Paraphrasing

When you want to use specific materials from an argument to support a point you are making in your paper but want to avoid too many quotes, you should paraphrase.

What is a paraphrase?

Paraphrases are generally as long, and sometimes longer, than the original text. In a paraphrase, you use your own words to explain the specific points another writer has made, in the same order that those points have been presented in the original source. If the original text refers to an idea or term discussed earlier in the text, your paraphrase may also need to explain or define that idea. You may also need to interpret analogies and metaphors made by the writer in the original text.

Be careful not to add information or commentary that isn't part of the original passage in the midst of your paraphrase. Save your comments until afterward.

What does paraphrasing look like?

For example, use a phrase such as, Even though Thoreau praised the virtues of the intellectual life, he did not consider….

Paraphrases may sometimes use brief quotations, but most of the paraphrase should be in your own words.

What might a paraphrase of Thoreau's passage from the previous page look like?

In his 1854 text, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Henry David Thoreau points to the incongruity of free men becoming enslaved and limited by constant labor and worry. Using the metaphor of a fruit to represent the pleasures of a thoughtful life, Thoreau suggests that men have become so traumatized by constant labor that their hands—as representative of their minds—have become unable to pick the fruits available to a less burdened life even when that fruit becomes available to them. The demands of a market economy, in fact, would penalize a man who chose to give precedence to relationships and "true integrity" over labor; an over-emphasis on work leaves a man dehumanized and with "no time to be anything but a machine." Life, says Thoreau, requires time: time to reflect on our shortcomings and time to address them. If all our time is given to work, we have no time for growth. Thoreau then returns to the metaphor of the fruit, suggesting that fruit is both knowledge and man: all need to be fed, clothed, and "delicately handl[ed]" in order to achieve complete fruition.

Note that the passage above is almost exactly the same length as the original. In fact, it's slightly longer.

What are the benefits of paraphrasing?

The paraphrase accomplishes three goals:

1. Like the summary, it contextualizes the information (who said it, when, and where).
2. It restates all the supporting points used by Thoreau to develop the idea that man is hurt by focusing too much on labor.
3. The writer uses her own words for most of the paraphrase, including only three brief quotations to develop Thoreau's specific points.

Paraphrasing is likely the most common way you will integrate your source information. Paraphrasing allows you to integrate sources without losing your voice as a writer to those sources. Paraphrasing can be tricky, however. You really have to make changes to the wording. Changing a few words here and there doesn't count as a paraphrase, and, if you don't quote those words, can get you into trouble with plagiarism.

Complete the activity on the following page to get a little more practice with paraphrasing!