Paraphrasing
Ron Graham
Paraphrasing is the act of taking source material and stating it in your own words. It's a highly useful skill, if for no other reason than it is useful for avoiding the appearance of plagiarism.

Paraphrasing also gives you the chance to add your own view to the original material, possibly improving the material you've started with. Since you must read the material before you can paraphrase it, you'll know it pretty well by the time you finish the effort.

If the author of the original source says something you can't improve on, than quote the author.

If the author says something you don't need in detail, then write a summary.

Practice on this: what does the following paragraph really say? (It's a familiar phrase. This interpretation appeared in Reader's Digest in the early 1980s.)

We respectfully petition, request, and entreat that due and adequate provision be made, this day and the date hereinafter subscribed, for the satisfying of these petitioners' nutritional requirements and for the organizing of such methods of allocation and distribution as may be deemed necessary and proper to assure the reception by and for said petitioners of such quantities of baked cereal products as shall, in the judgment of the aforesaid petitioners, constitute a sufficient supply thereof.

References

TCNJ Writing Program -- click on "Plagiarism" for more info
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
Bridgewater College Writing Center: Paraphrasing Tips


What you can do
  1. Get into the habit of always writing in your own words.
  2. If you must cut-and-paste text from an Internet source, don't paste that material directly into the paper you're writing. Make a separate file for notes instead.
  3. Place as much information about the source as possible in the notes as soon as you paste the text. Then you'll have the information you need for a good paraphrase.

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