Using other people's words and ideas

Paraphrasing

Unlike summary, paraphrasing does not mean making the text shorter.

A paraphrase has:


the same ideas as the original text
this means the paraphrase might the same length as the original or longer
different vocabulary from the original
  1. synonyms are very important (words which mean the same thing as the original)
  2. except where a word has a special meaning and cannot be changed
different grammar from the original
  1. the ideas can be written in a different order
  2. verbs might change from active to passive
  3. ideas might be linked with phrases like 'S/he goes on to say..' etc



Synonyms

There are a number of ways to find synonyms:
use a thesaurus. These can be electronic or on paper.
use the MS word Thesaurus function while you are working. This image is an example for MSWord 2010 in the 'review' tool bar.

As you can see I have looked up the word 'synonym' and found a number of words which mean the same thing. Using MSWord I can automatically insert one of these into my text.

If you would like to practice synonyms try using these links.



Here are some examples of paraphrases. Compare them with the originals for changes in grammar and vocabulary and for words which cannot be changed.

Tea originated in China, and in Eastern Asia tea making and drinking ceremonies have been popular for centuries (Smith, 2009).Tea was first grown in China and tea drinking rituals have been  widespread in the East of Asia for hundreds of years.
The Chinese considered the quality of the leaves and the way in which they were cured all important. People in other cultures added new ingredients  besides tea leaves and hot water (ibid).How the leaves were grown and prepared was the most important consideration for tea drinkers from China. People from other countries experimented with adding new constituents.
It has been noted that all household resources have the potential to influence health - income, housing, fuel, food and transport. The pattern of spending on these varies between rich and poor families (Whitehead, 1987)Health can be affected by all a families assets, e.g income, food, transport, fuel and housing.. There are differences in the amount which high and low income families spend on these things (Whitehead, 1987).
Certain living and working conditions appear to impose severe restrictions on an individual's ability to choose a healthy lifestyle.The possibility of choosing healthier forms of exercise is constrained by the environment in which a person lives and works.

Exercises

Try these three exercises to see how well you have understood paraphrase.

Matching exercise

Mother and Daughter

Early developments of the banking system

If you want to know more about the language used to introduce citations/sources click here

QuotationsParaphrasingSummary