Paraphrasing

 In our blog today we are looking at the academic skill of paraphrasing. We start with a brief definition of what paraphrasing is, and then give examples of techniques we can use in our writing to improve our paraphrasing skills. 

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing involves restating, in your own words, the original wording in a source. The restatement must include careful word choices that fit the context and tone of the original passage. When paraphrasing you may use some of the authors key terms, but they must be used in your own words and sentences. It is very important to use an in-text citation when you paraphrase to prevent plagiarism.

Why do we paraphrase?

It's very important to paraphrase so we do not plagiarise the work of others. Also paraphrasing shows that we understand the research we are reading, and that we have a good enough comprehension of the idea to put it into our own words.

How do we paraphrase?

There are many techniques to use when paraphrasing. To paraphrase effectively it is very important that we use as many of these techniques as possible in our writing. When we use these techniques, it's also very important that pay attention to our grammar and vocabulary accuracy. The techniques for paraphrasing are:

• Using synonyms
• Using definitions
• Changing word forms
• Changing voice
• Changing clauses and phrases
• Changing word order

Using Synonyms

Synonyms are words that have the same or a very similar meaning as another word. When paraphrasing we can use a synonym or synonymous phrase that may occur in the same context as the original word or phrase used in the source. Not only should it have the same meaning, but it should also have the same tone (level of formality) and contextual meaning as the original word or phrase. 

Original Sentence

Paraphrasing is hard to do without good examples.

Paraphrase

Paraphrasing is difficult / challenging / an ordeal if there are no effective examples to study.

Original Sentence

F5 tornadoes are very dangerous windstorms: as a result, people must seek shelter immediately.

Paraphrase

F5 tornadoes are such severe windstorms that people must find a safe place right away.

Original Sentence

The U.S. government declared that the AIDS crisis poses a national security threat. The announcement followed an intelligence report that found high rates of HIV infection could lead to widespread political destabilisation.

Paraphrase

The government of the United States announced that AIDS could harm the nation's security. The government warned the population after an important governmental study concluded that political problems could result from large numbers of people infected with HIV (Snell, 2005).

It is important when you are using synonyms that you use a good online dictionary resource or thesaurus such as the Oxford dictionary and Thesaurus.

Using Definitions

Another technique we can use when paraphrasing is using different definitions. For example,

Lyme disease is an inflammatory disease cause by a bacterium transmitted by ticks, small bloodsucking arachnids, that attach themselves to larger animals. The disease is usually characterised by a rash followed by flu-like symptoms including fever, joint pain and headache.

Lyme disease, a disease that causes swelling and redness, is caused by a bacterium carried by a small arachnid known as a tick. By attaching to and sucking the blood of animals and humans, the ticks transfer some of the Lyme disease bacterium into their hosts causing symptoms similar to the flu (Wald, 2005).

Changing Word Forms

Content words can be repeated in different forms in a paragraph. For example a noun phrase may be used in a sentence in a paragraph and then changed to an adjective phrase in a later sentence. Sentences which have certain structures, e.g. comparison or cause and effect, can be restated by changing the pattern of the structure around. This often involves converting verbs (and adjectives) to nouns (and vice versa).

Original sentence

In a tornadic storm, property is destroyed.

Paraphrase

A tornado causes destruction of property.

Original sentence

Hansen (2008) focuses on the way in which second-language pronunciation is acquired.

Paraphrase

Hansen (2008) focuses on the acquisition of second-language pronunciation.

You can also change numbers and percentages to different forms when you paraphrase.

Original text

Minority groups in the United States have been hit hardest by the epidemic. African Americans, who make up 13% of the U.S. population accounted for 46% of the Aids cases diagnosed in 1998.

Paraphrase

The Aids epidemic has mostly affected minorities in the United States. For example, in 1998 less than 15% of the total population was African, but almost half of the people diagnosed with AIDS in the United States that year were African American.

Changing word order

We can also change the word order to help us paraphrase effectively. This means we can move information from one part of the text to another.

Original text

Situations that create stress are as unique as you are. Your personality, genes and experience influence how you deal with stress.

Paraphrase

Stressful situations affect people differently. how you manage stress is determined by your personality characteristics, genetic makeup and life experiences.

The changes made are:

• situations that create stress = stressful situations (new word order and word forms)
• are as unique as you are = affect people differently (synonymous phrase, different kind of clause)
• how you deal with stress = how you manage stress (synonymous phrase, new word order)
• personality = personality characteristics (synonymous phrase)
• genes = genetic makeup (synonymous phrase)
• expreiences = life experiences (synonymous phrase)

Changing Voice

Forming passive verbs can help you with paraphrasing. However, be careful not to convert active verbs to passive verbs unless it is appropriate to do so. In general the active voice is preferred in writing because the focus of most academic writing is on the agent (the doer). However, sometimes it is appropriate to focus on what has been done rather than the doer. For example when describing a process or a methodology. The passive voice is often used in scientific, engineering or technical writing because assignments in these fields often require the focus to be on the receiver (object).

In the following example, the active voice is appropriate because the focus (good students) is also the agent. Using the passive voice would change the focus to the receiver (activities of good students), which could create problems with coherence in the writing.

Appropriate focus (active voice)

Good students participate in class activities, complete their assignments on time, and do exemplary work.
(The sentence is clearly focused on the topic of good students.)

Inappropriate focus (passive voice)

Class activities are participated in, assignments are completed and exemplary work is done [by the good students].

(Changing the focus from the agent to the receiver creates problems with expression. The sentence is awkward and does not address the topic of good students directly.)

Therefore before you change the voice of a sentence, keep in mind your focus and check if the use of the passive is preferred if the agent (doer) is unimportant, unknown, or understood from previous reference in the writing. For example,

The cocoons are sorted and soaked before the silk fibres are wound into reels. After this, the raw silk is shipped to factories where it is washed and dried.

Here the focus is on the process of manufacturing silk rather than on the workers. Therefore we find the passive voice.

Workers sort out and soak the cocoons before they wind the silk fibres onto reels. After this the workers ship the raw sill to factories where other workers wash and dry the silk.

Here the focus is on the workers. We are reporting on what the workers are doing rather than the work being done. Therefore, to keep the focus on the workers, we use the active voice. 

We can also use the passive voice if we don't want to use reporting verbs in our writing. For example,

Angier (2001) reported that malaria kills more than one million people annually, the overwhelming majority of them children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Every year more than a million people are killed by malaria, and most of the victims are children who live in sub-Saharan Africa (Angier, 2001).

Changing Clauses to Phrases

Another technique we use in paraphrasing is changing clauses to phrases. For example,

Original sentence

The flow of water back to the sea results from the precipitation of rain and its absorption by the soil.

Paraphrase

Because rain is precipitated and absorbed by the soil, water flows back to the sea.

The flow of water (noun phrase) = water flows (clause)

When changing clauses and phrases, it is important to think about sentence structure and how we use subordinators and co-ordinators. You can read more about these in our blog post on sentence structures.

Although only about one-tenth of the world's population lives there, sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit region, accounting for 72% of the people infected with HIV during 2000.

Approximately 10% of the world's population resides in sub-Saharan Africa. However, this area of the world has the highest percentage of AIDS related illnesses. In fact, in 2000 almost three quarters of the population had the HIV virus (Bunting, 2004).

Use of Direct Quotation

Another technique to prevent plagiarism in your writing is the use of direct quotation. Direct quotation is when you copy the author's words exactly as they are written. You use quotation marks (" ") around the copied text and acknowledge the source with an in-text citation.

We only use a direct quotation when the author's exact words give your argument more credibility and/or present the information more succinctly than a paraphrase would. You should only use direct quotation once or twice in your writing and it's important note to quote factual material such as data or figures. If you find you are using direct quotation a lot in your writing, you will have issues with plagiarism.

Use of Indirect Quotation

Therefore, to overcome problems with plagiarism we use indirect quotation. An indirect quotation is when we paraphrase the original quotation, using one of more of the techniques above, and then source the information with an in-text citation. In an indirect quotation we do not use quotation marks but can use a reporting verb instead. For example,

Original sentence

"It's generally accepted that on-screen violence is harmful to children."

Paraphrase

According to Spock (1997), most people believe that TV and movie violence affects children adversely.

"Children - especially young children - will pattern themselves after violent behaviour just as readily as they imitate good behaviour. Watching violence has a desensitising and brutal affect on people - children and adults alike. It is likely that individuals brought up by kindly parents will at first be shocked and horrified when they see one person committing an act of violence against another. However if they continue to see violence regularly, they will gradually begin to take it for granted as standard human behaviour."

He maintains that the young children in particular are just as likely to imitate violent actions as they are nonviolent ones. Spock (1997) also states that people who watch too much violence will become less sensitive to it regardless of age. As he explains, when people who are from good families are first exposed to violence, their reaction is one of fright. However, the more violence they see, the less frightened they become. This violence becomes an everyday and accepted experience (ibid.)

*It is important to note that when using reporting verbs in indirect quotations, we use the verbs in the present tense even if the source was written a few years previously.

Things to Note to be a Good Paraphraser

• Always refer to the author (in-text citation) and the text (reference in reference list) whenever you paraphrase from a source.
• Do not say "I think ..." or use other wording to imply that an idea that came from a source is your own opinion or idea. Do not claim another author's ideas as your own even if you agree with the author.
• Research and take notes carefully. You should always write your notes in your own words, or use paraphrasing when note-taking. Make sure you keep accurate and correct information of the source of your notes to use in in-text citations, reference lists and bibliographies.
• If you copy anything word for word, use quotation marks and acknowledge the source.
• Be sure to maintain the original meaning of the text.
• Be accurate with your grammar and vocabulary to produce coherent writing.
• For longer texts, try to summarise the information in your own words without referring back to the text for language.
• Remember that you may not be able to paraphrase some key phrases, technical words or proper nouns. Therefore it is important that you work around these and paraphrase the rest of the text as much as you can.

References used for information in this blog:

Burnapp, D. (2009) Getting ahead as an International Student. United Kingdom: Open University Press.
Cottrell, S. (2008) The Study Skills Handbook (3rd ed.) New York: Palgrave MacMillan
Hewings, M. (2012) Cambridge Academic English. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press Ltd.
Oshima, A. and Hogue, A. (2006) Writing Academic English (4th ed.) New York: Pearson Education Inc.
Sowton, C. (2012) 50 Steps to Improving your Academic Writing. United Kingdom: Garnet Publishing Ltd.
The Open University (2013) Paraphrasing Text [Online] http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/english-language/paraphrasing-text/content-section-0 [Accessed on 14/8/2013]

We hope you found our blog on paraphrasing helpful. If you haven any comments, please leave them below.
We look forward to hearing from you in Solas English!