3 Ways to Avoid Plagiarism -- Summary, Paraphrase and Quote

There is so much talk about plagiarism these days! But how do you actually avoid plagiarizing?
Three ways to save yourself from plagiarizing are summary, paraphrase and quote.

Let’s start with summary. This is one students are pretty familiar with, but that doesn’t mean it’s
so clear cut.

A summary is a condensed version of the original text that highlights the main or key ideas in
YOUR own words. So if you were going to summarize a chapter, it might be a page. If you
were going to summarize a paragraph, it might be a couple of lines.

The second way to avoid plagiarism is with a paraphrase. A paraphrase is typically the same
length as the original text but written in YOUR own words, like a summary. So a paraphrase of a
page would be about a page; a paraphrase of a paragraph would be roughly the same length as
the original paragraph. The real trick to paraphrasing is making sure you use your own words
and NOT using the words from the original source.

A quote seems so easy because you merely take the original text, put it in quotation marks and
put it into your paper. Well, not so fast.

Students tend to think that they should quote the most in the paper. And why not? It’s the
easiest, and tends to make the paper longer, but by quoting someone, you are saying something
about the text.

You are saying that the way the person wrote the text him or herself is so powerful and so
impactful that if you were to rewrite it in any way, it would lose it’s impact and value. If that is
not the case, you should summarize or paraphrase it. You should actually quote the least.

That means that if you put “” marks around text, it better be really powerful language.

So with summary, paraphrase and quote, for which of these do you need a citation?

This is a trick question; they all need a citation. If you borrow any ideas or language from
someone or a text (or a Youtube video), you must include a citation.

A good rule of thumb for summary, paraphrase and quote, is to 1. Introduce the ethos of the
author or original text, 2. include the summary, paraphrase or quote, 3. Cite the original source
and 4. Discuss the borrowed material and how it relates to the remainder of your point/paragraph
or paper.

Writing with summary, paraphrase and quote is a skill that requires practice and care to get it
right, but remember, there are only these three ways to borrow outside sources and each needs a
citation.
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