Paraphrasing
When you quote a source, you are taking the words directly from the passage: these are the original author’s words. Quotes can be useful, but in order to show you understand what you have read, you should paraphrase. Paraphrasing is putting information into your words; it is an important skill to develop because when you do it, you are not only showing you understand what you have read, but you are also processing and adapting that information to your writing purpose.
When you paraphrase, you are using the technique of putting a condensed version of someone else’s ideas (summary) into your own words.
It is very important to remember that when you paraphrase you still need to include citations because although the words are yours, the ideas belong to the original authors, and you must give that person credit for the ideas.
Tip
If you prefer rewriting, try not to copy but use your own paraphrasing of the material. If a concept is difficult, put it in your own terms with a concrete example so you understand it. Try to put it in the vocabulary of the course.
Paraphrasing Sources
When you paraphrase material from a source, restate the information from an entire sentence or passage in your own words, using your own original sentence structure. A paraphrased source differs from a summarized source in that you focus on restating the ideas, not condensing them. Again, it is important to check your paraphrase against the source material to make sure it is both accurate and original. Inexperienced writers sometimes use the thesaurus method of paraphrasing; that is, they simply rewrite the source material, replacing most of the words with synonyms. This constitutes a misuse of sources. A true paraphrase restates ideas using the writer’s (your) own language and style.
In his draft, Jorge frequently paraphrased details from sources. At times, he needed to rewrite a sentence more than once to ensure he was paraphrasing ideas correctly. Below is a passage with examples of how he paraphrased and adapted the information to create his own paragraph. Read the passage from a website. Then read Jorge’s initial attempt at paraphrasing it, followed by the final version of his paraphrase.
Source
According to Heinz (2009), dieters nearly always get great results soon after they begin following a low-carbohydrate diet, but these results tend to taper off after the first few months, particularly because many dieters find it difficult to follow a low-carbohydrate diet plan consistently.
Jorge’s Original Paraphrase
People usually see encouraging outcomes shortly after they go on a low-carbohydrate diet, but their progress slows down after a short while, especially because most discover that it is a challenge to adhere to the diet strictly (Heinz, 2009).
After reviewing the paraphrased sentence, Jorge realized he was following the original source too closely. He did not want to quote the full passage verbatim, so he again attempted to restate the idea in his own style.
Jorge’s Revised Paraphrase
Because it is hard for dieters to stick to a low carbohydrate eating plan, the initial success of these diets is short lived (Heinz, 2009).
Check Your Understanding: Paraphrasing I
Paraphrasing – A (Text Version)
Paraphrase the following passage in your own words:
“The twenties were the years when drinking was against the law, and the law was a bad joke because everyone knew of a local bar where liquor could be had. They were the years when organized crime ruled the cities, and the police seemed powerless to do anything against it. Classical music was forgotten while jazz spread throughout the land, and men like Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie became the heroes of the young. The flapper was born in the twenties, and with her bobbed hair and short skirts, she symbolized, perhaps more than anyone or anything else, America’s break with the past” (Yancey, 1989, p. 25).
Paraphrasing – B (Text Version)
Paraphrase the following passage in your own words:
“While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it’s unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world’s tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building” (Bachman, 1990, p. 15).
Activity source: ” 3.7 Paraphrase (a& b)” Brenna Clarke Gray (H5P Adaptation) is based on cotnent from Writing for Success – 1st Canadian Edition by Tara Harkoff, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. / Converted to text version.
Check Your Understanding: Paraphrasing II
Paraphrasing II (Text Version)
Write Your Paraphrase
- Choose an important idea or detail from your notes—for any class you like, or any research you have in process!—and jot it down here in point form.
- Restate the idea in your own words as completely as possible. Do not look it up in your notes first!
- Find the original text in the source. Now, compare your paraphrase. Do you capture the idea accurately? Is your language and sentence structure original to you? Revise and make any necessary changes here—and don’t forget to add your citation!
Activity source: “3.8 Original Paraphrase” by Brenna Clarke Gray (H5P Adaptation) is based on content from Writing for Success – 1st Canadian Edition by Tara Harkoff, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. / Converted to text version.
Check Your Understanding: Summary (Assignment 2)
Please follow the instructions to complete Assignment 2. Once finished, you will be able to print your completed assignment for submission.
Summary-Assignment 2 (Text Version)
Assignment Preparation
Read the following article and compose a summary of 100 to 150 words. Determine what the key points are and paraphrase accordingly. Make sure all the points you choose are important to the understanding and overall meaning of the essay.
Remember:
- You want to use objective language that accurately represents the original author’s angle of vision: do not provide analysis or discussion.
- You should not simply substitute words.
- You should change up the sentence structure.
- The end result needs to capture all the main points but also be in your own words.
Heroin as One of the Most Lethal Drugs
Among prohibited narcotic substances, heroin has been classified as one of the most addictive and detrimental. In a recent research study run by the Institute of Narcotic Examination in Rollesque, Nevada, heroin ranked 2.89 out of 3 on a dependence rating scale (Perez, 2012). This result was also confirmed by scores of research held in London by the Academy of Pharmaceutical Studies (Perez, 2012). An opiate processed from morphine, heroin is delineated as a lethal drug. The common form of heroin sold in streets looks like a white or brown gummy substance with a high consistency of tar.
Heroin is injected into the human body through a hypothermic needle directly in a muscle or a particular blood vein. It can also be smoked like cigarettes. There is the possibility of it being successfully mixed with drugs or snorted as cocaine. Street heroin is often mixed with other substances like sugar, starch, quinine, poisons or even powder milk to dilute the effect. Short and long term effects of heroin use have different levels of withdrawal, reinforcements, tolerance, dependency and intoxication. Heroin reduces pain and mimics the traits of endorphins, which causes the human brain to experience pleasure (Hollow, 2011). The central neural system becomes supersaturated with endorphin like substances, and when the effect of heroin ends, individuals begin to feel the need for a new injection to prolong pleasure (Hollow, 2011).
The degree of heroin addictiveness can be measured by the severe withdrawal symptoms which it induces in individuals. Among the most common symptoms, one can enlist the following: a warm flush feeling in the skin, an ill mood and depression, vomiting, itching, nausea, and heavy pain in joints. The cardiac functions and the neural system functions slow down, though it often depends on the individual’s genetic type, amount of the drug taken, and the purity of the substance (Hollow, 2011).
Heroin addiction causes numerous side effects to the physical body. Blood vein structure collapses, and a risk of receiving a heart infection, liver disease, or abscesses dramatically increases. Long term addiction to the drug takes the form of a chronic, relapsing disease. Long term use of heroin prompts users to gradually increase doses. Once a user is in the chronic stage, this implies such symptoms as restlessness, bone and muscle pain, insomnia, and intense withdrawal stages lasting for 24 to 48 hours after heroin has been taken (Lichter, 2012).
The treatment of heroin addiction includes a thorough detoxification program, which helps to minimize the severity of withdrawal symptoms. The use of medications for treatment along with therapy helps individuals cope. Methadone programs, buprenorphine, together with behavioral therapies aid to recover from addiction (Perez, 2012). These aspects are important, as both behavioral and pharmacological interventions can effectively normalize addiction levels, brain functions and social behavior. These methods are used in a varied combination to cure the withdrawal, tolerance, dependence and intoxication elements to minimize the addictive qualities of heroin.
References
Hollow, M. (2011). Heroin: The Ultimate Drug. Chicago: Running Hill Books.
Lichter, M. (2012). The Dark Hole of Heroin. Boston: Sidetrack Books.
Perez, G. (2012). Studies of Heroin. New York: Gold Beard Press.
Essay taken and adapted from: http://academichelp.net/samples/essays/expository/heroin-lethal-drug.html
Reviewing the Criteria
Remember that your summary should meet the following criteria:
- 100-150 words.
- Includes all key points from the original article.
- Demonstrates good use of your own vocabulary and sentence structure.
- Uses objective language (reporting on the content, not analyzing it).
For each of the criteria listed here, click the Add Criteria button and explain how you will meet the requirements for this assignment.
Drafting Your Summary
- Make your first attempt at drafting your summary. Ensure you have covered all of the key points, but work towards a word count goal of 100-150 words.
- Now, go back one page and review the text of the original article. Have you missed any key details? Have you accidentally borrowed any words, phrases, or sentence strurcture? Revise your summary.
Reviewing Criteria
Reflect on each of the parts of your assignment as laid out in the criteria.
Activity source: “Assignment 2” by Brenna Clarke Gray (H5P Adaptation) is based on content from Writing for Success – 1st Canadian Edition by Tara Harkoff, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. / Converted to text version.
Paraphrasing is another way of presenting ideas from source material in your own words, but without the condensing that happens in a summary. Instead, paraphrases stay approximately the same length as the original source material being paraphrased.
Why Paraphrase?
To Demonstrate Understanding
Paraphrasing can demonstrate your understanding of a text, including its more complex details and connections between its main points, and can also help you double-check the depth of your understanding of a text.
To Provide Support
You might paraphrase a section from a source (unlike summary, it is unlikely that you will ever need to paraphrase an entire source) when an idea or point in that source is important to an assignment you are working on and you feel it needs to be included, but you can rephrase it in a way that fits your work without losing any key information.
Tip
Use paraphrase instead of direct quote unless you have compelling reasons to preserve the exact language of the original text. Often, the reason to preserve the original text in a direct quote is because that text uses specialized language that you can’t easily rephrase. As much of your work as possible should be in your own voice.
Look at the last paragraph of the Scientific American article, “Are you a Magnet for Mosquitoes? [New Tab]” about why mosquitoes are more attracted to some humans than others.
The following sentence would be a good candidate for a direct quote because you might not know how to paraphrase the part about MHC genes:
“Scientists that study human odors and genetics have previously suggested scent cues associated with genetics are likely controlled via the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes” (Maron, 2017, para. 8).
The sentence that follows, though, says this:
“Those genes appear to play a role in odor production and also in mammals’ mating choices—because humans and mice alike appear to prefer mates that smell less similar to themselves, which scientists have theorized may be a natural control against inbreeding” (Maron, 2017, para. 8).
Since there isn’t particularly specialized or original language in here that must be preserved, this second sentence is a good candidate for paraphrasing. One way might look like this:
These same genes that might be attracting mosquitoes more to some of us than to others could also be helping us choose partners that we aren’t likely to be related to (Maron, 2017).
What Makes Something a Paraphrase?
A paraphrase
- Is in your own words.
- Is not condensed.
- Avoids personal opinion.
- Is completely rephrased from the original.
Like summary, a paraphrase is someone else’s ideas rewritten in your own words. Unlike summary, though, paraphrase should not be condensed—the ideas as you write them should take up about the same amount of space as they do in the original text. A paraphrase should not include your own opinions about the topic, what the author of the text is saying about it, or how that author is presenting their point.
It can be easy, when writing a paraphrase, to rely on some of the original author’s phrasing or direct synonyms for the author’s original words. Remember that a paraphrase must be entirely your own writing, not just phrases or words substituted in the same sentence structure, length, etc. used by the original text.
Write paraphrases in sentence structures that are natural to you and true to your own writing voice. The only job of a paraphrase is to accurately and completely represent the relevant idea presented in the text you are paraphrasing.
How Should I Organize a Paraphrase?
It is not likely that you will encounter an assignment that solely requires you to paraphrase a text. Instead, you will use paraphrase to support your own points and ideas in work with a wide range of goals. That said, there are still some guidelines for incorporating paraphrase into your work:
- Introduce the author and original text, just as you would for a summary.
- If there is relevant context, mention that as well.
- Then, restate the part of the original text that you want to use into your own original language and sentence structures.
- Include a parenthetical citation (if appropriate) at the end of the paraphrased material.
- After delivering and citing the paraphrased material, reconnect that information to your own topic and point.
Check Your Understanding: Paraphrasing III
Here is a brief passage from Sarah Boxer’s article in The Atlantic, “An Artist for the Instagram Age”:
“The fact that some folks have managed to make the scene while others get left out in the cold is integral to the excitement of participatory art. The thrill is akin to exotic travel, or getting to see Hamilton. Because not everyone who wants the experience actually gets the experience, these works, even if their intentions and messages are democratic, tend to become exclusive affairs” (Boxer, 2017, para. 7).
Which of the following is an appropriate paraphrase of this passage? Why is that one strong and the other one less functional as a paraphrase?
- The truth that many people have been able to attend these events as others have been shut out of them is key to what makes this kind of art appealing. The excitement is similar to visiting foreign countries or attending a showing of a sold-out musical. Since some people who wish to attend can’t do so, these art forms, despite not necessarily wanting to, often end up denying access to many would-be attendees.
- Boxer notes that this kind of art only maintains its appeal as long as there are more people clamoring to view it than can possibly actually view it. This reliance on scarcity means these artists are ultimately relying on elitist principles to find their success and remain in demand.
Attribution & References
Except where otherwise noted, this section is adapted from:
- “49 Paraphrasing” In Advanced English by Allison Kilgannon, licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0./ An adaptation from “Paraphrasing” in The Word on College Reading and Writing by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, which is licensed under a CC BY-NC 4.0 Licence AND
- “3.3 Paraphrasing” In Writing for Success – 1st Canadian Edition by Tara Harkoff & [author removed] licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
References
Bachman, R. (1990, May). Reaching for the sky. Dial, 15.
Boxer, S. (2017, July-August). An artist for the Instagram age. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/yayoi-kusamas-existential-circus/528669/
Maron, D. F. (2017, June 20). Are you a magnet for mosquitos? Scientific American.
Yancey, K. (1989). English 102 supplemental guide.
