What Is Paraphrasing

Vocabulary flashcards covering paraphrasing and plagiarism concepts from the lecture notes.

Paraphrase

A restatement of a text, passage, or work in your own words to convey the original meaning in another form.

Paraphrasing

The act of restating a source in your own words while preserving meaning.

Good paraphrase

Relays information in your own words and leads readers to the source of the information.

Source text

The original text from which information is drawn for paraphrase or citation.

When to paraphrase

Use paraphrase for short texts or when you want to minimize direct quotations and keep the meaning intact.

Change of parts of speech

Changing the function of words in a sentence to a different part of speech during paraphrasing.

Change of Structure

Altering the sentence structure to reflect the writer’s interpretation of the source text.

Clause reduction

Reducing clauses to phrases to make the sentence simpler and less interrupted.

Synonym replacement

Replacing words with synonyms to vary wording.

Word-for-word or verbatim plagiarism

Copying the exact words of a source without proper citation.

Word order plagiarism

Changing some words and rearranging order to imitate the source text and pass it off as your own.

Idea plagiarism

Paraphrasing an idea but not citing the original author.

Plagiarism

Claiming ownership of material that is not your own.

Citation

Giving credit to sources for ideas or language used in your writing.

Paraphrase quality

A good paraphrase reflects the writer’s understanding, avoids copying, and clearly ties to the original text.