In This Chapter
What Is Paraphrasing?
Paraphrase is a restatement of an idea in roughly the same length as the author originally described it. It’s the information in your own words. Paraphrasing gives a writer more control over incorporating a source into their writing and contributes to the cohesiveness of a draft.
Paraphrases allow you to use specific information from a source (ideas from a paragraph or several consecutive paragraphs) in your own words.
Features of Paraphrases
Paraphrases Are Translations
If summaries are descriptions of a source, paraphrases are more like a translation. If you have ever learned a second language, you know that all languages have different sentence structure rules. Simply translating a sentence word-for-word will often lead you to a translation that is awkward or unintelligible. Just as translations rarely go word-by-word, paraphrases should retain the detail and meaning of a source’s idea but expressed in the writer’s own words and voice.
Paraphrases Use Original Wording and Organization
Paraphrases of the text should be expressed completely in your own words, with your own sentence structure, in your own way. You should not simply “word swap”, that is, replace a few words from the original with synonyms. Paraphrases that do not vary the organization or sentence structure from the original are considered plagiarism.
If you must use a few of the author’s words within your paraphrase, they must have quotation marks around them. Any time you use three or more words together from the original, use quotation marks to indicate the author’s original language.
Paraphrases Require Clear Signal Phrases
Paraphrases should be introduced with a signal phrase to let your readers know where the paraphrased material begins. If you include a paraphrase without a signal phrase, your reader will not be able to tell which ideas belong to you (the writer) and which belong to the source you are citing from.
Paraphrases Require Parenthetical Citations
Paraphrases should be followed by parenthetical citations. Unlike summaries, paraphrases are more specific aspects of a text or source. You should use parenthetical citations to indicate the end of the paraphrase. A good practice is to include the title of the source in your signal phrase and the author’s name in a parentheses at the end of the paraphrase. By including both, you can sandwich your source information and create clear indications of where your own ideas begin and end.
Paraphrases Require Analysis
As with a quote, you need to explain to your reader why the paraphrased material is significant to the point you are making in your paper.
Why Should I Paraphrase?
You may be asking yourself, why should I bother with paraphrasing when I could just quote? For many student writers, quoting seems like a more effective–and certainly an easier–way of integrating sources to support an argument. However, because college-level academic writing often requires the use of complex and sophisticated sources, using nothing but quotations can leave your essay feeling disjointed and awkward.
While quotations can provide your reader with exact wording, often your source texts will use language or wording that may be distracting to your own reader. More importantly, piecing together quote after quote can create a “patchwork” essay that feels disjointed and not unified.
Paraphrase can help writers create a cohesive, unified voice in their essay. Even more importantly, paraphrasing helps writers demonstrate their knowledge of a source and their mastery over the information. When you are able to explain a source’s ideas in your own words, you show your reader that you have the authority to use the source and to write about the topic.
You should use paraphrase rather than quotation when information from a source can help you explain or illustrate a point you are making in your own essay, but when the exact wording of the source is not crucial.
Example:
Source: The war against piracy cannot be won without mapping and dividing the tasks at hand. I divide this map into two parts: that which anyone can do now, and that which requires the help of lawmakers.
Paraphrase: Researchers argue that legislators will need to address the problem but that other people can get involved as well (Lessig 563).
If you were analyzing Lessig’s style, you might want to quote his map metaphor. However, if you were focusing on his opinions about the need to reform copyright law or you only needed the information from Lessig’s text, a paraphrase would be appropriate.
You also likely would not want to use the above quote because the writer uses “I” in their statement. Quoting the source word-for-word could create confusion for your own reader.
Effective Paraphrasing
Effective paraphrasing repurposes the information from a source so that the information plays a supportive role in its new location. This repurposing requires a writer to rely on their own sentence structure and vocabulary. The writer creates their own sentences and chooses their own words so the source’s information will fit into the context of the writer’s own ideas and contribute to the development of the thesis.
Example of Effective Paraphrasing:
Source: Citizens of this generation witnessed the first concerted attempt to disseminate knowledge about disease prevention and health promotion, downplaying or omitting altogether information about disease treatment.
Effective Paraphrase: Murphy pointed out that in the first half of the nineteenth century, people did not focus on the treatment of diseases, but instead worked hard to spread information about how to prevent disease (415).
In the above example notice the following:
- The paraphrase begins with a signal phrase to indicate the information is from a source, rather than the writer’s own idea
- The paraphrase ends with a parenthetical citation to signal the end of the source information.
- The paraphrase uses a completely new approach to and organization of the material.
- The paraphrase does not use specific wording from the original.
Effective paraphrasing also makes it completely clear that the information being referenced is from a source through the use of signal phrases.
Example of Badly Integrated Paraphrase:
While Gatsby is deeply in love with Daisy in The Great Gatsby, his love for her is indistinguishable from his love of his possessions (Callahan).
There are two problems with this paraphrase. First, if this is the first or only reference to this particular piece of evidence in the research essay, the writer should include more information about the source of this paraphrase in order to properly introduce it. Second, this paraphrase is actually not of the entire article but rather of a specific passage. If there is a page number, writer has neglected to note it within the parenthetical citation.
Example of Revised Paraphrase with Stronger Integration:
John F. Callahan suggests in his article “F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Evolving American Dream” that while Gatsby is deeply in love with Daisy in The Great Gatsby, his love for her is indistinguishable from his love of his possessions (381).
By incorporating the name of the author of the evidence the research writer is referring to here, the source of this paraphrase is now clear to the reader. Furthermore, because there is a page number at the end of this sentence, the reader understands that this passage is a paraphrase of a particular part of Callahan’s essay and not a summary of the entire essay.
If the research writer had introduced this source to his readers earlier, he could have started with a phrase like “Callahan suggests…” and then continued on with his paraphrase.
When Does Paraphrasing Become Plagiarism?
Simply providing a citation is not enough to avoid plagiarism. If you are using ideas from a source without quotation marks to indicate a direct quote, it is essential that your paraphrases meet certain requirements.
A paraphrase should use vocabulary and sentence structure different from the source’s vocabulary and sentence structure. Potential plagiarism occurs when a writer goes through a sentence from a source and inserts synonyms without rewriting the sentence as a whole.
Example of Possible Plagiarism:
Source: Citizens of this generation witnessed the first concerted attempt to disseminate knowledge about disease prevention and health promotion, downplaying or omitting altogether information about disease treatment.
Potential plagiarism: People of this period observed the first organized effort to share information about preventing disease and promoting health, deemphasizing or skipping completely information about treating diseases (Murphy 141).
The sentence structure of the bad paraphrase is identical to the sentence structure of the source, matching it almost word for word. The writer has provided an in-text citation pointing to Murphy as the source of the information, but they are, in fact, plagiarizing because they have not written their own sentence.
Remember, there is nothing easy about writing. Writing anything is a difficult task that requires the long, and often frustrating labor of drafting, revision, and re-revision.
As a responsible writer, it is important that you give your sources credit for the hard work of composing, if you are in fact using the structure, phrasing, or organization of the original text.
The example below shows the difference between a plagiarized paraphrase and a legitimate one.
Paraphrase and Plagiarism
Some text is highlighted to illustrate the plagiarism example below. The text is from: Blodgett, Jan, and Ralph B. Levering. One Town, Many Voices : A History of Davidson, North Carolina. Davidson, NC: Davidson Historical Society, 2012.
Yet the condition of the town streets remained primitive well into the 1890s, largely due to the high cost of acquiring a rock crusher and macadamizing roads. Life in the village was still rustic. With red clay streets, alternately dirty or muddy, rock crossings, plank sidewalks, a line of wooden storefronts, horses and wagons tied up along Main Street and livestock pens next to homes, Davidson looked more like Dodge City with farmers and students instead of cowboys than a pristine college town of dignified homes and orderly appearance.
The yellow highlighting indicates how the wording and order have been directly copied from the original text above.
Notice how the plagiarized example follows the exact order and organization of the original. In many cases, synonyms have been used to change phrases. For example the word “Dodge City” is simply replaced by “frontier towns. “Dignified homes” is replaced with “stately homes.”
Even though a citation has been provided in both cases, the example on the right side below is considered plagiarism.
| Proper Paraphrase
The streets in the town of Davidson looked quite different in the 1890s than they do today. With the absence of any proper pavement, the clay roads often became mud-filled and plank sidewalks and rock crossings provided a minimal shield for pedestrians. In addition, it was common practice to keep horses and other animals in close vicinity to residential dwellings. This contributed to the grubby appearance of Davidson, a far cry from the order and cleanliness normally associated with small college towns. The expense of paving materials was the main deterrent for not improving the roads (Blodgett and Levering 62-63). |
Plagiarism
The condition of the town streets was undeveloped far into the 1890s, mainly because of the high cost of rock crushers and macadamizing roads. Life was rustic in Davidson with red clay streets, wooden storefronts, and livestock pens close to houses. Davidson looked more like a frontier town with cowboys than a college town with stately homes and a clean and organized presence (Blodgett ad Levering 62-63). |
In the above example, the proper paraphrase completely revises the wording and rearranges the information presented in the source text.
Paraphrasing is an essential skill for academic writing. It allows a writer to incorporate complex information into their writing seamlessly. Paraphrase also demonstrates a writer’s knowledge of a source or topic. By putting a source in your own words, you show your reader that you have read, understood, and mastered the information you are using.
Faulty paraphrases can leave student writers at risk of being charged with plagiarism, no matter how unintentional. Be sure that you are using the plagiarism detection software integrated into the course to check over your work for unintentional plagiarism before finalizing any submission.