8.3: Including Paraphrases
Learning Objectives
- Explore the importance and purpose of paraphrasing
- Determine the steps for paraphrasing effectively
When and How Should You Paraphrase?
Instead of using direct quotations, another option is to paraphrase evidence to integrate it into your technical communications. Paraphrasing requires you to read the source carefully, understand it, and then rewrite the idea in your own words. Using this form of integration demonstrates your understanding of the source because rephrasing requires a good grasp of the core ideas. Paraphrasing also makes the integration of someone else’s ideas a little easier as you do not have to merge grammar and writing style.
A paraphrase focuses on a specific section of text that, when paraphrased, will be close to the length of the original. You must ensure the meaning is consistent with the original source and avoid layering in your commentary or opinions so that the intention of the author is maintained.
When you paraphrase, you are doing more than just finding synonyms to replace individual words; instead, you are creating content that reflects and respects the original meaning of a source while using language and structure that feels fresh and unique. Like summarizing, this reflects a deep understanding of the original source’s meaning and consideration of the author’s viewpoint. Also, like summarizing, you can use paraphrasing in various contexts and situations: academic, professional, and personal.
You’re ready to paraphrase when you’ve spent time with a source to ensure that you understand it fully.
Paraphrasing involves
- grasping the core meaning and logic of the original source;
- using distinctive wording (synonyms) and sentence structure, showing respect for the author’s voice and viewpoint;
- citing; and
- omitting your evaluation or opinion.
A general guideline for paraphrasing is this: avoid using more than three words in a row from the original source. If you want to use the original wording, remember to quote instead!
While you are developing the ability to paraphrase, you may find it useful to follow a step-by-step process:
STEP 1: Understand the author’s message and logic.
STEP 2: Use synonyms when possible to replace original word; identify words/terms that do not have synonyms too (e.g., scientific terms)
STEP 3: Put the content back together using new sentence structure and sentence order along with the synonyms.
STEP 4: Review your paraphrase to ensure that it is true to the original meaning.
STEP 5: Give attribution to the author, contextualize, and cite.
Example: Paraphrasing
Here is an original sentence—taken from the Science News article “Why Kitchen Sponges Are the Perfect Home for Bacteria” written by Anna Gibbs and published on March 1, 2022 —and a paraphrase of the same sentence.
Original Sentence: “Sponges are microbe paradises, capable of housing 54 billion bacteria per cubic centimetre” (Gibbs, 2022, para.2).
Paraphrased Sentence: Since they can accommodate a dense population of 54 billion bacteria in each cubic centimetre, sponges are an ideal living environment for microbes (Gibbs, 2022, para. 2).
You’ll notice the following about this paraphrase:
- Some of the original words/terms (e.g., microbes) are used in the paraphrased sentence since there are no readily available or applicable synonyms for them.
- Although the paraphrased sentence is in the writer’s words, there is an APA-style in-text citation.
- The paragraph number is included although, according to APA guidelines, location information (i.e., the paragraph number) is recommended but not required for paraphrased content.
REMEMBER: Regardless of whether you are quoting, paraphrasing or summarizing, you must cite your source any time you use someone else’s intellectual property—whether in the form of words, ideas, language structures, images, statistics, data, or formulas—in your document.
TRY IT
Exercise 8.3.A: Practise Paraphrasing
Read, again, these three opening paragraphs from the Science News article “Why Kitchen Sponges Are the Perfect Home for Bacteria” written by Anna Gibbs and published on March 1, 2022 (also used in Exercise 8.2.A).
After reading the paragraphs, choose any part of this excerpt to practise paraphrasing. Don’t forget to contextualize and cite!
“Why Kitchen Sponges Are the Perfect Home for Bacteria” (paras. 1-3)
Ask bacteria where they’d like to live, and they’ll answer: a kitchen sponge, please.
Sponges are microbe paradises, capable of housing 54 billion bacteria per cubic centimetre. In addition to being damp, airy and loaded with food scraps, sponges provide an optimal physical environment for bacteria, researchers report February 10 in Nature Chemical Biology.
Just like humans, bacteria prefer different levels of interactions with their peers. Some bacteria are more social, while others prefer solitude. Lingchong You, a synthetic biologist at Duke University, and colleagues wondered how separating different types of microbes would affect their community interactions. They found that intermediate levels of separation — similar to that found in a sponge — maximize the diversity of the community.
References & Attributions
References
Gibbs, A. (2022, March 1). Why kitchen sponges are the perfect home for bacteria. Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sponge-kitchen-bacteria-microbe-diversity
Attributions
Content on this page is adapted from Technical Writing Essentials by Suzan Last and Candice Neveu, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Content is adapted from Communication Commons, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
