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Paraphrasing

A paraphrase is a restatement of essential information from a source in a new form, requiring accurate documentation. It is a valuable skill that helps avoid excessive quoting and enhances comprehension of the original material. The document outlines six steps for effective paraphrasing and provides examples to differentiate between legitimate paraphrasing, summarizing, and plagiarism.

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Brian Bailey
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5 views2 pages

Paraphrasing

A paraphrase is a restatement of essential information from a source in a new form, requiring accurate documentation. It is a valuable skill that helps avoid excessive quoting and enhances comprehension of the original material. The document outlines six steps for effective paraphrasing and provides examples to differentiate between legitimate paraphrasing, summarizing, and plagiarism.

Uploaded by

Brian Bailey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A paraphrase is...

 Your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by


someone else, presented in a new form.

 One legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation)


to borrow from a source.

 A more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely


on a single main idea.

Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because...

 It is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.

 It helps you control the temptation to quote too much.

 The mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to


grasp the full meaning of the original.

6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.

2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.

3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how
you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a
key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.

4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version
accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.

5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you


have borrowed exactly from the source.

6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you
can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your
paper.

Some examples to compare

Note that the examples in this section use MLA style for in-text citation.

The original passage:

Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result


they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about
10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter.
Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of
source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research
Papers. 2nd ed., 1976, pp. 46-47.

A legitimate paraphrase:

In research papers, students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted


material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates
during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim
(Lester 46-47).

An acceptable summary:

Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help
minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).

A plagiarized version:

Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes,
resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably
only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material.
So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking
notes.

A note about plagiarism: This example has been classed as plagiarism, in


part, because of its failure to deploy any citation. Plagiarism is a serious
offense in the academic world. However, we acknowledge that plagiarism is
a difficult term to define; that its definition may be contextually sensitive;
and that not all instances of plagiarism are created equal—that is, there are
varying “degrees of egregiousness” for different cases of plagiarism.

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