What is Paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing is another way of presenting ideas from source material in your own words, but without the condensing that happens in a summary. Instead, paraphrases stay approximately the same length as the original source material being paraphrased.
Why Paraphrase?
To Demonstrate Understanding
Paraphrasing can demonstrate your understanding of a text, including its more complex details and connections between its main points, and can also help you double-check the depth of your understanding of a text.
What Makes Something a Paraphrase?
A paraphrase
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Is in your own words.
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Is not condensed.
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Avoids personal opinion.
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Is completely rephrased from the original.
Like summary, a paraphrase is someone else’s ideas rewritten in your own words. Unlike summary, though, paraphrase should not be condensed—the ideas as you write them should take up about the same amount of space as they do in the original text. A paraphrase should not include your own opinions about the topic, what the author of the text is saying about it, or how that author is presenting their point
Attributions
Excerpts from The Word on College Reading and Writing are used under a CC BY 4.0 International License.