PARAPHRA

SI NG
How to do
it!
 Outline of Presentation
 Academic writing skills – what’s involved
 Differences between paraphrasing,
summarising and quoting
 Examples of above
 7 Steps for paraphrasing ClipArt from Microsoft

 6 Exercises – good or bad examples of paraphrasing

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 Academic Writing Skills
 Information for writing your assignments comes from:

 Your own ideas - formed through critical thinking

 Information, evidence and ideas from others - found when
researching your topic

 There needs to be a good balance between your own ideas and

what you discover from your research.
 Paraphrasing, summarising and quoting are the 3 different ways
of including the works of others (what you find when researching) in
your assignment.
(University of Technology Sydney, 2015)

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 Differences
1.Paraphrasing – rewriting the information
in your own words

2. Summarising – rewriting the information

in your own words in a shorter form

3. Quoting – using the author’s exact words

(University of Technology Sydney, 2015)

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 1. Paraphrasing
 Paraphrasing is expressing someone else’s ideas in your
own words without changing the original meaning.
 You need to change the words or phrases and the structure
of the sentences.
 Although you have used your own words, you must still
acknowledge the original source of the information by
providing a reference.

Paraphrasing involves replacing words, restructuring

sentences and rewriting the information in your own words.

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 2. Summarising
 A summary is a brief account in your own words of
someone else’s ideas and is shorter than a paraphrase.
 The main aim of summarising is to condense a text to its
most important points.
 You should summarise much more often than you quote
or paraphrase as it shows that you understand what you
have read.
 Although you have used your own words, you must still
acknowledge the original source of the information by
providing a reference.
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 3. Quoting
 Quoting means copying word for word exactly from an
information source, with no changes.
 Only use quotations if you have a very good reason as
most papers should be written in your own words.
 For short quotations use quotations marks “…” and
preferably integrate it into a sentence.
 Long quotations should start on a new line and be
indented.
 You must acknowledge where you got the
quotation from by providing a reference.
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 Examples
Paraphrasing:
As students do not obtain study skills automatically, it is very important to
teach them these skills (Jordan, 2010).

Summarising:
It is important to teach study skills to students (Jordan, 2010).

Quoting:
In discussing the importance of teaching study skills, Jordan (2010, p. 8)
comments that “study skills are not something acquired instinctively”.

(University of Melbourne, 2014)

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Image courtesy dcdominici freedigitalphotos.net
 7 Steps for Paraphrasing
1. Read the original information carefully, ensuring you
understand it fully.
2. Identify the main points and keywords and highlight them.

3. Determine what you can change vs what cannot be changed.

4. Cover the text so you can’t see any of it.

5. Write out the idea in your own words using synonyms or phrases of
similar meaning where possible.
6. Change the order of the words or structure of the sentences.

7. Then check your paraphrase against the original to be sure that you
have not changed the meaning and that the information is accurate.
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 o n Pa rap h ra s ing
Exercises
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2016
 Features of Good Examples

A good paraphrase will have:

1.Kept the meaning

2.Changed the sentence structure

3.Changed the words

4.Included a reference

Images from clipart

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 Exercise 1:

Original text:
Technology can improve the quality of life and governments
need to plan carefully for the future (Turnbull, 2015).
Paraphrase:
Governments need to plan carefully for the future as
technology can improve the quality of life.

Bad example OR Good example Why?

Images from clipart

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 Answer to Exercise 1:

Bad example
Why?
•Kept the meaning

•Changed the sentence structure

•Didn’t change any of the words

•Didn’t provide a reference

Images from clipart

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 Exercise 2:

Original text:
The hardest language to learn is Mandarin as fluency requires
memorising thousands of characters (Johnson, 2014).
Paraphrase:
Mandarin is one of the most difficult languages to master
because fluency requires remembering thousands of
characters (Johnson, 2014).

Bad example OR Good example Why?

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 Answer to Exercise 2:

Good example
Why?
•Kept the meaning

•Changed the sentence structure

•Changed the words

•Included a reference

Images from clipart

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 Exercise 3:
Original text:
In recent years there has been growing concern among
environmentalists and some car owners about the pollutants that
cars emit into the atmosphere (Elliot, 2005).
Paraphrase:
Recently, there has been increasing concern among
environmentalists and some car owners about the pollutants that
cars send out into the atmosphere.

Bad example OR Good example Why?

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 Answer to Exercise 3:

Bad example
Why?
•Kept the meaning

•Changed some of the words

•Didn’t change the structure of the sentences

•Didn’t provide a reference

Images from clipart

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 Exercise 4:
Original text:
The first Chinese immigrants to Australia arrived in 1848 as
shepherds, land clearers and general farm hands (Irwin,
2001, p. 8).
Paraphrase:
Chinese immigrants to Australia in the mid-nineteenth
century initially found employment in the rural sector
(Irwin, 2001, p. 8).

Bad example OR Good example Why?

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 Answer to Exercise 4:

Good example
Why?
•Kept the meaning

•Changed the sentence structure

•Changed the words

•Included a reference

Images from clipart

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 Exercise 5:
Original text:
Brazil’s Amazon jungle is alive with millions of plant and animal
species. But the jungle is shrinking. Loggers cut down trees for wood
and paper (Better Lesson, 2011).
Paraphrase:
There is an abundance of plant and animal life in the Amazon
rainforest in Brazil. However, it is decreasing in size due to loggers
who are sawing down trees for wood products (Better Lesson, 2011).

Bad example OR Good example Why?

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 Answer to Exercise 5:

Good example
Why?
•Kept the meaning

•Changed the sentence structure

•Changed the words

•Included a reference

Images from clipart

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 Exercise 6:
Original text:
Cleopatra ruled Egypt more than 2000 years ago. Much is known
about the powerful queen. But a mystery remains as to where she
was buried (Better Lesson, 2011).
Paraphrase:
Searchers have never been able to locate the burial site of the
powerful queen Cleopatra who governed Egypt late BC, even though
a lot is known about her and the life she led (Better Lesson, 2011).

Bad example OR Good example Why?

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 Answer to Exercise 6:

Good example
Why?
•Kept the meaning

•Changed the sentence structure

•Changed the words

•Included a reference

Images from clipart

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Further Information

Watch these You Tube Clips:

Avoid Plagiarism in Research Papers
Paraphrasing: The basic steps

Refer to the online APA Quick Guide @

http://guides.dtwd.wa.gov.au/central-apaesl

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2016
 References
Better Lesson. (2011). Paraphrase! Retrieved from
http://betterlesson.com/document/171917/paraphrase-worksheet-docx

University of Melbourne. (2014). Using sources and avoiding plagiarism. Retrieved from
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/all_resources

University of NSW. (2015). Paraphrasing, summarising and quoting. Retrieved from

https://student.unsw.edu.au/paraphrasing-summarising-and-quoting

University of Technology Sydney (2015). Avoiding plagiarism . Retrieved from

http://avoidingplagiarism.uts.edu.au/using/index.html

Note: Copyright permission to use their above resources given by the University of Melbourne and the
University of Technology Sydney.

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