Why paraphrase?
Paraphrasing allows you to refer to specific ideas or information from a source, without quoting directly. Quoting occasionally is good, and how often you should quote will depend on your discipline. However, everyone should learn to paraphrase as you will be doing this at least some of the time when you are using information from sources.
What can do wrong with paraphrasing?
The most common mistake we see with paraphrasing is not paraphrasing sufficiently. It’s very important that you thoroughly paraphrase in order to avoid academic integrity issues.
How do I paraphrase?
To paraphrase sufficiently, you need to both:
· Put the author’s ideas into your own words, and
· Change the structure of the sentence or passage, so you are not copying that.
Paraphrasing Activity (from Excelsior OWL)
