Module 4. Paraphrasing
A paraphrase is a passage written in your own words that uses a theme or states an idea that belongs to another author. Because the theme or idea is not your own, you must give the owner of them credit by citing the owner and the source. Paraphrasing is more than simply changing the ordering of sentences or replacing a few words. Paraphrasing that is too close to the original quote is considered plagiarism (Write It In Your Own Words, The Online Writing Lab, Purdue University, last accessed 8/1/07.
Below are some examples*:
|
Original Passage: 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): 46-47. |
|
A legitimate paraphrase:
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). |
|
A plagiarized version:
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. |
* note: These examples were taken from the University of Purdue's Online Writing Center's website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_paraphr.html.
Additional Resources:
Cutting, Pasting and Paraphrasing, Limestone College (last accessed 8/1/07).
Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing: How Not to Plagiarize, Michael Hickey, the Department of History, The University of Pennsylvania. (last accessed 8/1/07).
this lesson was developed and designed by Amanda Lindsay and last updated on 08/03/2007 08:34 AM by Phoebe Morgan