paraphrasing strategy

How to Paraphrase: Dos, Don'ts, and Strategies for Success

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Is It Considered Plagiarism If You Paraphrase?

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How to Paraphrase and Tips for Paraphrasing Correctly

Write Down Paraphrases of a Source on Notecards

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As if the research process isn't hard enough already—finding relevant and reliable sources, reading and interpreting material, and selecting key quotations/information to support your findings/arguments are all essential when writing a research essay.

Academic writers and students face the additional stress of ensuring that they have properly documented their sources. Failure to do so, whether intentionally or unintentionally, could result in plagiarism, which is a serious academic offense.

That's why we've written this article: to provide tips for proper paraphrasing. We'll start with an overview of the difference between paraphrasing and quoting, and then we'll provide a list of paraphrasing dos and don'ts, followed by strategies for proper paraphrasing. 

We will include paraphrasing examples throughout to illustrate best practices for paraphrasing and citing paraphrased material .

As mentioned in our previous article on plagiarism , "simply taking another writer's ideas and rephrasing them as one's own can be considered plagiarism as well." 

Paraphrasing words is acceptable if you interpret and synthesize the information from your sources, rephrase the ideas in your own words, and add citations at the sentence level. It is NOT acceptable if you simply copy and paste large chunks of an original source and modify them slightly, hoping that your teacher, editor, or reviewer won't notice. 

Passing off another's work as one's own is a form of intellectual theft, so researchers and students must learn how to paraphrase quotes and be scrupulous when reporting others' work.

You might be familiar with all this. Still, you might be concerned and find yourself asking, "How do I paraphrase a source correctly without running the risk of unintentional plagiarism?" 

For many writers, especially those who are unfamiliar with the concepts of a particular field, learning how to paraphrase a source or sentence is daunting.

To avoid charges of plagiarism, you must not only document your sources correctly using an appropriate style guide (e.g., APA, Harvard, or Vancouver) for your reference list or bibliography but also handle direct quotations and paraphrasing correctly.

Quoting uses the exact words and punctuation from your source, whereas paraphrasing involves synthesizing material from the source and putting things in your own words. Citing paraphrases is just as necessary as citing quotations.

Even if you understand quoting versus paraphrasing, you might still need some additional paraphrasing help or guidance on how to paraphrase a quote. 

Summarizing is when you're discussing the main point or overview of a piece, while paraphrasing is when you're translating a direct quote into language that will be easy for your readers to understand .

It's easy to see how the two are similar, given that the steps to paraphrasing and summarizing both include putting ideas into your own words. 

But summarizing and paraphrasing are distinctly different. Paraphrasing highlights a certain perspective from a source, and summarizing offers more of an overview of an entire subject, theme, or book.

You can usually tell the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing by the length of what you're writing abore writing about. If you’re writing about a quote, that would be a smaller theme inside a larger work, so you'd paraphrase. 

If you're writing about the themes or plot of an entire book, you'd summarize. Summaries are usually shorter than the original work.

Learn How to Format Quotation Marks here.

When learning how to paraphrase a quote, you first need to consider whether you should be paraphrasing a text or quoting it directly.

If you find the perfect quote from a reliable source that fits your main topic, supports your argument, and lends authority to your paper but is too long (40+ words) or complex, it should be paraphrased. Long/complex quotes can also be shortened with omissions and editorial changes (as discussed below).

Introduce the quote with a signal phrase (e.g., "According to Ahmad [2017] . . .") and insert the entire quotation, indicating the text with quotation marks or indentation (i.e., a block quote).

If you only need to use parts of a long quotation, you can insert an ellipsis (. . .) to indicate omissions. You can also make editorial changes in square brackets [like this]. 

Keep in mind that you need to reflect the author's intent accurately when using this strategy. Don't change important words in a quotation so that it better fits your argument, as this is a form of intellectual fraud.

Changes in square brackets should only be used to clarify the text without altering meaning in the context of the paper (e.g., clarifying antecedents and matching verb tense). They signal to the reader that these changes were made by the author of the essay and not by the author of the original text.

Paraphrasing

Demonstrate that you clearly understand the text by expressing the main ideas in your own unique style and language. Now, you might be asking yourself, "Do paraphrases need to be cited like quotes?" The answer is a resounding "yes."

When deciding whether to paraphrase or use a direct quote, it is essential to ask what is more important: the exact words of the source or the ideas.

If the former is important, consider quoting directly. If the latter is important, consider paraphrasing or summarizing.

Direct quotation is best for well-worded material that you cannot express any more clearly or succinctly in your own style. It's actually the preferred way of reporting sources in the arts, particularly in literary studies.

Shortening a long quote is a great way to retain the original phrasing while ensuring that the quote reads well in your paper. However, direct quotations are often discouraged in the sciences and social sciences, so keep that in mind when deciding whether to paraphrase or quote.

Paraphrasing is best used for long portions of text that you can synthesize into your own words. Think of paraphrasing as a form of translation; you are translating an idea in another "language" into your own language. The idea should be the same, but the words and sentence structure should be totally different.

The purpose of paraphrasing is to draw together ideas from multiple sources to convey information to your reader clearly and succinctly. 

As a student or researcher, your job is to demonstrate that you understand the material you've read by expressing ideas from other sources in your own style, adding citations to the paraphrased material as appropriate. 

If you think the purpose of paraphrasing is to help you avoid thinking for yourself, you are mistaken.

When you paraphrase, be sure that you understand the text clearly . The purpose of paraphrasing is to interpret the information you researched for your reader, explaining it as though you were speaking to a colleague or teacher. In short, paraphrasing is a skill that demonstrates one's comprehension of a text.

Yes, paraphrases always need to be cited. Citing paraphrased material helps you avoid plagiarism by giving explicit credit to the authors of the material you are discussing. 

Citing your paraphrases ensures academic integrity. When you sit down to write your paper, however, you might find yourself asking these questions: "Do paraphrases need to be cited? How do I paraphrase?"

Here is a quick paraphrase example that demonstrates how to cite paraphrased ideas. The opening lines to one of Juliet's most famous speeches are "O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? / Deny thy father and refuse thy name; / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I'll no longer be a Capulet" (Romeo and Juliet, 2.2.880–884). 

If you needed to paraphrase these lines in an essay, you could do so as follows:

Juliet muses about why Romeo's family name is Montague and concludes that if either gave up their name (and thereby their family affiliations) for the other, they could be together (Romeo and Juliet, 2.2.880–884).

Generally speaking, you must include an in-text citation at the end of a paraphrased sentence. 

However, if your paraphrased material is several sentences long, then you should check with your preferred style guide. Some style guides (such as APA) call for a paraphrase citation after the first paraphrased sentence. Other style guides (such as MLA) call for a paraphrase citation after the last paraphrased sentence. 

Remember, no matter what style guide you use, it is not necessary to cite every single sentence of paraphrased material in a multi-sentence paraphrase.

Don't Start Paraphrasing by Picking Up a Thesaurus

This might shock you, but a thesaurus is NOT the answer to the problem of paraphrasing. Why? Using a thesaurus to swap out a few words here and there from an original source is a form of patchwriting, which is a type of plagiarism.

You shouldn't have to resort to a thesaurus unless you are completely unsure about what a word means—although, in that case, a dictionary might be a better tool. Ideally, you should be able to use clear, simple language that is familiar to you when reporting findings (or other information) from a study.

The problem with using a thesaurus is that you aren't really using your own words to paraphrase a text; you're using words from a book. Plus, if you're unfamiliar with a concept or if you have difficulty with English, you might choose the wrong synonym and end up with a paraphrase like this: "You may perhaps usage an erroneous word."

This is a common mistake among writers who are writing about a field with which they are unfamiliar or who do not have a thorough grasp of the English language or the purpose of paraphrasing.

If you choose to keep a few phrases from the original source but paraphrase the rest (i.e., combining quoting and paraphrasing), that's okay, but keep in mind that phrasing from the source text must be reproduced in an exact manner within quotation marks.

Direct quotations are more than three consecutive words copied from another source, and they should always be enclosed in quotation marks or offset as a block quotation.

A sentence that combines a direct quote with paraphrased material would look like this: 

In "The Laugh of the Medusa," Cixous highlights women's writing as a specific feat and speaks "about what it will do" when it has the same formal recognition as men's writing (Cixous 875).

The paraphrased paragraph of Cixous' essay includes a direct quote and a paraphrase citation.

Did you know that copying portions of a quote without quotation marks (i.e., patchwriting) is a form of plagiarism—even if you provide an in-text citation? If you've reworded sections of a quote in your own style, simply enclose any direct quotations (three or more words) in quotation marks to indicate that the writing is not your own.

When learning how to paraphrase, you need to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate forms of paraphrasing. The Office of Research and Integrity , a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, puts it this way:

Taking portions of text from one or more sources, crediting the author/s, but only making 'cosmetic' changes to the borrowed material, such as changing one or two words, simply rearranging the order, voice (i.e., active vs. passive) and/or tense of the sentences is NOT paraphrasing.

What does paraphrasing too closely look like? Here is an overly close paraphrase example of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' description of plagiarizing:

Using sections of a source, citing it, but only making surface-level changes to the language (such as changing a few words, the verb tense, the voice, or word order) fails as a paraphrase. True paraphrasing involves changing the words and syntactical structure of the original source. Keep reading for strategies for paraphrasing properly.

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In an article on how to paraphrase , the Purdue University Online Writing Lab suggests that you read the source text carefully and write paraphrases on notecards. You can then compare your version with the original, ensuring that you've covered all the key information and noting any words or phrases that are too closely paraphrased.

Your notecards should be labeled with the author(s) and citation information of the source text so that you don't lose track of which source you used. You should also note how you plan to use the paraphrase in your essay.

If you are a visual learner, the benefit of this strategy is that you can visualize the content you intend to paraphrase. 

Because a notecard is a tangible object, you can physically arrange it in an essay outline, moving the right information to the appropriate paragraph so that your essay flows well. (If you're not sure how to write an outline , check out our article.)

Plus, having a physical copy of paraphrased information makes it harder for you to accidentally plagiarize by copying and pasting text from an original source and forgetting to paraphrase or quote it properly. Writing out your paraphrase allows you to distance yourself from the source text and express the idea in your own unique style.

For more paraphrasing help, Jerry Plotnick from the University College Writing Centre at the University of Toronto provides a similar strategy for paraphrasing.

Plotnick advises that you take point-form notes of text that you want to use in your paper. Don't use full sentences, but instead "capture the original idea" in a few words and record the name of the source.

This strategy is similar to the notecard idea, but it adds another step. Instead of just reading the source carefully and writing your complete paraphrase on a notecard, Plotnick recommends using point-form notes while researching your sources. These notes can then be used to paraphrase the source text when you are writing your paper.

Like handwriting your paraphrases on notecards, taking notes and coming back to them later will help you distance yourself from the source, allowing you to forget the original wording and use your own style.

The Plotnick method above describes how to use point-form notes while researching a paper to keep your paraphrasing original. To paraphrase in your paper using Plotnick's method above, look at your sources and try the following:

Write down the basic point(s) you want to discuss on a notecard (in your own words).

Take your notecard points and turn them into sentences when you write your essay.

Add the reference for the source.

Compare your paraphrase to the original source to make sure your words are your own.

Practice Two-Step Paraphrasing: Sentence Structure and Word Choice

In an article on how to paraphrase by the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the first two strategies are acknowledged—taking notes and looking away from the source before you write your paraphrase. 

The authors then suggest another two-step strategy for paraphrasing: change the structure first and then change the words. Let's break down this process a bit further.

Sentences in English have two main components: a subject and a predicate . The subject is who or what is performing an action (i.e., a noun or pronoun), and the predicate is what the subject is doing (i.e., a verb). Sentences can be simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex. 

Here are some paraphrase examples using different sentence structures:

Simple: It was difficult.

Compound: It was difficult, but she knew there was no going back.

Complex: Although it was difficult, she knew there was no going back.

Compound-complex: Although it was difficult, she knew there was no going back, so she kept calm and carried on.

Once you have identified the structure of the original sentence, you can reconstruct it using one of the different types of sentences illustrated above.

You can also change passive voice to active voice, or vice versa.

The active voice is structured like this: Subject + Verb + Object (e.g., She learned how to paraphrase.)

The passive voice is structured like this: Object + "To Be" Verb + Past Participle (e.g., How to paraphrase was learned by the girl.)

See how awkward the passive sentence example is? It's best not to force a sentence into an unnatural sentence structure. 

Otherwise, you'll end up with Yoda-speak: "Forced to learn how to paraphrase a sentence, the girl was." (Did you like the unintentional "force" pun?)

Another way to distinguish your paraphrase from the original source is to use different sentence lengths. Often, scholarly articles are written using long, compound, complex, or compound-complex sentences. Use short sentences instead. 

Break down complex ideas into easy-to-understand material. Alternatively, you can combine several ideas from the source text into one long sentence, synthesizing the material. Try to stick with your own style of writing so that the paraphrased text matches that of the rest of your document.

Once the paraphrased sentence structure is sufficiently different from the original sentence structure, you can replace the wording of the original text with words you understand and are comfortable with.

Paraphrasing isn't meant to hide the fact that you are copying someone else's idea using clever word-swapping techniques. Rather, it is meant to demonstrate that you are capable of explaining the text in your own language.

One handy article on word choice by the Writing Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill lists some strategies for successful word choice, such as eliminating jargon and simplifying unnecessary wordiness. While this applies to academic writing in general, the "questions to ask yourself" are also useful as great paraphrasing help.

Once you have completed a sentence-long paraphrase, you include an in-text citation at the end of that sentence. However, if your paraphrased material is several sentences long, then you should check with your preferred style guide. 

Some style guides (such as APA) call for a paraphrase citation after the first paraphrased sentence. Other style guides (such as MLA) call for a paraphrase citation after the last paraphrased sentence. 

To paraphrase properly, you need to explain a text in your own words without using a direct quote . Keep in mind, however, that different styles require different formats when it comes to documenting paraphrased sources. Some styles require a citation after the first paraphrased sentence, while others require a citation after the last.

For this reason, we've outlined examples of how to paraphrase in the APA, MLA, and Chicago styles below. Be sure to check with your professor to see which style your essay requires.

APA guidelines for paraphrasing include citing your source on the first mention in either the narrative or parenthetical format. Here's a refresher of both formats:

Narrative format: Koehler (2016) noted the dangers of false news.

Parenthetical format: The news can distort our perception of an issue (Koehler, 2016).

Here's an example of how to paraphrase from a primary source in APA:

Dudley (1999) states that "direct quote" or paraphrase (Page #).

Note: It's not always necessary to include the page number, but it's recommended if it'll help readers quickly find a passage in a book.

Below are a couple of examples of how to paraphrase in APA. Keep in mind that for longer paraphrases, you don't have to add the citation again if it's clear that the same work is being paraphrased.

Short paraphrase:

Stephenson (1992) outlined a case study of a young man who showed increasing signs of insecurity without his father (pp. 23–27).

Long paraphrase:

Johnson et al. (2013) discovered that for small-breed dogs of a certain age, possession aggression was associated with unstable living environments in earlier years, including fenced-in yards with multiple dogs all together for long periods of time. However, these effects were mediated over time. Additionally, with careful training, the dogs showed less possession aggression over time. These findings illustrate the importance of positive reinforcement over the length of a dog's life.

When paraphrasing in MLA, include an in-text citation at the end of the last paraphrased sentence. 

Your in-text citation can be done either parenthetically or in prose, and it requires the last name of the cited author and the page number of the source you're paraphrasing from. Here are MLA citation examples :

Parenthetical:

Paraphrase (Author's Last Name Page #)

Author's Last Name states that paraphrase (Page #)

In addition to adding a short in-text citation to the end of your last paraphrased sentence, MLA requires that this source be included in your Works Cited page, so don't forget to add it there as well.

Here are two examples of how to paraphrase in MLA:

In an attempt to communicate his love for Elizabeth, all Mr. Darcy did was communicate the ways in which he fought to hide his true feelings (Austen 390).

Rowling explains how happy Harry was after being reunited with his friends when he thought all was lost (17).

Paraphrasing correctly in Chicago style depends on whether you're using the notes and bibliography system or the author-date system.

The notes and bibliography system includes footnotes or endnotes, whereas the author-date system includes in-text citations.

Below, you'll find the correct way to format citations when paraphrasing in both the notes and bibliography and author-date systems.

Notes and Bibliography

For the notes and bibliography system, add a superscript at the end of your paraphrase that corresponds to your footnote or endnote.

Johnson explains that there was no proof in the pudding. 1

Author-Date

For the author-date style, include the page number of the text you're referencing at the end of your paraphrase. If you mention the author, include the year the source was published.

Johnson (1995) explains that there was no proof in the pudding (21).

In summary, the purpose of paraphrasing is not to simply swap a few words; rather, it is to take ideas and explain them using an entirely different sentence structure and choice of words. It has a greater objective; it shows that you've understood the literature on your subject and are able to express it clearly to your reader.

In other words, proper paraphrasing shows that you are familiar with the ideas in your field, and it enables you to support your own research with in-text citations. 

Knowing when to paraphrase or quote strengthens your research presentation and arguments. Asking for paraphrasing help before you accidentally plagiarize shows that you understand the value of academic integrity.

If you need help, you might consider an editing and proofreading service, such as Scribendi. While our editors cannot paraphrase your sources for you, they can check whether you've cited your sources correctly according to your target style guide via our Academic Editing service.

Even if you need more than just paraphrase citation checks, our editors can help you decide whether a direct quote is stronger as a paraphrase, and vice versa. Editors cannot paraphrase quotes for you, but they can help you learn how to paraphrase a quote correctly.

What Is the Meaning of "Paraphrase"?

Paraphrasing is when you write text from another source in your own words. It's a way of conveying to your reader or professor that you understand a specific source material well enough to describe it in your own style or language without quoting it directly. 

Paraphrasing (and citing your paraphrases) allows you to explain and share ideas you've learned from other sources without plagiarizing them.

You can write things in your own words by taking original notes on the sources you're reading and using those notes to write your paraphrase while keeping the source material out of sight. 

You can also practice putting things in your own words by changing sentences from passive to active, or vice versa, or by varying word choice and sentence length. You can also try Jeremy Plotnick's idea of paraphrasing from your own point-form notes.

When you're paraphrasing something, it means you are putting someone else's writing in your own words. You're not copying or quoting content directly. Instead, you are reading someone else's work and explaining their ideas in your own way. 

Paraphrasing demonstrates that you understand the material you're writing about and gives your reader the opportunity to understand the material in a simplified way that is different from how the original author explained it.

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Capstone Form and Style

Evidence-based arguments: paraphrasing, basics of paraphrasing.

A successful paraphrase is your own explanation or interpretation of another person's ideas. Paraphrasing in academic writing is an effective way to restate, condense, or clarify another author's ideas while also providing credibility to your own argument or analysis. While successful paraphrasing is essential for strong academic writing, unsuccessful paraphrasing can result in unintentional plagiarism. Look through the paraphrasing strategies below to better understand what counts as an effective paraphrase.

Effective Paraphrasing Strategies

If you’re having trouble paraphrasing a text effectively, try following these steps:

• Reread the original passage you wish to paraphrase, looking up any words you do not recognize, until you think you understand the full meaning of and intention behind the author's words.
• Next, cover or hide the passage. Once the passage is hidden from view, write out the author's idea, in your own words, as if you were explaining it to your instructor or classmates.

Have I accurately addressed the author's ideas in a new way that is unique to my writing style and scholarly voice? Have I tried to replicate the author's idea or have I simply changed words around in his/her original sentence(s)?

• Last, include a citation, which should contain the author's name, the year, and the page or paragraph number (if available), directly following your paraphrase.

Examples of Paraphrasing

Here is the original source an author might use in a paper:

Differentiation as an instructional approach promotes a balance between a student's style and a student's ability. Differentiated instruction provides the student with options for processing and internalizing the content, and for constructing new learning in order to progress academically.

Here is an example of bad paraphrasing of the source. Even though the student is citing correctly, underlined words are simply synonyms of words used in the original source. You can also see how the sentence structure is the same for both the original source and this paraphrase.

Differentiation is a way to encourage equality between the approach and talent of the student (Thompson, 2009). This type of instruction gives students different ways to deal with and grasp information , and for establishing new learning to move on in education (Thompson, 2009).

Here is an example of a better way to paraphrase the source. In this example, the author has taken the essential ideas and information from the original source, but has worded it in her own way, using unique word choice and sentence structure. The author has condensed Thompson's (2009) information, including what is relevant to her paper, but leaving out extra details that she does not needed.

Teachers use differentiated instruction to help students learn, allowing the teacher to cater lessons to the way each student learns and each student's skill (Thompson, 2009).

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Learning about Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is like...

Direct Quotations and Paraphrases

Learn how to cite and format direct quotations, including short quotations and block quotations; make and indicate changes to quotations; and cite paraphrased material.

Academic Writer

© 2022 American Psychological Association.

Paraphrasing is a Process

Through the process of paraphrasing, you wil do the following:

• Understand what the author is trying to convey/explain/state
• Interact with the source to decide what purpose these words will play in your own writing
• Think critically to put the passage into your own words
• Differentiate between key words and common words
• Cite a source without using an exact quote

Use the 4 R process below in "Key Resource" to help you with paraphrasing.

Understanding Paraphrasing versus Summarizing

Properly Paraphrasing - Group Session

Tuesday 3:00 p.m. & Friday 4:00 p.m.

This group session provides students with strategies and tips to help students build paraphrasing skills. Students can bring their questions and concerns about paraphrasing to the session, participate in paraphrasing activities, group discussions, and evaluate sample paraphrases. You are encouraged to attend this group session whenever you have questions about paraphrasing or want to brush up on your paraphrasing skills. 

Key Resource: The 4 R's--A Paraphrasing Strategy

Using the 4 R's as a Paraphrasing Strategy

Review the graphic below that explains the 4 R's: Read, Restate, Recheck, and Repair and use the attached graphic organizer to help you practice paraphrasing by using this strategy. For additional practice, attend the Properly Paraphrasing group session Sundays and Fridays at 4:00 p.m. PST. 

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Teaching Students to Paraphrase

Ideas for scaffolding paraphrasing so that students correctly learn this valuable but difficult-to-master skill.

When discussing text in the classroom, it’s tough for students to shift from utilizing an author’s words (copying) to accepting the challenge to express that author’s idea in their own words (paraphrasing).

But teaching effective paraphrasing is necessary because the use of paraphrasing facilitates important literacy skills : It encourages repeated reading, develops note-taking habits as students track quotes and outline text details, and expands vocabulary as they consider appropriate ways to describe the original text. The skill may seem daunting to students because it takes time to find the appropriate words to reshape a sentence, but that is time well spent.

We also need to teach paraphrasing, of course, so that students develop the skill set required to avoid committing plagiarism unintentionally .

Student Tools

One way to support students is to make them aware of tools that may help when they’re paraphrasing. Think of these as training wheels—students won’t use them forever.

Academic Phrasebank : Ready-made phrases help students organize their sentences when they paraphrase. The site provides sentence starters for defining ideas, comparing and contrasting ideas, describing cause and effect, and explaining evidence to support statements.

For instance, if a student were paraphrasing vocabulary word X, they would be able to find sentence starters such as “The word X encompasses...,” “The word X is challenging to define because...,” and “The word X is intended to....”

Ashford University Writing Center : This website has a five-item quiz to review the paraphrasing process. It allows students to identify examples and non-examples of paraphrasing for a given text.

When examining non-examples, students are shown how replacing or rearranging words is akin to copying and pasting on a computer. Students see examples of effective paraphrasing, including a change of sentence structure or personal elaboration combined with limited quoted information.

Tone Analyzer : This tool allows students to enter a brief sample from a text and receive an analysis of the tone. When using this tool, students can request an assessment of whether the text illustrates anger, joy, sadness, etc. In addition to these emotions, the website includes language descriptors such as confident (used to describe texts that use active voice and/or words such as will , must , etc.) or tentative (texts with words such as seems , appears , might , etc.). This tool is useful in helping students successfully align the tone of their paraphrased material with the tone of the original text.

Student Self-Check Prompts

Students should outgrow the tools above, and teachers can encourage that growth by showing them how to monitor their own progress with paraphrasing. Students can self-check to determine how on track with paraphrasing they are by asking themselves these questions:

• Can I identify elements of the text that are most significant (and thus appropriate to preserve) when I put it in my own words?
• Can I recite elements of the text from memory in order to prepare to put it into my own words?
• How can I adjust the sentence structure to preserve the meaning of the text?

Student Cautions

Because the journey to paraphrasing may involve a few hiccups, it’s a good idea to identify potential student challenges. When paraphrasing, remind students that they should:

• Attempt to describe the text in their own words gradually, one component at a time (thanks to Doug Lemov and Maggie Johnson for this close reading strategy). For instance, they might first use their own words to describe significant phrases in the reading, and then make an effort to explain one or two key sentences, and finally attempt to paraphrase an entire paragraph.
• Monitor the similarities between the text and the paraphrase. For instance, after describing specific sentences or paragraphs, they should note how many words are shared. Instead of using the same words as the author, focus on mirroring the same main idea. The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale offers easy-to-follow models for how to achieve this.
• Ensure that there is a sufficient number of word substitutions in the paraphrased material. (Substituting only a couple of words could constitute plagiarism.) Students should focus on changing the structure of the sentence . This may involve converting a simple sentence to a compound sentence or adding a prepositional phrase.
• Avoid adjusting special language (acronyms, figurative language, jargon, etc.). These kinds of terms are considered common knowledge, so using them in a paraphrase doesn’t constitute plagiarism. Resources such as the Purdue Online Writing Lab can help students figure out whether a particular term is common knowledge.

Teachers can push students to move beyond copying by encouraging them to see paraphrasing as the go-to reading response. When we equip students with needed resources, we make student voice the rule instead of the exception.

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Techniques for effective paraphrasing

On this page, techniques for paraphrasing, getting started, effective paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing is an important skill for academic writing, and yet it is very often misunderstood. Commonly, paraphrasing is expressed as “restating someone else’s ideas in your own words.” While this is technically accurate, it can lead students to believe that paraphrasing is simply about finding synonyms to replace the words in the original author’s text. Paraphrasing is most effective and useful when you think about it as a way to explain someone else’s ideas in relation to, or in the context of, your own argument.  

When writers are new to paraphrasing, they might think it’s acceptable to simply substitute certain words with synonyms. Here is an example, taken from the writing handbook They Say/I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein :

“Whenever you enter into a conversation with others in your writing, then, it is extremely important that you go back to what those others have said, that you study it very closely, and that you not confuse it with something you already believe” (2014, p. 33).

If a writer was told to “put this sentence into her own words,” and simply tried to find synonyms, they might end up with something like this:

Anytime someone dialogues with different authors, it is crucial that they return to what those different authors have said, that they scrutinize it, and that they avoid mistaking it for what they previously accepted (Graff & Birkenstein, 2014, p. 33).

You will notice that this example uses very few of the same words as the original quotation (i.e., it has been put into the author’s “own words”). However, it might be difficult for the reader to understand.

More seriously, this paraphrase could be considered plagiarism or patch-writing —even though the source is cited! Why?

Substituting synonyms for some of the author’s original words does not explain the source, highlight its importance, or show the reader how the source helps convey the paper’s argument. To do these things, an acceptable paraphrase must also change the structure of the author’s expression.

Here is an example of an effective paraphrase of the quotation above:

Graff and Birkenstein (2014) argue throughout their book They Say/I Say that writing is a conversation. When engaging in this conversation, they caution that writers must read carefully in order to ensure that they both understand, and provide fair consideration to, the ideas of others.

Notice three crucial things about this paraphrase:

• The author has signalled that the idea comes from the source They Say/I Say (this signalling can be done within the sentence, as it is above, or it can be done through an in-text citation).
• The author has “zoomed out” from the original quotation in order to explain the big idea being presented in the source text.
• The author has changed the original structure by making two sentences from one. This step helps to accomplish both #1 and #2, above.

Rather than being about words , paraphrasing is about ideas . Instead of focusing on replacing specific words in a quotation, it is more helpful when paraphrasing to think deeply about the ideas that the original author is explaining. Once you understand those ideas, you can “zoom out” and explain the most important idea (or ideas) in your own way.

Try these steps to write an effective paraphrase

Step 1: Read a paragraph from an article that you find interesting or that you are using to write a paper.

Step 2: Make notes to yourself about the most important idea or ideas presented in the paragraph (make these notes in point form, rather than in sentences)

Step 3: Put the article away and, using only your point-form notes, explain the most important idea(s) to someone else.

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The Paraphrasing Strategy

The Paraphrasing Strategy is designed to help students focus on the most important information in a passage and to improve students' recall of main ideas and specific facts. Students read short passages of materials, identify the main idea and details, and rephrase the content in their own words.

In research studies, students showed average gains of 35 percentage points in reading comprehension of grade-level materials after mastering the strategy.

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Please note that professional development, coaching, and infrastructure support are essential components to effective implementation of SIM instructional tools and interventions. It is highly recommended that you work with a SIM professional developer. See the SIM Event list for sessions or email [email protected] to learn more.

Author(s): Jean B. Schumaker, Pegi H. Denton, and Donald D. Deshler

Publication Info: University of Kansas, 1984

• Research on the Paraphrasing Strategy (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 3, No. 1 : Teaching the Paraphrasing Strategy to Younger Students (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 8, No. 4: Using Persuasion to Present the Paraphrasing Strategy - and A Sentence to help remember the Paraphrasing Mnemonic, Emmett Murray (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 8, No. 5: Strategy Sticker Reminder for the Generalization Stage of Paraphrasing and Sentence Writing (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 10, No. 1: Study shows benefits of Paraphrasing Strategy in general ed middle school classrooms (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 12, No. 5, May, 2000: Tips for teaching paraphrasing, Gwen Berry (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 13, No.1: An Activity to introduce Main Idea and Details, Margaret Carmean (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 14, No. 3: Recommended reading: Passages for Paraphrasing and Word ID (.pdf)
• Strategram Vol. 17, No. 5: Active Reading to support Paraphrasing Strategy instruction (.pdf)

RESEARCH ARTICLES

• Schumaker, J.B., Deshler, D.D., Woodruff, S.K., Hock, M.F., Bulgren, J.A., & Lenz, B.K. (2006). Reading strategy interventions: Can literacy outcomes be enhanced for at-risk adolescents? Teaching Exceptional Children, 38 (3), 64-68. In two studies, students who learned reading strategies outperformed students who did not.
• Oas, B.K., Schumaker, J.B., & Deshler, D.D. (1995). Learning strategies: Tools for learning to learn in middle and high schools. Secondary education and beyond: Providing opportunities for students with learning disabilities. Pittsburgh, PA: Learning Disabilities Association of America. This article uses student case descriptions to illustrate how a variety of learning strategies--including the Self-Advocacy Strategy, Sentence Writing Strategy, and Paraphrasing Strategy --might be implemented with students who experience an array of learning disabilities characteristics.

An accessible version of the documents on this site will be made available upon request. Please contact the KU CRL Professional Development Research Institute, at [email protected] to request the document be made available in an accessible format.

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Strategy 5: revise the structure of the source’s sentences.

Paraphrase strategies like replacing jargon and changing terminology rely primarily on substituting your own language for your source’s. But a paraphrase that substitutes synonymous phrases in the same order is still plagiarism. In order to claim the language as your own, you also need to revise the syntactical structure of a passage you are paraphrasing. The longer the section you’re paraphrasing, the more thoroughly you need to revise the syntax.

One strategy for revising the syntax of a passage is to simply cut information that isn’t relevant to your argument, which will likely shift the order in which the material is presented. However, if you need to retain all of the details of your source, you’ll need to adopt a different strategy for presenting them in a different order. Consider the following too-close paraphrase, which has been flagged by Turnitin:

Though both contain an additional clause, each of the highlighted sentences is built around a simple declarative structure:

“Seed retention time in fishes is long” “Fishes can disperse seeds”

Understanding the structure of a sentence is essential for revising its syntax. Consider the following fair paraphrase, which retains all of the information from the source but presents that material in a different order.

The writer of the paraphrase adopts three strategies for restructuring her source’s sentences without cutting any information. And in each case, her strategy doesn’t simply reproduce the source’s ideas in her own language; it conveys theat information more clearly than the source did.

1. The paraphrase writer revises the first sentence so that the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb. In the source, the subject of the sentence is time . In composing her paraphrase, the writer makes fish —the actors who carry out seed retention—the subject of the sentence. This initial shift produces a corresponding change in other parts of the sentence, dramatically altering the structure of source’s sentence and making its language her own. ( For another example of this kind of revision, see how the paraphrase writer changes “The morphological change is” to “A longer intestine enables” in Strategy 3 .)

2. The paraphrase writer eliminates redundancies in her source. In successive sentences, the source uses the phrases “other vertebrate dispensers” and “monkeys, rodents, and birds” to refer to the same thing. The paraphrase writer replaces this phrase with “birds and mammals” and uses it only in the first sentence—beginning the second sentence with the pronoun this to carry that idea into the next step of her analysis.

3. The paraphrase writer employs a which clause in the second sentence. The primary function of a which clause is to add information to the noun that precedes it. Organizing her sentence in this way, allows the writer to present the information in a different order than her source, which uses a different construction.

The three strategies above demonstrate only a few of the many approaches to reordering the information in a sentence. English is an especially flexible language, with a variety of ways to present ideas. When revising the syntax of a source, strive to imagine how a different structure—a new subject in the sentence, a which clause—might help you present the ideas not only differently, but more clearly than the source does.

As Joseph Williams notes in Style : (1) sentences tend to be clearest when the subject of the sentence performs the action of the verb; and (2) the ideas in a paper are easiest to follow when sentences begin with information that appeared in the previous sentence and then connect that old information to new information. When attempting the structure of a source’s sentence, you might start with these strategies first, before moving on to other approaches.

1 All fair paraphrases on these pages were written by Maya Juman YC ‘20.

2 Correa, S.B., et al. 2007. Evolutionary Perspectives on Seed Consumption and Dispersal by Fishes. BioScience , 57: 748–756.

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Paraphrasing Strategy Resources:

• Paraphrasing, Jerry Deyoung HS Economics Teacher, Riverbank CA (00:03:36) (Video)
• Paraphrasing: Paul Kurdziel, English Teacher, Muskegon, MI (00:04:11) (Video)
• Paraphrasing Strategy Class Demo ( Credit Unknown )(00:03:46) (Video)
• Paraphrasing Strategy Group Practice (00:02:45) (Video)
• Expert Commentary: Paraphrasing - Don Deshler, Keith Lenz (Video)
• Paraphrasing: Chris Romero, Academic Strategies - Riverbank, CA (00:04:18) (Video)
• Video Resources from the 2003 Paraphrasing Online Academy CD
• Paraphrasing presentation (ppt)
• Paraphrasing Strategy Scoring Activities (from PD Guide)
• Paraphrasing Strategy study guide (doc)
• As you read the manual activity
• Muskegon High School 2003
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• I NSTRUCTIONS for the progress monitoring tool
• Progress Monitoring tool for Paraphrasing  ENABLE MACROS
• Description of Paraphrasing Strategy from the SIM website
• Scoring Tips - Ehren, Graner, Cooke 2004
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• Building a House on Sand - Faggella-Luby, Graner, Deshler, Drew
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• Sesquipedelian activity handout
• Wandering in the Wilds Handout
• Contents of Student Folder
• Feedback Checklist - Basler
• Paraphrasing Warm Up Activity - Fagan
• Paraphrasing Cue Card Classroom Posters - Singh

Resources from Florida SPDG

• Mini Cue Cards
• Progress Chart
• Verbal Practice Checklist
• Paraphrase Score Sheet
• RAP Bookmarks
• Feedback Checklist
• Student Folder Checklist

Teachers can access Florida Live Binder assets. Share this link and password: .  

https://www.livebinders.com/play/play_shared_binder/2667898?play_view=play . Password. LS PS

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Stratenotes and Strategrams

• Strategram Volume 1 No. 3 Example Paraphrasing Progress Chart, Paraphrasing Verbal Checklist, Proper Use of Progress Charts
• Strategram Volume 3, No. 1 Teaching the Paraphrasing Strategy to Younger Students
• Strategram Vol. 3, No. 6 Paraphrasing Assignment Sheet 
• Strategram Vol. 8, No. 4 , April, 1996: Using Persuasion to Present the Paraphrasing Strategy - and A Sentence to help remember the Paraphrasing Mnemonic - Emmett Murray
• Strategram Vol. 8, No. 5 , July, 1996: Strategy Sticker Reminder for the Generalization Stage of Paraphrasing and Sentence Writing
• Strategram Vol. 12, No. 5 , May, 2000: Tips for teaching paraphrasing - Gwen Berry
• Strategram Vol. 10, No. 1 Study shows benefits of Paraphrasing Strategy in general ed middle school classrooms
• Strategram Vol. 13, No.1: An Activity to introduce Main Idea and Details - Margaret Carmean
• Strategram Vol. 14, No. 3 , March, 2002: Recommended reading: Passages for Paraphrasing and Word ID
• Strategram Vol. 17, No. 5 , August, 2005: Active Reading to support Paraphrasing Strategy instruction
• S trategram Vol. 15, No. 6 Using color to teach Main Ideas and Teamwork - Sue Woodruff
• Strategram Vol 17, No. 1 Taking Notes on a Textbook: Combining Paraphrasing Strategy and Framing Routine
• Paraphrasing Strategy Research slides
• Oas, B.K., Schumaker, J.B., & Deshler, D.D. (1995). Learning strategies: Tools for learning to learn in middle and high schools. Secondary education and beyond: Providing opportunities for students with learning disabilities. Pittsburgh, PA: Learning Disabilities Association of America. This article uses student case descriptions to illustrate how a variety of learning strategies--including the Self-Advocacy Strategy, Sentence Writing Strategy, and Paraphrasing Strategy --might be implemented with students who experience an array of learning disabilities characteristics.
• Schumaker, J.B., Deshler, D.D., Woodruff, S.K., Hock, M.F., Bulgren, J.A., & Lenz, B.K. (2006). Reading strategy interventions: Can literacy outcomes be enhanced for at-risk adolescents? Teaching Exceptional Children, 38 (3), 64-68. In two studies, students who learned reading strategies outperformed students who did not.
• RAP: A Reading Comprehension Strategy for Students with LD and Concomitant Speech-Language Impairments or ADHD - Suzanne E. Kemp, 2017, Journal of Education and Training The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a paraphrasing cognitive strategy that consists of read, ask, put (RAP) on reading comprehension.

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What’s Going On in This Picture? | May 13, 2024

Look closely at this image, stripped of its caption, and join the moderated conversation about what you and other students see.

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1. After looking closely at the image above (or at the full-size image ), think about these three questions:

What is going on in this picture?

What do you see that makes you say that?

What more can you find?

2. Next, join the conversation by clicking on the comment button and posting in the box that opens on the right. (Students 13 and older are invited to comment, although teachers of younger students are welcome to post what their students have to say.)

3. After you have posted, try reading back to see what others have said, then respond to someone else by posting another comment. Use the “Reply” button or the @ symbol to address that student directly.

Each Monday, our collaborator, Visual Thinking Strategies , will facilitate a discussion from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern time by paraphrasing comments and linking to responses to help students’ understanding go deeper. You might use their responses as models for your own.

4. On Thursday afternoons, we will reveal at the bottom of this post more information about the photo. How does reading the caption and learning its back story help you see the image differently?

We’ll post more information here on Thursday afternoon. Stay tuned!

• See all images in this series or slide shows of 40 of our favorite images — or 40 more .

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Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.