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Description
Paraphrasing: What is it?

When we paraphrase something, we simply restate the main point (or points) in a text using different diction (words) and syntax (grammar) in order to shorten the passage and/or make it more understandable to a reader.

However, paraphrasing is not limited to articles and research papers.  In fact, we paraphrase every day! Any time you take something someone else told you and retell it in your own words (yes, even outside of writing), you are paraphrasing. This includes all those times your teacher asks you to restate what's happening in a text.

In other words, you've been paraphrasing all semester and you didn't even know it!

That means paraphrasing should be easy, right? Right! Although, for some students, it's difficult to do in a research setting. Why? Because we've developed some bad habits over the years, and bad habits prevent us from paraphrasing correctly.

For example, there are some things that paraphrasing is not: Paraphrasing is not changing one or two words in a sentence or taking some words out (or adding a few extra words in for show); that's called plagiarism. The reason this is plagiarism is because paraphrasing is about retelling ideas not about removing words. Remember, above it says the you must restate a point using different words and different grammar. That means your sentence cannot look similar to the sentence you are restating; otherwise, you're simply copying and using a thesaurus.

Here, let me demonstrate the concept using David Zax's article, Choosing Civility in a Rude Culture :

We are facing a crisis. There is a growing consensus that the situation is dire—and looking bleaker every day. Almost everyone has contributed to the problem, and everyone is a victim of it.

Some students will attempt to paraphrase by doing this:

We are facing a quandary.  There is a growing agreement that the situation is bad--and looking worse every day.  Almost everyone has added to the problem, and everyone is a victim.

As you can see, the only things that changed in this "restatement" were a few words and, near the end, a few less words. It still looks very close to the way the original author presented his ideas, and that means this is an example of plagiarism, not paraphrasing. And yet, this is often what students do when we ask them to paraphrase. Why? It's quick and easy and, in most cases, students have no idea that this is wrong. No one ever told them that before.

How to paraphrase, then?

Well, first we have to read and understand the main point of the small paragraph.  Common sense, I know, but this is a major step in learning to paraphrase. This means we have to find the main idea (the main point the author is trying to make) in this section. Luckily, the main idea can often be found in the beginning and end of paragraphs (it's very rarely in the middle) and the beginning and end of articles or article sections. Keep this in mind as you go on to read more nonfiction texts.

So, what's the main idea of the above section?  We are facing a crisis.

How do we know? First, it's the very first sentence, and it makes quite the bold statement--usually a good clue that this is main idea fodder. Second, the rest of the sentences support the fact that we are in a crisis: the second sentence says people agree that things are bad and getting worse, and the third sentence tells us that almost everyone has added to the problem.

Now, if a "crisis" is a "condition of danger" as dictionary.com states, then what is this passage really trying to tell us? You might come up with your own sentences (and if you were in my classroom, I'd make you), but allow me to simplify for the sake of time: "We're in trouble."

Other good ways to paraphrase this main idea (as contributed by my students):

Bad things are happening.
Shit's hitting the fan.
Shit is going down.
We're up a creek without a paddle.
The world has a big problem.
There's drama.

(Obviously some of these wouldn't be used in a formal paper, but it's the thought process that's important at this point--not the words.)

Once you have the main idea, you simply have to support that main idea with other paraphrased examples from the section. Sometimes, in long paragraphs, you have to go searching for the right examples to use; you do not have to paraphrase an entire paragraph if every sentence isn't important to your main idea. Luckily, in most short paragraphs, you don't have to look very far for supporting evidence.

You'll notice above that I've already begun paraphrasing the evidence: the second sentence says people agree that things are bad and getting worse, and the third sentence tells us that almost everyone has added to the problem. However, there are many, many other ways to restate the main points of these sentences and, in fact, when you first start practicing paraphrasing, you should try to go sentence-by-sentence until you feel comfortable with the skill.

So let's paraphrase the second sentence: There is a growing consensus that the situation is dire—and looking bleaker every day.

Again, avoid using the same grammar (the same sentence structure) when paraphrasing. With short sentence, such as the first sentence, it's not always 100% possible, but it's always possible with longer sentences like this one.

One sure way to avoid plagiarizing someone's grammar or structure is to start your new paraphrased sentence from the middle or end of the original sentence.

Observe:

We're in trouble, and it's getting worse every day.  In fact, more and more people agree that things are really bad.

What did we do here? Well, we took the end of the second sentence, put it in our own words, and added it to our first paraphrase. Then we used the beginning of the second sentence as our next sentence in the paraphrase. In other words, we rearranged the original author's thoughts to make sense with our own.  And that's excellent paraphrasing!

But, of course, it's not the only way. Paraphrasing can be as unique as individuals, as every individual can find a different way to say something.

Let's look at some other good examples of paraphrasing (again, from my students):

People are agreeing all over that things are bad and getting worse.
The situation is looking worse and worse every day.
Many people agree: We are screwed, and it's just going to get worse.
With every day that passes, the situation is getting more extreme.
The drama is in overdrive and everyone agrees it's bad.

Phew! Again, not all of the above examples might translate well to formal academic writing, but the concept is there, and each paraphrase demonstrates that the student understands the skill.

So let's take that last sentence: Almost everyone has added to the problem, and everyone is a victim.

Using what we've learned above, a good paraphrase might be: It's a problem everyone has added to, but it's also a problem everyone has been a victim of.

Does this work?  Well, it does switch around the order of the original sentence slightly, though it's subtle, and it does seem to grasp the point.  However, in the original sentence there was a qualifying word: almost. "Almost" is actually very important when writing research or talking about the world because, unless you know every single person living on the planet, you cannot know if every single person has added to the problem or been victimized by the crisis.

That said, I'd even go so far as to say that "almost everyone" could be overstretching things, depending on the topic we're talking about, so you want to be careful with your qualifiers. What you don't want to do, however, is leave them out of the paraphrase.

So let's try again:  It's a problem almost everyone has added to, and nearly everyone is a victim.

Other decent examples:

Almost everyone's a victim, yet most people are adding to the problem.
Almost everyone seems to have this drama, but everyone spreads it, too.
Nearly everyone is a victim of bullshit, but people keep adding to it.
Many people have been without that paddle before, yet they all keep swimming up the creek.
There are many people affected by this problem, but there are just as many adding to it.

Of course, the sophistication of your paraphrasing will deal with how well you understand what you are reading and how well you know how to twist words around (in other words, how well can you B.S.?), but the general rule to paraphrasing is to keep it simple. Remember, you want the ideas to make sense to someone else (who happens to be grading you).

So let's put this paraphrased paragraph together, shall we?  Another thing to keep in mind, when paraphrasing entire (short) paragraphs, is that you don't always have to keep the sentences in the same order. You can switch everyone around, as you see fit, as long as you communicate the main point of the passage. And, yes: sometimes a paraphrase can only be one sentence long--even for a monster paragraph. There's no rule that says you have to include everything. We did, for this exercise, to illustrate the paraphrasing skill.

The original:  We are facing a crisis. There is a growing consensus that the situation is dire—and looking bleaker every day. Almost everyone has contributed to the problem, and everyone is a victim of it.

The paraphrase:  We're in trouble, and it's getting worse every day.  In fact, more and more people agree that things are really bad.  It's a problem almost everyone has added to, yet nearly everyone is a victim.

Other examples:

There's a problem going on that almost everyone has caused, and it's getting worse every day.  Indeed, we're in big trouble!

Shit's hitting the fan and nearly everyone's to blame.

Bad things are happening.  With every day that passes, the situation is getting more extreme.  Almost everyone's a victim, yet most people are still adding to the problem.

Things to Know

Remember: You do not have to paraphrase each sentence in a paragraph. Instead, pick and choose the examples that support the paragraph's main idea. For some paragraphs, you may only have one sentence. For other paragraphs you may have up to three. Unless the paragraph is over ten sentences long, you should not have more than three sentences per paraphrase. In other words, a paraphrase is 1-3 sentences of text and should rarely be more.

Want practice?

Find the main idea of each paragraph in David Zax's article, Choosing Civility in a Rude Culture and paraphrase the important points accordingly.  You should have twenty-four main ideas/paraphrases.

Feel free to drop your practice paraphrasing in a comment to this article, and I'll try to review them as I can.

Description
Paraphrasing: What is it?

When we paraphrase something, we simply restate the main point (or points) in a text using different diction (words) and syntax (grammar) in order to shorten the passage and/or make it more understandable to a reader.

However, paraphrasing is not limited to articles and research papers.  In fact, we paraphrase every day! Any time you take something someone else told you and retell it in your own words (yes, even outside of writing), you are paraphrasing. This includes all those times your teacher asks you to restate what's happening in a text.

In other words, you've been paraphrasing all semester and you didn't even know it!

That means paraphrasing should be easy, right? Right! Although, for some students, it's difficult to do in a research setting. Why? Because we've developed some bad habits over the years, and bad habits prevent us from paraphrasing correctly.

For example, there are some things that paraphrasing is not: Paraphrasing is not changing one or two words in a sentence or taking some words out (or adding a few extra words in for show); that's called plagiarism. The reason this is plagiarism is because paraphrasing is about retelling ideas not about removing words. Remember, above it says the you must restate a point using different words and different grammar. That means your sentence cannot look similar to the sentence you are restating; otherwise, you're simply copying and using a thesaurus.

Here, let me demonstrate the concept using David Zax's article, Choosing Civility in a Rude Culture :

We are facing a crisis. There is a growing consensus that the situation is dire—and looking bleaker every day. Almost everyone has contributed to the problem, and everyone is a victim of it.

Some students will attempt to paraphrase by doing this:

We are facing a quandary.  There is a growing agreement that the situation is bad--and looking worse every day.  Almost everyone has added to the problem, and everyone is a victim.

As you can see, the only things that changed in this "restatement" were a few words and, near the end, a few less words. It still looks very close to the way the original author presented his ideas, and that means this is an example of plagiarism, not paraphrasing. And yet, this is often what students do when we ask them to paraphrase. Why? It's quick and easy and, in most cases, students have no idea that this is wrong. No one ever told them that before.

How to paraphrase, then?

Well, first we have to read and understand the main point of the small paragraph.  Common sense, I know, but this is a major step in learning to paraphrase. This means we have to find the main idea (the main point the author is trying to make) in this section. Luckily, the main idea can often be found in the beginning and end of paragraphs (it's very rarely in the middle) and the beginning and end of articles or article sections. Keep this in mind as you go on to read more nonfiction texts.

So, what's the main idea of the above section?  We are facing a crisis.

How do we know? First, it's the very first sentence, and it makes quite the bold statement--usually a good clue that this is main idea fodder. Second, the rest of the sentences support the fact that we are in a crisis: the second sentence says people agree that things are bad and getting worse, and the third sentence tells us that almost everyone has added to the problem.

Now, if a "crisis" is a "condition of danger" as dictionary.com states, then what is this passage really trying to tell us? You might come up with your own sentences (and if you were in my classroom, I'd make you), but allow me to simplify for the sake of time: "We're in trouble."

Other good ways to paraphrase this main idea (as contributed by my students):

Bad things are happening.
Shit's hitting the fan.
Shit is going down.
We're up a creek without a paddle.
The world has a big problem.
There's drama.

(Obviously some of these wouldn't be used in a formal paper, but it's the thought process that's important at this point--not the words.)

Once you have the main idea, you simply have to support that main idea with other paraphrased examples from the section. Sometimes, in long paragraphs, you have to go searching for the right examples to use; you do not have to paraphrase an entire paragraph if every sentence isn't important to your main idea. Luckily, in most short paragraphs, you don't have to look very far for supporting evidence.

You'll notice above that I've already begun paraphrasing the evidence: the second sentence says people agree that things are bad and getting worse, and the third sentence tells us that almost everyone has added to the problem. However, there are many, many other ways to restate the main points of these sentences and, in fact, when you first start practicing paraphrasing, you should try to go sentence-by-sentence until you feel comfortable with the skill.

So let's paraphrase the second sentence: There is a growing consensus that the situation is dire—and looking bleaker every day.

Again, avoid using the same grammar (the same sentence structure) when paraphrasing. With short sentence, such as the first sentence, it's not always 100% possible, but it's always possible with longer sentences like this one.

One sure way to avoid plagiarizing someone's grammar or structure is to start your new paraphrased sentence from the middle or end of the original sentence.

Observe:

We're in trouble, and it's getting worse every day.  In fact, more and more people agree that things are really bad.

What did we do here? Well, we took the end of the second sentence, put it in our own words, and added it to our first paraphrase. Then we used the beginning of the second sentence as our next sentence in the paraphrase. In other words, we rearranged the original author's thoughts to make sense with our own.  And that's excellent paraphrasing!

But, of course, it's not the only way. Paraphrasing can be as unique as individuals, as every individual can find a different way to say something.

Let's look at some other good examples of paraphrasing (again, from my students):

People are agreeing all over that things are bad and getting worse.
The situation is looking worse and worse every day.
Many people agree: We are screwed, and it's just going to get worse.
With every day that passes, the situation is getting more extreme.
The drama is in overdrive and everyone agrees it's bad.

Phew! Again, not all of the above examples might translate well to formal academic writing, but the concept is there, and each paraphrase demonstrates that the student understands the skill.

So let's take that last sentence: Almost everyone has added to the problem, and everyone is a victim.

Using what we've learned above, a good paraphrase might be: It's a problem everyone has added to, but it's also a problem everyone has been a victim of.

Does this work?  Well, it does switch around the order of the original sentence slightly, though it's subtle, and it does seem to grasp the point.  However, in the original sentence there was a qualifying word: almost. "Almost" is actually very important when writing research or talking about the world because, unless you know every single person living on the planet, you cannot know if every single person has added to the problem or been victimized by the crisis.

That said, I'd even go so far as to say that "almost everyone" could be overstretching things, depending on the topic we're talking about, so you want to be careful with your qualifiers. What you don't want to do, however, is leave them out of the paraphrase.

So let's try again:  It's a problem almost everyone has added to, and nearly everyone is a victim.

Other decent examples:

Almost everyone's a victim, yet most people are adding to the problem.
Almost everyone seems to have this drama, but everyone spreads it, too.
Nearly everyone is a victim of bullshit, but people keep adding to it.
Many people have been without that paddle before, yet they all keep swimming up the creek.
There are many people affected by this problem, but there are just as many adding to it.

Of course, the sophistication of your paraphrasing will deal with how well you understand what you are reading and how well you know how to twist words around (in other words, how well can you B.S.?), but the general rule to paraphrasing is to keep it simple. Remember, you want the ideas to make sense to someone else (who happens to be grading you).

So let's put this paraphrased paragraph together, shall we?  Another thing to keep in mind, when paraphrasing entire (short) paragraphs, is that you don't always have to keep the sentences in the same order. You can switch everyone around, as you see fit, as long as you communicate the main point of the passage. And, yes: sometimes a paraphrase can only be one sentence long--even for a monster paragraph. There's no rule that says you have to include everything. We did, for this exercise, to illustrate the paraphrasing skill.

The original:  We are facing a crisis. There is a growing consensus that the situation is dire—and looking bleaker every day. Almost everyone has contributed to the problem, and everyone is a victim of it.

The paraphrase:  We're in trouble, and it's getting worse every day.  In fact, more and more people agree that things are really bad.  It's a problem almost everyone has added to, yet nearly everyone is a victim.

Other examples:

There's a problem going on that almost everyone has caused, and it's getting worse every day.  Indeed, we're in big trouble!

Shit's hitting the fan and nearly everyone's to blame.

Bad things are happening.  With every day that passes, the situation is getting more extreme.  Almost everyone's a victim, yet most people are still adding to the problem.

Things to Know

Remember: You do not have to paraphrase each sentence in a paragraph. Instead, pick and choose the examples that support the paragraph's main idea. For some paragraphs, you may only have one sentence. For other paragraphs you may have up to three. Unless the paragraph is over ten sentences long, you should not have more than three sentences per paraphrase. In other words, a paraphrase is 1-3 sentences of text and should rarely be more.

Want practice?

Find the main idea of each paragraph in David Zax's article, Choosing Civility in a Rude Culture and paraphrase the important points accordingly.  You should have twenty-four main ideas/paraphrases.

Feel free to drop your practice paraphrasing in a comment to this article, and I'll try to review them as I can.