1. Dr Gina May Student Learning Advisory Service
Paraphrasing
Dr Gina May
Student Learning Advisory Service

2. What is ‘paraphrasing’?
One of the legitimate ways of ‘borrowing’ from a source
(others are quoting and summarising)
The expression of someone else’s ideas in your own words
An accurate and complete re - presentation of ideas/words

3. When to paraphrase
When you want to re-produce the idea of the author rather than the style
When the original idea/language is complicated and difficult to understand (e.g. full of jargon or complex and elaborate)
When wanting to refer to an idea rather than go into great depth about it

4. Why paraphrase?
Because it can be better than quoting in some instances
and does not break up your style
Because it demonstrates that you have fully understood the issues or the topic
Because it helps you to understand the topic or issues

5. How to paraphrase Understand the original Take notes in bullet points
‘Report’ what you have understood
Compare your notes with the original
Put any ‘unique terms’ into quotation marks
Cite the source accurately and fully
Make sure that you have understood the original text thoroughly
If you have not, you risk misrepresenting the ideas of the original author
Find the important ideas (words and phrases) and mark them in some way – a list, or highlight them
Find synonyms of alternative phrases for these words
You do not need to change specialised vocabulary
Change the structure of the text – this includes
Changing adjectives to adverbs and nouns to verbs
Breaking up long sentences and combining short sentences
Identifying the relationships between words and ideas and expressing them in a different way – BUT
Be careful not to change the meaning
Once the above has been completed, you can begin to rewrite the main ideas in complete sentences - combining your notes into a piece of continuous writing
Check you work to make sure that you are accurately representing the original
Be sure to reference fully in text or in the footnotes and include full details in the bibliography

6. Checking the paraphrase
Make sure:
You have not copied any text word for word
The meaning is the same as the original
The style of writing is your own
Your paraphrase is the same length as the original (or shorter)
You have referenced accurately

7. Useful phrases
The work of **** reveals/indicates/suggests/shows that …
In an article by **** ….
As **** has indicated …
A study by **** indicates …
**** has drawn attention to …
**** argues that ….
Research by **** suggests that …

8. Example (Taken from OWL – Online Writing Lab Purdue University, Australia, 2006)
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
Okay

9. Example (Taken from OWL – Online Writing Lab Purdue University, Australia, 2006)
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about one tenth of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.
Plagiarism

10. Example (Taken from OWL – Online Writing Lab Purdue University, Australia, 2006)
Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes.
In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47).
Good

11. Working from the Original
Change the overall word order
Change active sentences to passive sentences
Change the order of the subjects in sentences (with several clauses)
Change negative to positive
Change linking words
Change sentence length by joining or splitting ideas
Will lead to changes in grammar and syntax
(but should not alter meaning)

12. Working from the Original
Change active sentences into passive sentences
At the University of Kent, students write their exams in May.
(active)
At the University of Kent, exams are written in May by students.
(passive)

13. Working from the Original
Change the words
Use synonyms (but be careful!)
Change nouns into verbs
Change adjectives into adverbs
Will leads to changes in grammar and syntax
(but should not alter meaning)

14. Step by step approach
Since the time of Descartes, it is estimated that no fewer than five hundred attempts have been made to create artificial languages for international use. The most successful by far has been Esperanto, a language constructed around the end of the nineteenth century by Dr. Zamenhof of Poland. (Pei 1993: 3)
Changing words/ terms
Since the early seventeenth century, an estimated five hundred artificial languages have been invented for international communication. The most used is Esperanto, invented by a Polish linguist during the late 19th century.
Plagiarism

15. Step by step approach
Since the early seventeenth century, an estimated five hundred artificial languages have been invented for international communication. The most used is Esperanto, invented by a Polish linguist during the late 19th century.
Change sentence structure
Esperanto is the most used artificial language of the 500 or so attempts at creating a verbal communication tool for international use.
Ok but ….

16. Step by step approach
Since the time of Descartes, it is estimated that no fewer than five hundred attempts have been made to create artificial languages for international use. The most successful by far has been Esperanto, a language constructed around the end of the nineteenth century by Dr. Zamenhof of Poland. (Pei 1993: 3)
New version
Pei (1993) pointed out that Esperanto is the most used
artificial language of the 500 or so attempts at creating a
verbal communication tool for international use.
Paraphrased

17. Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source materials while taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): Which of the passages below do you consider to be: A legitimate paraphrase: A plagiarized version: An acceptable summary: Why? In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 46-47). Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47). Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

18. The original passage:
Wines drunk at Greek tables did not always come from Greece itself. The wine snobbery of the time extolled the merits of wines from the slopes of Mount Lebanon, from Palestine, Egypt and Magna Graecia-Greater Greece, i.e., southern Italy. The ten litres a day drunk by the famous wrestler Milo of Croton was a wine famous in Calabria, where Milo lived: this wine, Ciro, is still made.
Which of the following is a legitimate paraphrase and which is plagiarism?
Wines drunk by Greeks were not always made in Greece itself. The wine snobs of that period celebrated wines from Mount Lebanon, Palestine, and Egypt. The famous wrestler Milo of Croton, who consumed ten litres of wine a day, drank wine made in Calabria outside of Greece; this wine, Ciro, is still made. (Toussaint-Samat, 263).
Although Greeks were picky about their wine, they enjoyed wine from outside Greece. Upstanding Greeks enjoyed wine from many of Greece's local trading partners—including Palestine, Egypt and southern Italy. One story tells of the famous wrestler Milo of Croton, who consumed ten litres of foreign wine daily (Toussaint-Samat, 263).

19. Original passage:
Up, up, up, groping through clouds for what seemed like an eternity....No amount of practice could have prepared them for what they encountered. B-24s, glittering like mica, were popping up out of the clouds all over the sky.
As used:
Up, up, up he went, until he got above the clouds. No amount of practice could have prepared the pilot and crew for what they encountered-B-24s, glittering like mica, were popping up out of the clouds over here, over there, everywhere.
(There followed a citation to the original quotation later in the passage).
Does the reproduction represent a legitimate paraphrase or is it plagiarism?

20. True or False? For a good paraphrase… Remove or replace unusual words
Adopt the same structure as the source
Keep the paraphrase as simple as possible
Express the main idea concisely
Use the same words as the original
Reformulate the main ideas in your own words
Copy useful pieces of the original text
Use a suitable reporting verb
Provide in text referencing detail
Retain unique terms but highlight them as ‘quotes’
T F