paraphrasing guidelines webpage

8/10/2019 Paraphrasing Guidelines Webpage

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PARAPHRASING- GUIDELINES

WHATISPARAPHRASING?

Most academic writing tasks (essays, reports, reviews etc.) require

students to draw upon the work of experts in the subject to

support key points. This can be done either by direct quotingthe

experts or by paraphrasingtheir ideas.

araphrasing is a centra! ski!! in academic writing. "e show our

understanding of the ideas of experts on the topic by rewriting

these in our own words. This is why !ecturers prefer paraphrasing

to direct quotation. "hen we rephrase information in our own

words, we show how we understand the origina! text and a!so

show that we can express the ideas in our own way. araphrasinginvo!ves using reading and writing ski!!s to c!arify our

understanding and to convey this understanding to our reader. "e

are therefore te!!ing the reader both about the origina! text and

about our own !earning.

WHATARETHECRITERIAFRAGDPARAPHRASE?

A good paraphrase:

conveys the same ideas as the origina! source,

!ut uses !arge!y di#erent words within a di#erent sentence

structure

is re!evant to the ideas in your argument

is !inked to the rest of the text

is referenced in the text and in the reference !ist

HWISPARAPHRASINGDIFFERENTFR"

SU""ARISING?

araphrasing and summarising invo!ve simi!ar processes. $

summary focuses on the overview and the main points in the%nitec& 'var'www'apps'conversion'tmp'scratch'*+*-+/.doc


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origina!. $ summary is a shorter version, with examp!es and detai!s

!eft out. $ paraphrase is sometimes shorter, but it cou!d a!so be

!onger. 0oth paraphrases and summaries require in1text references

to the origina! text.

HWISPARAPHRASINGDIFFERENTFR"#UTING?

Paraphrasing$ #uoting$

"hen we paraphrase we take

information written by another writer

and express this in a di#erent way,

using %i&'r'nt (or%s. This process

is often ca!!ed 2putting the information

into your own words3. Ea)h

paraphras' n''%s a r'*'r'n)' to

th' origina+ t',t

4n quoting you use the ',a)t (or%s of

the author, and these are usua!!y p!aced

in quotation marks or, if !onger, as

indented text. Ea)h quot' n''%s to

in)+u%' a r'*'r'n)' to th' origina+

t',t an% a pag' nu.!'r

E,a.p+'/

The key advantages of email are that it is simple

to use and asynchronous which means that a

message can be sent at any time without the

receiver needing to be available at the same time.

A receiver can respond more carefully than if, for

example, they were responding to a phone call(Mundell, 2!".

E,a.p+'/

Mundell (2!" highlights some benefits of email,

#apart from ease of use, email has other

advantages. $ecause it is asynchronous, people can

send and receive messages without the need for the

other party to be immediately available. This may

allow respondents to construct a more thoughtfulreply than would be the case during a conventional

phone conversation or personal discussion% (p.

&''".

PARAPHRASINGEFFECTI0EL1HELPSA0ID

PLAGIARIS"

4t3s important to communicate the same meaning as the ideas in

the origina! text, but to do so in di#erent words. This can3t be done

just by substituting some words for their synonyms a!one. 4t

requires more substantia! changes to sentence structure.

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8ee the use of these di#erent techniques in the !onger examp!es

of paraphrasing given be!ow.

+ 6eturn to the origina! text. =ompare your paraphrase to checkwhether your paraphrase keeps to the meaning intended by the

writer of the origina!. $dd the in1text reference.

PINTSTCNSIDERWHENPARAPHRASING/

?ne genera! guide!ine for paraphrasing is not to copy groupsof more than words from the origina! ; if you want to copy

more, you shou!d treat it as a quote.

8ometimes you wi!! need to copy some individua! wordsexact!y because a synonym may a!ter the meaningsigni7cant!y, or because the word is a common!y used term inthe 7e!d.

araphrasing is a good activity for he!ping bui!d vocabu!aryknow!edge. =ross1check meanings of synonyms in an @ng!ishdictionary or a thesaurus.

"hen writing an assignment you shou!d be paraphrasing froma number of di#erent sources. ractice paraphrasing as youmake notes.

A++ sour)'s 2ou paraphras' or quot' *ro. .ust !'r'*'r'n)'%

4t3s common to have to draft and re1draft paraphrases. 8omesections of text wi!! be more di:cu!t than others.

WHENTPARAPHRASE

There are severa! considerations to think about when deciding

whether to paraphrase or quote from an origina! source inc!uding&

Aow di:cu!t it is to paraphrase

Aow many quotations you have used throughout your

assignment. Buotations shou!d be used sparing!y in your

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Aow !ong the origina! text is. 4t is genera!!y better to

paraphrase'summarise rather than quote !ong sections of text.

8ometimes the origina! text is particu!ar!y interesting or we!!

written and because of this you may choose to quote rather

than paraphrase.

%nitec& 'var'www'apps'conversion'tmp'scratch'*+*-+/.doc

paraphrasing guidelines webpage

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