Successful vs.

unsuccessful
paraphrases
Paraphrasing is often defined
as putting a passage from an
author into “your own
words.” But what are your
own words? How different
must your paraphrase
The Passage as It Appears in the Source
Critical care nurses function in a hierarchy of roles. In this open heart surgery unit, the
nurse manager hires and fires the nursing personnel. The nurse manager does not directly care
for patients but follows the progress of unusual or long-term patients. On each shift a nurse
assumes the role of resource nurse. This person oversees the hour-by-hour functioning of the
unit as a whole, such as considering expected admissions and discharges of patients,
ascertaining that beds are available for patients in the operating room, and covering sick calls.
Resource nurses also take a patient assignment. They are the most experienced of all the staff
nurses. The nurse clinician has a separate job description and provides for quality of care by
orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and providing direct support where needed, such
as assisting in emergency situations. The clinical nurse specialist in this unit is mostly involved
with formal teaching in orienting new staff. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical
nurse specialist are the designated experts. They do not take patient assignments. The resource
nurse is seen as both a caregiver and a resource to other caregivers. . . . Staff nurses have a
hierarchy of seniority. . . . Staff nurses are assigned to patients to provide all their nursing care.
(Chase, 1995, p. 156)
Word-for-Word Plagiarism
Critical care nurses have a hierarchy of roles. The nurse manager hires
and fires nurses. S/he does not directly care for patients but does follow
unusual or long-term cases. On each shift a resource nurse attends to
the functioning of the unit as a whole, such as making sure beds are
available in the operating room, and also has a patient assignment. The
nurse clinician orients new staff, develops policies, and provides support
where needed. The clinical nurse specialist also orients new staff,
mostly by formal teaching. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and
clinical nurse specialist, as the designated experts, do not take patient
assignments. The resource nurse is not only a caregiver but a resource to
the other caregivers. Within the staff nurses there is also a hierarchy of
seniority. Their job is to give assigned patients all their nursing care.
Why this is plagiarism?
Notice that the writer has not only “borrowed” Chase’s
material (the results of her research) with no
acknowledgment, but has also largely maintained the
author’s method of expression and sentence structure.
The phrases in red are directly copied from the source or
changed only slightly in form.
Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Chase as
the source of the content, the language of the passage
would be considered plagiarized because no quotation
marks indicate the phrases that come directly from
Chase. And if quotation marks did appear around all
these phrases, this paragraph would be so cluttered that
it would be unreadable.
A Patchwork Paraphrase
Chase (1995) describes how nurses in a critical care unit function in a
hierarchy that places designated experts at the top and the least senior
staff nurses at the bottom. The experts — the nurse manager, nurse
clinician, and clinical nurse specialist — are not involved directly in
patient care. The staff nurses, in contrast, are assigned to
patients and provide all their nursing care. Within the staff nurses is
a hierarchy of seniority in which the most senior can become resource
nurses: they are assigned a patient but also serve as a resource to other
caregivers. The experts have administrative and teaching tasks such as
selecting and orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and giving
hands-on support where needed.
Why this is plagiarism
This paraphrase is a patchwork composed of
pieces in the original author’s language (in
red) and pieces in the student-writer’s
words, all rearranged into a new pattern, but
with none of the borrowed pieces in
quotation marks. Thus, even though the
writer acknowledges the source of the
material, the underlined phrases are falsely
presented as the student’s own.
A Legitimate Paraphrase
In her study of the roles of nurses in a critical care unit, Chase (1995)
also found a hierarchy that distinguished the roles of experts and others.
Just as the educational experts described above do not directly teach
students, the experts in this unit do not directly attend to patients. That is
the role of the staff nurses, who, like teachers, have their own “hierarchy
of seniority” (p. 156). The roles of the experts include employing unit
nurses and overseeing the care of special patients (nurse manager),
teaching and otherwise integrating new personnel into the unit (clinical
nurse specialist and nurse clinician), and policy-making (nurse
clinician). In an intermediate position in the hierarchy is the resource
nurse, a staff nurse with more experience than the others, who assumes
direct care of patients as the other staff nurses do, but also takes on tasks
to ensure the smooth operation of the entire facility.
Why this is a good paraphrase
The writer has documented Chase’s material
and specific language (by direct reference to
the author and by quotation marks around
language taken directly from the source).
Notice too that the writer has modified
Chase’s language and structure and has
added material to fit the new context and
purpose — to present the distinctive
functions of experts and nonexperts in
several professions.
Just as Sherlock Holmes investigates a case,
psychologists must evaluate all the available data
before making a deduction, lest they jump to an
erroneous conclusion on the basis of insufficient
evidence (Bram & Peebles, 2014, pp. 32–33).

Bram and Peebles (2014) advocated for psychologists

to evaluate all the available data before making a
deduction, just as Sherlock Holmes investigates a
case, lest they jump to an erroneous conclusion on
the basis of insufficient evidence (pp. 32–33).
According to Jacques Cousteau, the activity of
people in Antarctica is jeopardizing a delicate
natural mechanism that controls the earth's
climate. He fears that human activity could
interfere with the balance between the sun, the
source of the earth's heat, and the important
source of cold from Antarctic waters that flow
north and cool the oceans and atmosphere
("Captain Cousteau" 17).
Matisse paintings are remarkable in giving the viewer the
distinct sensory impressions of one experiencing the
scene first hand. For instance, "The Casbah Gate" takes
one to the walled city of Tangier and the Bab el Aassa
gateway near the Sultan's palace, where one can
imagine standing on an afternoon, absorbing the splash
of colors and the fine outlines. Even the sentry, the
bowaab vaguely eyeing those who come and go through
the gate, blends into the scene as though real (Plagens
50).
Let’s Try
Choose the best paraphrase for the original passage.
Original passage:
“Death rates for males are substantially higher than for
females for every age group of children and youth, but the
largest difference occurs among teens, ages 15 to 19”
(Goutas, et al., 2011, p. 11).
•Death rates for males are much higher than for females
for all age groups of children and youth, but the largest
difference occurs among teens, ages 15 to 19 (Goutas, et
al., 2011).
•.
•A recent study found that death rates for male children
and teens are higher than those for females in all age
groups, but the most significant difference between death
rates for male and female children occurs between the
ages of 15 and 19 (Goutas, et al., 2011).
Washington Irving's two most famous stories, 'Rip Van
Winkle' and 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,' have taken on
a life of their own. They have been read, listened to, and,
from the time of Joseph Jefferson's first staging of "Rip" to
our own age of mass media, watched in various of
productions, by generations of adults and children alike.
Yet relatively few people are aware that they were once—
and, for that matter, still technically are—part of of an
apparently miscellaneous, but actually quite coherent
unified, collection of sketches, essays, and stories
called The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon" (Rubin-
Dorsky 393).
•Washington Irving's famous stories "Rip Van Winkle" and
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are so popular that they
have been enjoyed in story form and in films by
generations. However, despite the popularity of these
stories, most people do not realize that they were
originally published in and remain a part of a larger
collection of works entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey
Crayon (Rubin-Dorsky 393).
•.
•The famous short stories "Rip Van Winkle" and "The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving are so
popular today that they have been made into books, audio
recordings, and movies. Generations of fans have been
"So dynamic is the Web that new technologies and
techniques are emerging all the time. What's
commonplace one year becomes old hat the next. The
only thing that seems to remain constant is people's
desire to transmit and receive information efficiently and to
communicate with others, no matter what the means.
That's what drives people to shop, invest, and converse
online, and it is the same force that is propelling them to
learn online as well" (Ko & Rossen, 2008, p. 5).
•The Web is so exciting, and new technologies and
techniques are emerging all the time. What's
commonplace one year becomes old hat the next. The
only thing that seems to remain constant is people's need
to transmit information and to communicate with one
another. These things drive people to shop, invest, and
converse online, and it is this same force that is propelling
them to learn online (Ko & Rossen, 2008).
•.
•Change for the World Wide Web in ongoing, with
innovation constantly changing and shaping the
experiences people have online. The one stability among
all this change is that people want to be able to send and
receive information conveniently and efficiently, and
people want to be able to communicate with each other.
These forces, which drive people to the internet for