Paraphrasing

When writing academic essays, you will often need to strengthen your arguments by referring to the ideas of other writers and scholars in the field.  Sometimes you might choose to write exactly what they have said, using quotation marks, but at other times you will want to express their ideas in your own words, a process which is known as paraphrasing.  Doing this effectively and respectfully is an important part of good academic practice.

 

How do I know whether I should quote or paraphrase?

Paraphrasing:

• If possible, it's usually best to try to paraphrase information. This tells the marker you understand what is being said. It's very difficult to put something in your own words if you don't understand it!
• You might also want to paraphrase if you want to give a broader overview of something, and quoting the text in full would be too long.

Quoting:

• You should quote someone's exact words if it's important to preserve their original phrasing or word choice, for example when providing a specific definition.
• You might also want to make a comparison between two author's ideas or arguments - so again here, keeping original phrasing or expression might be more precise and useful.
• If you want to analyse or discuss language or word choice - for example, if you are looking at a political speech, or literary text. 

Activity:  Have a go at the paraphrasing quiz.  This activity will help you to identify what paraphrasing does and does not involve. Click on the 'Next' button to start the quiz.

 

Image created using Canva, no attribution required. Text from Americanah, see reference.