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Academic Integrity: Paraphrasing

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“A fundamental part of academic study is reading the work of other people and using their ideas to develop your own.”

Jeanne Godfrey, How to use your reading in your essays

Paraphrasing is expressing the written thoughts of published authors in your own words. Instead of using a direct quotation (the author's exact words - see the previous page), you rewrite what they have said in your own style.

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is expressing the written thoughts of published authors in your own words. Instead of using a direct quotation (the author's exact words - see previous section), you rewrite what they have said in your own style. At university, there are generally two contexts in which you will do this:

  • during notetaking whilst reading a source of information (book, journal article etc)
  • during the writing of an assignment - when you will still cite the author(s) of the original text.

It is an essential process to learn – indeed one which your tutors expect you to perform so that you can provide evidence of appropriate reading and of your understanding of that knowledge. The risk, of course, is that of plagiarism – if your version of a published text bears too close a resemblance to the original wording. Simply altering one or two words in the original is not enough; your version should be distinct from the original. 

IDEA from a book shown noted in a notebook and re-used in an essay on a laptop

It is extremely important to make sure you are not accidentally changing the meaning of what the author has written in any way. Sometimes this means reading a little further in the text to ensure you’ve understood the essence of the message correctly.

So how can a piece of text be changed into a completely new form of words but one which at the same time conveys the same message or idea as the original? This page will hopefully help you.

Why you should paraphrase

There are two main reasons why you should paraphrase:

  1. It shows you have understood the meaning of the text fully.
  2. It makes your writing flow more smoothly as it keeps the text in your own writing style.

How to paraphrase

The strategy to employ is to aim for understanding. This means that, ideally, you should not have your source of information (book, journal, web page etc.) open in front of you when you are writing. If you write as you read you are more likely to plagiarise accidentally so you should either have your source of information open OR your writing - not both at the same time. (The exception is if you are quoting directly, when you must ensure you read carefully so that the quotation is accurate).

Read-CLOSE-write-or-type

This strategy forces you to assimilate properly what you are reading before then exchanging the source of information for your notes or essay. Read a section, a few pages, a chapter, close the book or journal or website and then (and only then) open your notebook or essay. If you have thoroughly understood what you have read, you will have less difficulty expressing it in your own words without referring to the original text. If you cannot, then you have probably not really understood it and will need to read it again. (Remember, the main reason you write essays is to show your understanding). This technique is good for revision too.

Pragmatic approach to paraphrasing

Whilst the above strategy is the ideal one to use, if you are new to paraphrasing, or if English is not your first language, then you may need to take a more pragmatic approach where you are able to see the original text as you create your own version.

Here are four main tactics to use when paraphrasing effectively:

  1. Changing the order of information
  2. Using synonyms or substitute words (e.g. aim for goal, unique for different)
  3. Using related words such as adjectives or nouns based on the same base word (e.g. criticality instead of critical).
  4. Removing what isn't needed for your point.

 

Step by step example:

Original text (from Ryan, 2011:101):

Academic reflection, as opposed to personal reflection, generally involves a conscious and stated purpose (Moon 2006), and needs to show evidence of learning. This type of purposeful reflection, which is generally the aim in higher-education courses, and is the focus of this paper, must ultimately reach the critical level for deep, active learning to occur.

1. The best way to start is by picking out the important parts:

Academic reflection, as opposed to personal reflection, generally involves a conscious and stated purpose (Moon 2006), and needs to show evidence of learning. This type of purposeful reflection, which is generally the aim in higher-education courses, and is the focus of this paper, must ultimately reach the critical level for deep, active learning to occur.

2. Putting these together by themselves gives:

evidence learning, purposeful reflection, the aim in higher education courses, reach the critical level for deep, active learning.

[This is what you are now working on - you only need to check back on the original at the end to ensure you haven't changed the meaning]

3. Changing the order and splitting some things up gives:

Purposeful reflection, active learning, the aim in higher education courses, deep learning, reach the critical level

4. Substituting a few words for their synonyms:

Purposeful reflection, active learning, objective of university courses, deep learning, reach a critical standard

5. Changing some words to related words

Reflecting purposefully, learn actively, objective of university courses, deep learning, reach a standard of criticality

6. Removing unnecessary parts:

Reflecting purposefully, learn, objective of university, deep learning, standard of criticality

7. Joining these together:

The ability to reflect purposefully and learn from it is one objective of a university education. For deep learning to occur, a high standard of criticality is needed (Ryan, 2011).

You can do steps 3-6 in any order you wish.

Note how some short phrases (i.e. deep learning) remain unchanged. That is fine, it is a concept in its own right and so can stay the same.

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Reference:

Ryan, M. (2011) Improving reflective writing in higher education: a social semiotic perspective. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(1), 99-111.

 

Examples of paraphrased text

Note on citing in these examples

Example 1 shows in-text citations in Harvard and Example 2 shows them as footnote markers. Please note that for some disciplines using Harvard you may be required to give page numbers in your in-text citations for paraphrased text - please check with your lecturers. Footnote references always give page numbers for paraphrased text when they are relevant and available. See the examples at the bottom of the Quoting tab for how to include page numbers.

 

 Example 1. Original text

"We come into the world with 100 billion neurons in place and ten times as many support cells. Each child’s experiences are unique – from within the womb and throughout the years of maturation. Our brains grow at an astonishing rate – doubling in size during the first two years and increasing by 400 per cent by sixteen years of age". (Sardar, et al., 2007:103).

 Example 1. Poorly paraphrased text

People are born with 100 billion neurons already in their brain and 1,000 billion support cells. Each child's life-events are distinctive – from inside the uterus and through their formative years. Brains increase in size at a remarkable speed – doubling in magnitude by the time children are two and growing by 400 per cent by the time they are sixteen. (Sardar et al., 2007).

This is plagiarism.

 Example 1. Well paraphrased text

A human baby already has 100 billion neurons at birth, along with ten times as many other brain cells. By the second year of life, its brain will have increased in size by a factor of two and by a factor of four by age sixteen, acquiring along the way a series of experiences which will be unique to that individual (Sardar et al., 2007).

Note the different structure, not just different words.

 Example 2. Original text

"A single case can be selected for in-depth study, or several cases can be selected so that they can be compared. The intent or objective of conducting a case study plays an important role regarding the choice of research design, and there are three design variations: intrinsic case study, instrumental case study, and collective or multiple case study."1

 Example 2. Poorly paraphrased text

An individual case can be chosen for for in-depth consideration, or a number of cases can be selected for comparison. The objective or intent of doing a case study plays a crucial role regarding the design of the research. There are three design choices: intrinsic case study, instrumental case study, and collective case study.1

This is plagiarism.

 Example 2. Well paraphrased text

Case study research can involve single or multiple cases. Multiple cases are used when comparison is required though this can limit the depth of analysis that focusing on a single case can provide.1 Case study design can be intrinsic, instrumental or collective/multiple - the choice of which is dictated by the underlying objectives of the research.2

In this case the citation is given after both sentences as it is less obvious that they are both from the same source.

 

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1 L. D. Bloomberg, 'Case study method', in B. B. Frey (ed), The SAGE encyclopedia of educational research, measurement, and evaluation [eBook]. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc., 2018), 237-240, 239.

2 ibid.