A paraphrase occurs where a writer preserves the sense or idea from the original source, but reformulates the language in their own, original way. In English 101, paraphrases are preferred to long quotes because they give a better sense of your understanding of both the ideas and the source and the rules and vocabulary of English.
The “seven step paraphrase” process:
- Read the original passage. Read it again, to double check the meaning
- Identify the key words which carry the sense of the passage
- Identify technical, unique or problematic terms/phrases that cannot be changed without changing the sense
- Replace changeable key words with appropriate synonyms
- Change the grammar or syntax of the passage wherever possible
- Compare your paraphrase to the original – does it preserve the meaning?
- Cite the paraphrase (give credit to the source of the idea)
Example of the paraphrasing process:
1. Read and re-read
“He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life” (Aristotle and Ross 1954, 41).
2. Identify key terms:
in accordance with, complete, sufficiently, be equipped with, external, goods, a chance period, complete, life.
3. Identify unchangeable terms:
happy, virtue, live
4. Replace keywords with synonyms (semi-paraphrase):
He is happy who lives in agreement with total virtue and has enough material resources, not just for a short while, but during a whole lifetime.
5. Change grammar/syntax (full paraphrase) by, for example, …
… adding attribution
Aristotle argues that …
… changing word forms
“is happy” –> achieves happiness
“lives in accordance with virtue” –> lives virtuously
… changing the syntax (word order)
“he is happy who [does x and y]” –> he who [does x and y] is happy… changing the subject
“he who” –> those who
6. Compare full paraphrase with original
“He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life” (Aristotle and Ross 1954, 41).
Aristotle argues that only those who can both live completely virtuously and possess enough material resources during their whole lifetime achieve true happiness (1954, 41).
7. Give citation (above)
Notes:
- Try to fully paraphrase any material you need to include in your essay – just changing a few nouns or minor words won’t be enough to avoid plagiarism
- Paraphrases are often slightly shorter than the original, and are useful if you need to succinctly summarize several ideas from a source