The Definite Dos And Don’ts Of Paraphrasing

While paraphrasing is a common practice, not many students are aware of the right ways to paraphrase. Even though you may already know paraphrasing requires you to cite sources, whether you do it manually or use a Harvard or APA referencing generator. But the rules of paraphrasing go beyond that.

To help you find more clarity on the rules of paraphrasing, we have prepared a set of dos and don'ts of paraphrasing. In fact, these are also approved by the essay help experts online.

Dos

Know the objective behind paraphrasing

If you think that paraphrasing is about rehashing ideas from somebody else's work so that you don’t have to think of the ideas yourself, then you’re mistaken. As students, your job is to show that you understand the material you've read and researched by presenting these ideas from other sources in your own unique way. Also, add citations to the paraphrased material appropriately. Now, if you wonder, “How do I do my assignment with proper paraphrasing?” remembering this rule will be helpful.
The objective of paraphrasing is to bring together ideas from various sources to present the information to the readers clearly. In any case, you shouldn’t forget the referencing and you can use a Chicago or Harvard or APA referencing generator any time.

Understand the text you’re paraphrasing
When you paraphrase, always make sure that you understand the text properly. Otherwise, you may run the risk of depending on the original source text too closely.
The whole objective of paraphrasing is that you’re presenting the information you researched and explaining it in a way you were speaking to a colleague or teacher. Ultimately, paraphrasing is a skill that highlights one’s understanding of a specific source text.

Don’ts

Don't start paraphrasing with the help of a thesaurus
Using thesauruses is never a good idea when you’re when learning how to paraphrase. Because using a thesaurus to switch a few words here and there from an actual source is known as patchwork plagiarism. So it’s best not to be too dependent on a thesaurus.

Moreover, you shouldn't have to use thesaurus unless you’re completely unsure about what a word means, even in that case, a dictionary might be a better option. Typically, you must be able to use simple, clear language that’s familiar to you when reporting findings (or other details) from a study.

Don’t copy without quotation marks
If you decide to keep several phrases from the original source but paraphrase the rest (i.e., combining quoting and paraphrasing), that’s also not an ideal practice. Keep in mind that phrases from the source text must be presented in an accurate manner within the quotation marks.

If you've rephrased only sections of a quote in your own style, simply enclose any direct quotations (three words or more) in quotation marks. This will indicate that that the phrase is not your own.

These insights will be helpful when you work on your academic papers next.

Summary: Find out about the pertinent ways to paraphrase while working on your academic papers. This post helps provide proper clarity on the dos and don’ts of paraphrasing and how to implement them on your papers.