Paraphrasing
A paraphrase is a restatement of someone
else’s ideas in your own words.
Paraphrase vs. Summary
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A summary restates only the main ideas and a
couple of the most important examples.
A paraphrase restates all of the supporting
details in addition to the main ideas, but in
your own words.
You should cite your source for both
summaries and paraphrases.
Summary Example
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The original passage: “Students frequently overuse
direct quotation in taking notes, and as a result they
overuse quotations in the final [research] paper.
Probably only about 10% of your final manuscript
should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore,
you should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while taking notes.”
Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
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An acceptable summary: Students should take just
a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help
minimize the amount of quoted material in the final
research paper (Lester 46-47).
Paraphrase Example

The original passage: “Students frequently overuse direct
quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations
in the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your
final manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter.
Therefore, you should strive to limit the amount of exact
transcribing of source materials while taking notes.” Lester, James D.
Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.
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A legitimate paraphrase: In doing research papers,
students often quote too excessively, failing to keep
quoted material down to a desirable level of about 10%
of the paper. Since the problem usually originates
during note taking, it is good to minimize the amount
recorded word for word from the source when you are
gathering your notes (Lester 46-47).
Plagiarism Example
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The original passage: “Students frequently overuse direct
quotation in taking notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in
the final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of your final
manuscript should appear as directly quoted matter. Therefore, you
should strive to limit the amount of exact transcribing of source
materials while taking notes.” Lester, James D. Writing Research Papers. 2nd ed.
(1976): 46-47.
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A plagiarized version: Students often use too many direct
quotations when they take notes, resulting in too many
quotes in the final research paper. In fact, only about 10%
of the final copy should consist of directly quoted material.
So it is important to limit the amount of source material
copied while taking notes.
How to Paraphrase
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Read the text carefully for understanding.
Write notes of the main ideas and supporting details.
(An outline is helpful for this.)
Next, try to write out sentences expressing these
ideas and support in your own words.
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4.
Don’t just change a few words. You should often change
the sentence structure when you paraphrase.
Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for some words if you
get stuck.
Check it. Did you restate all the important ideas.
Paraphrase Practice #1
Read the original below and try to write a paraphrase.
"At some point in the assimilation to the new way (culture), the immigrant
child realizes that his or her parents are no longer sources of real
knowledge about the new society. Their information and their way of
life are no longer the way to success, and as soon as the child
understands this, his or her attitude towards the parents changes.
Though some people consider such changes to be a betrayal, they are
an inevitable part of assimilation." (A. Khutorsky, "Immigrants Adapting")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Immigrant children eventually discover that their parents don’t really
know everything about the new culture. When they figure out that their
parent’s ideas and way of living aren’t the path to success in the new
culture, their relationship with their parents is transformed. This
change is a necessary aspect of assimilation, although it may look like
disloyalty to some people.
Paraphrase Practice #2
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Turn to Exercise 11 on page 114.
Reread the section “Balancing Effectiveness and
Efficiency.” Page 105
Look at your summary of that section.
Look at the synonyms on page 115 for some other
choices for words to use.
Write your paraphrase.
Check your work. Did you express all of the important
ideas from the original?
A Paraphrase (Answer for Problem #2):
“Balancing Effectiveness & Efficiency”
It’s not just word play to emphasize the difference in meaning between
effectiveness and efficiency.
Recognizing the distinction is important and illustrates a common
problem for managers.
Effectiveness means quickly achieving your objective.
Killing a fly with a sledgehammer, for example, effectively ends your
fly problem.
But we must face the fact that we have limited resources, so only
thinking about effectiveness is not enough.
When we consider the resources used to accomplish something against
the value of what was accomplished, we are thinking about efficiency.