5.3 Paraphrasing: Rephrasing an author’s text
Although most of you will have learned to paraphrase
in a language class in
school, you probably did not have the opportunity to practise this skill often.
It is not so much a skill of writing as it is a cognitive skill. You need to
rewrite, remaining as closely as possible to the meaning, though not the
words, of an author’s text. Successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp the
meaning of the original text and to rephrase it in your own words. This is in
a way a test of understanding. Good teachers often say to students: “Give it
in your own words; I want to see if you understand – don’t
give me the parrot
version!”. As an academic writer this is your opportunity to make ample use
of this technique. In taking notes from the texts that you are studying for
your essay you will come across particularly salient passages. You regard
them as very important and you wish to record them. If you paraphrase
these sentences (never too many), you will, firstly, test your own under-
standing and, secondly, have a valuable piece of
evidence ready for an argu-
ment that you may conduct in your essay. You need to have made some
“vocabulary shift” in order to be able to do this, though. The more suitable
words you know, the better you will be able to “translate” from the author’s
language to your own.
CHAPTER 5 USING KNOWLEDGE BY MAKING AND MANAGING NOTES
50
Task 5.1:
Paraphrasing
Try to paraphrase the paragraph we wrote above – the one that starts with:
“The skills we have in mind ...” on p. 49 (last paragraph).
Now read the following notes on paraphrasing we obtained from a writing
centre at a university in the USA.
If you plan to borrow from
a source without plagiarizing, you can para-
phrase a short extract from a text. A paraphrase is
your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by
someone else, presented in a new form
one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to
borrow from a source
a more detailed restatement than a summary,
which focuses concisely on
a single main idea.
Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because
it is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage
it helps you control the temptation to quote too much
the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to
grasp the full meaning of the original.
BOOK FINAL 25/10/04 4:37 pm Page 50
51
Six steps to effective paraphrasing
1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
2. Set the original aside; write your paraphrase on a note card.
3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase
to remind you later how
you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key
word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version
accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you
have borrowed exactly from the source.
6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you
can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your
paper.
Some examples to compare
T H E O R I G I N A L P A S S A G E
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 L E G I T I M A T E P A R A P H R A S E
In research papers students
often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted
material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates dur-
ing note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim.
A N A C C E P T A B L E S U M M A R Y
Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to
help minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper.
A P L A G I A R I Z E D V E R S I O N
Students often use too many direct quotations
when they take notes, result-
ing 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.
Source:
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu
PARAPHRASING: REPHRASING AN AUTHOR’S TEXT
BOOK FINAL 25/10/04 4:37 pm Page 51
