Paraphrasing to Avoid Plagiarism
When I was in high school, I accidentally plagiarized an
essay about Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and I didn’t get caught. I
didn’t even know I had plagiarized. It was years later that I realized the errors
of my ways. Since I believe in learning from my mistakes and helping others
learn from them too, in today’s post, I’m going to share more about my error,
explain what paraphrase isn’t, explain what paraphrase is, and offer an
overview of a paraphrasing strategy you can use in your writing to avoid
plagiarism.
Accidental Plagiarism: A Cautionary Tale
The assignment was to write an analysis of the book Pride
and Prejudice. I was in an Advanced Placement English class, and this was our summer
homework before the course started so I hadn’t yet learned how to write an
analysis of a book. As I read, I enjoyed the book quite a bit, but when it came
to writing the paper I found myself wondering, “What does the teacher mean by
analysis? What ideas do I have to share about this book? What does this book
mean, other than being a sweet love story?”
Since I didn’t know what to write, I went to the Themes, Motifs &
Symbols page of Spark Notes for Pride and Prejudice. Here, I learned that
major themes in the book included things like love, reputation, and class. I knew enough to know it would be wrong to
copy/paste what I read here, so that’s not what I did. Instead, I used what I
had read there and wrote a paper about the significant themes of love,
reputation, and class. I knew the Sparknotes webpage was not an appropriate
source for this paper, so I never once cited Sparknotes. I paraphrased the
ideas from this source, but I never included a citation. Even though I didn’t
copy and paste from the source, this was still considered plagiarism.
Years
later, when I was in college, I was taught in a Composition course what
plagiarism is and how to paraphrase effectively. In that moment, I realized
what I’d done with that analysis paper in high school: I’d plagiarized.
What Paraphrase Isn’t
From this example, I learned a few things about what
paraphrase is not, and I’d like to share those here.
Paraphrase is not: Reading a source and getting some ideas from it, and then
writing those ideas in your own words without a citation.
Paraphrase is also not: Reading a source and copy/pasting it into a paper, but then
substituting synonyms for most words so that it’s “in your own words.”
Nor is it: Copy/pasting a source into your paper without quotation
marks and a citation.
What Paraphrase Is
As discussed on our Using
Evidence: Paraphrase webpage and our Paraphrasing
Source Information webinar, paraphrasing is using your own words and
sentence structure to present the key points of an author’s ideas in a new way
that is relevant for what you’re writing. Often, paraphrases are shorter than
the original information. In addition, paraphrases must always include a
citation and a reference entry, to clearly convey where the information was
retrieved.
What an Effective Paraphrase Strategy Looks Like
As we discuss at residencies and in other venues like our
website and webinars, there are strategies that you can employ to ensure that
you’re paraphrasing effectively. Here is an overview of the paraphrasing process:
1.) Read the passage you want to paraphrase until you understand
it fully. This might require multiple read-throughs.
2.) Cover or hide the passage and then write out the author’s
idea in your own words, selecting and emphasizing what’s important to you and
the argument you’re making.
3.) Compare what you wrote to the original source, and do some
analysis to ensure that you’re paraphrasing effectively and adequately
reflecting the original author’s intent by asking yourself these questions:
- Have I accurately reflected the author’s ideas in this paraphrase?
- Have I emphasized only the part from this original source that’s relevant for my argument and for context for this information?
- Have I used my own sentence structure and words to reflect this idea?
4.) Revise your paraphrase depending on your answers to the
questions above. If you’ve misinterpreted the author’s ideas, revise. If you’ve
included irrelevant information, revise. If you’ve included information that’s
too closely reflecting the original source, either revise or use quotation
marks to enclose the borrowed phrases.
5.) Finish the paraphrase with a citation that should include
the author’s name and the year. If you included any quoted materials, also
include a page number. If you’re unfamiliar with how to cite, you can learn
more on our Citations:
Overview webpage.
The next time you’re writing a paper and integrating source information, keep these tips about what’s paraphrase and what’s not in mind. In addition, give this paraphrasing strategy a try and then let us know in the comments how it worked for you! Happy writing.
Jes
Philbrook is a Writing Instructor and the Coordinator of Doctoral Writing
Assessment in the Walden University Writing Center. Jes has been a writing
tutor for over a decade, and because of adolescent struggles with using source
information, she has a passion for helping students learn how to paraphrase and
integrate source information to avoid plagiarism. In her free time, you can
find Jes walking her dog Zoie, harvesting her community garden plot, cooking
(but not from a recipe), and reading young adult fantasy series.
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thanks
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Vit Paul! We hope this post was helpful for you.
DeleteThank you Jess. It happened to me cause I wanted to state the objectives of a program as the author did. I did cite the source but unfortunately it was too much of the original source and in my rush to submit before deadline did not proofread to see that quotation marks were not in place. From hereon I will just have to paraphrase to ensure I do not plagiarize and try as best as I can to try submitting assignments by the latest, the day before the due date so at least i'll at least a day to fix any anomaly.
ReplyDeleteWriting is a process and we are all constantly learning and developing our skills. You might check out our interactive plagiarism prevention modules (https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/modules/plagiarism) if you'd like some more guidance on this. We also have a podcast episode (https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/transcripts/podcasts/ep013) dedicated to making the most of whatever time you have available! Thanks for reading!
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