What is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing involves restating the ideas in an existing work while retaining the original meaning and level of detail. In academic writing, it is important to incorporate outside ideas into your arguments and properly cite them.

How can you use ideas in books or articles without plagiarizing them?

Where do I Begin?

You are often told to express ideas “in your own words” when paraphrasing them. While this sounds simple, it’s more than just re-writing someone else’s ideas. A writer must express the original idea in the context of their own writing.

A good paraphrase should:

• Change the sentence structure
• Change the language
• Maintain the same level of detail

Issues arise when we incorrectly paraphrase content in our writing. There are two ways to incorrectly paraphrase: replacing words and patch writing.

Bad Paraphrasing

Replacing words

Paraphrasing does not mean only replace words! It is plagiarism to cut and replace words in the original text with synonyms.

Replacing Words Example

Let’s take a look at an example that replaces words! Say you and your school partner, Charles Darwin, want to learn more about the field of ecology and tortoises.

You and Charles Darwin both attend a seminar a tortoise (our knowledge authority of the subject here) holds at your university, and listen to them tell you the following information below:

Giant Tortoise: “Greetings, curious mortal! I am quite enamoured of water, consuming significant amounts, and relaxing in the mud.”

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After the seminar, you and Charles Darwin go to write your research paper about tortoises, and when you see Darwin’s part of the paper, he writes the following statement down:

Charles Darwin: “Hello, inquisitive person! The tortoise is very fond of water, drinking large quantities, and wallowing in the mud.”

 

Can you see how Darwin had replaced words that the tortoise said in their work? The words that were replaced had retained the same meaning, so the sentence is structurally and contextually the exact same as before. He also wrote his work without citing his source. This is thus considered plagiarism!

Patch Writing

Patch writing is a form of bad paraphrasing where the paraphrase is too similar to the original text. Patch writing involves “patching” together direct quotations or pieces of information without changing them enough.

Patch writing occurs when a student does not understand what they are reading well enough to synthesize it in their own way. To avoid patch writing, you must read the text carefully and make sure you understand it.

Patch Writing Example

Original: Long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) are rare visitors to the southern North Sea, but recently two individual strandings occurred on the Dutch coast. Both animals shared the same, unusual cause of death: asphyxiation from a common sole (Solea solea) stuck in their nasal cavity.

Patch Writing: Recently, two long-finned pilot whales were found stranded on the Dutch coast, even though they rarely visit the southern North Sea. The unusual cause of death for both whales was asphyxiation from a sole found in the nasal cavity.

IJsseldijk, L. L., Leopold, M. F., Rebolledo, E. L. B., Deaville, R., Haelters, J., IJzer, J., … Gröne, A. (2015). Fatal asphyxiation in two long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) caused by common soles (Solea solea). PLOS ONE, 10(11), 1-12.

Good Paraphrasing

Now that we know what makes a bad paraphrase, how do we make a good paraphrase?

Steps to a Good Paraphrase

• Read the paragraph you would like to paraphrase from and make sure you understand the full meaning
• Take notes about the important ideas expressed in this paragraph
• Put the original work aside and write a paraphrased sentence from your notes
• Look over the original paragraph to make sure that you have conveyed the same meaning in a different way
• Cite the original source! Paraphrasing without citing the original source(s) is plagiarism.

How Often Should I Cite?

For good paraphrasing, citation is critical to the process. But how many times do you have to cite the work when you’re writing?

Just once! You will cite the source at its first mention and not repeat the citation in further sentences if the content is clear and the same. There are some exceptions to this standard to keep in mind though, which scenarios include^[1][2]:

1. If the paraphrase continues into a different paragraph, you would reintroduce the citation in the next paragraph.
2. If your paraphrase is broken up by the insertion of reference to other texts, you would need to repeat the citation.

Paraphrasing Exercise

Example:

“It appears that the colossal squid is not a voracious predator capable of high-speed predator-prey interactions. We speculate that it is, rather, an ambush or sit-and-float predator that uses the hooks on its arms and tentacles to ensnare prey that unwittingly approach.” – Rosa & Seibel (2010)

Rosa, R., & Seibel, B. A. (2010). Slow pace of life of the Antarctic colossal squid. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 90(7), 1375–1378.

Bad Paraphrase:

“It seems that colossal squid are not insatiable predators with high-speed predator-prey interplay. They appear to be passive predators instead, who use the hooks on their tentacles and arms to capture prey that pass them by.”

How this is incorrect: This keeps the structure of the passage the same, substitutes synonyms and does not cite the source. It is plagiarism!

Good Paraphrase:

“Though colossal squid were previously thought to be high-speed attack predators, new evidence indicates that they may be ambush predators, waiting patiently for prey to approach before capturing prey with their hooked arms and tentacles (Rosa & Seibel, 2010).”

How this is correct: This sentence changes the structure of the original, uses different terminology and the source is cited. This is NOT plagiarism!

Want to practice your paraphrasing skills? Try our quiz in the next chapter!

Resources

At Western

• Western Libraries Citation Style Guides
• Western Libraries Plagiarism Tutorial Chapter
• Western Writing Support Centre
• Copyright@Western

Other Helpful Resources

• Concordia University Library: Quoting and Paraphrasing
• Purdue Owl: Paraphrasing Exercise
• Simon Fraser University Library: Techniques for Effective Paraphrasing
• University of Guelph: Paraphrasing and Summarizing
• University of Maryland Baltimore Writing Centre: The Art of Paraphrasing (YouTube)