PARAPHRASING

HOW TO PARAPHRASE
 What is paraphrasing?
• Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas
into your own words.
• Paraphrasing a source involves changing the
wording while preserving the original meaning.
• Paraphrasing is an alternative to quoting (copying
someone’s exact words and putting them in
quotation marks).
 How to paraphrase correctly?
• “Like other marine animals living near heavily populated
coasts, horse conchs have lost considerable habitat to
development and pollution, including favorite breeding
grounds along mud flats and seagrass beds. Their Gulf
habitat is also warming due to climate change, which
scientists think further pressures the animals, based on the
negative effects extra heat has on other big mollusks” (
Barnett, 2022).
 Incorrect paraphrasing
• Like other sea creatures inhabiting the vicinity of highly populated
coasts, horse conchs have lost substantial
territory to advancement and contamination,
including preferred breeding grounds along mud flats and seagrass beds.
Their Gulf home is also heating up due to global warming, which
scientists think further puts pressure on the creatures, predicated
upon the harmful effects extra warmth has on
other large mollusks (Barnett, 2022).
 Correct paraphrasing

• Scientists believe that temperature rises

resulting from climate change are negatively
impacting horse conchs living in the Gulf of
Mexico. Development and pollution have also
deprived them of important breeding grounds
(Barnett, 2022).
 Here we’ve…
• Only included the information that’s relevant to our argument (note
that the paraphrase is shorter than the original)
• Introduced the information with the signal phrase “Scientists believe
that …”
• Retained key terms like “development and pollution,” since changing
them could alter the meaning
• Structured sentences in our own way instead of copying the structure
of the original
• Started from a different point, presenting information in a different
order
 Try to paraphrase this source text.
• “The current research extends the previous work by
revealing that listening to moral dilemmas could elicit a
FLE [foreign-language effect] in highly proficient
bilinguals. … Here, it has been demonstrated that hearing a
foreign language can even influence moral decision making,
and namely promote more utilitarian-type decisions” (
Brouwer, 2019, p. 874).
 Paraphrase

• The research of Brouwer (2019, p. 874)

suggests that the foreign-language effect can
occur even among highly proficient bilinguals,
influencing their moral decision making, when
auditory (rather than written) prompting is
given.
 How to cite a paraphrase?

• Once you have your perfectly paraphrased text, you

need to ensure you credit the original author. You’ll
always paraphrase sources in the same way, but
you’ll have to use a different type of in-text citation
depending on what citation style you follow.
fectly paraphrased text, you need to ensure you credit the original author. You’ll always paraphrase sources in the same way, but you’ll have to use a different type of in-text citation depending on what c

How to cite a paraphrase

APA in-text citation (Brouwer, 2019, p. 874)

MLA in-text citation (Brouwer 874)
Chicago footnote 1. Susanne Brouwer, “The Auditory Foreign-
Language Effect of Moral Decision Making in
Highly Proficient Bilinguals,” Journal of
Multilingual and Multicultural Development 40,
no. 10 (2019): 874.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2019.1585863.
 Paraphrasing vs. quoting

• It’s a good idea to paraphrase instead of quoting in most

cases because:
• Paraphrasing shows that you fully understand the meaning
of a text
• Your own voice remains dominant throughout your paper
• Quotes reduce the readability of your text
• But that doesn’t mean you should never quote. Quotes are
appropriate when:
• Giving a precise definition
• Saying something about the author’s language or style (e.g., in a
literary analysis paper)
• Providing evidence in support of an argument
• Critiquing or analyzing a specific claim
 Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing
• A paraphrase puts a specific passage into your own words.
It’s typically a similar length to the original text, or slightly
shorter.
• When you boil a longer piece of writing down to the key
points, so that the result is a lot shorter than the original,
this is called summarizing.
 Avoiding plagiarism when you
paraphrase
• When paraphrasing, you have to be careful to
avoid accidental plagiarism.
• This can happen if the paraphrase is too similar to the
original quote, with phrases or whole sentences that are
identical (and should therefore be in quotation marks). It
can also happen if you fail to properly cite the source.
 SEATWORK:
• Giraffes will eat Acacia leaves and hay, eating up to 75 pounds a day.
• Influenza can cause a runny nose and fever.
• When we go to the zoo, we may see penguins if the exhibit is open.
• Many people reported symptoms of anxiety after the terrorist attack.
• For example, one study showed that food insufficiency was
independently associated with all symptoms of poor mental health,
but that association was mitigated for those who received free
groceries or meal.
 Paraphrase this paragraph
• The adolescent finds himself faced with multiple questions,
contradictory demands, and ideas, which force him to deal with
multiple conflicts, especially in light of physical, mental, social,
psychological, emotional, and family changes. If these changes are
negative, it will result in the failure of the adolescent to successfully
form his identity, in addition to facing many problems such as social
role disorder, identity confusion, or the adoption of negative identity,
harming the adolescent’s life and future.