaxies* can be replaced with shorter phrases like *the universe*.
By placing an *x* to the side of the word to be split, it can be marked as having been a merged phrase. This does not let you create the exact original words, but you can remember it is some sort of list of things.
 
# Summary
There are three common ways to paraphrase in characterie:
1. Write a characterical synonym,
2. omit descriptors, or
3. combine long phrases and mark it to need to be expanded.
These are not all unique to characterie, but notice how well-suited it is to they way you think---in terms of synonyms and antonyms! Most shorthands these days focus on verbatim transcription, so it is interesting to see a system that has rules, even a few, about ways to paraphrase instead.
# Exercises
**Exercise 1.** Rewrite the following sentences using the above paraphrasing rules.
 
!!!
**Solution.**
*a.* This sentence is, *"The bright blazing stars delighted us with their warmth."* To paraphrase this by the principles above, we first look to see if any of them can be reduced to a characterical word. *Stars* derives from *heaven*, which I do not think is an acceptably close substitute, so we keep it as derived. *Warmth* derives from *heat*, which probably is, so we drop the *w*. Next, we remove descriptors which are not needed, and in this case we can probably drop *bright* and *blazing*. There are no long phrases that can be combined, so we can rewrite this as:
*b.* This sentence is, *"I dislike that corrupt evil despicable man."* The only things that could potentially can be changed is *dislike* can be rewritten as *not like* since that is the pure negation of the characterical word (the fact the resulting sentence is not grammatical is actually a hint that *dislike* might be the word needed anyway), and the long descriptor can be condensed to just *corrupt* with an expansion mark.
