Learning how to paraphrase correctly without plagiarizing is an important skill that you should build to create unique or high-value content or write a great academic paper that follows the principles of integrity. Your ideas cannot appear from anywhere. They have a basis like articles or books you have ever read or films you have watched. That’s why, in professional writing, it is important to back up these ideas with citations and evidence without plagiarizing.
Table of Contents
- What is Paraphrasing?
- Why Should the Writer Paraphrase Properly?
- How to Paraphrase and Avoid Plagiarism?
1. What is Paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing involves taking an idea from a particular source and rewriting it in your own words and style without copying directly (at least no more than 3-5 consecutive words). In other words, it means citing indirectly.
| Paraphrasing | Quoting | |
| Copying words | Words cannot be copied | Words are copied and put in quotation marks |
| Including in-text citations | In-text citations should be included | In-text citations should be included and require page numbers or minutes for the video scene |
| Command words that explain what you should do in each case | Rewrite, interpret, retain the original idea, write in your own style | Copy and paste in quotation marks |
2. Why Should the Writer Paraphrase properly?
Paraphrasing properly is the key to maintaining integrity in your writing practice and preventing plagiarism.
Integrity and plagiarism are two completely opposite concepts.
Integrity means acting ethically, giving credit to someone else’s work, and being honest about the original source of ideas in your writing. According to Davis (2023), it is not only about values, but refers to an important skills that a writer should master. Integrity comes with such concepts as truth in facts, findings, and research results, truth, honesty, transparency, and ethics.
On the contrary, plagiarism means copying someone’s words or work without giving credit to it, acting dishonestly, and violating the principles of ethics, even by failing to disclose AI-written text parts. It is about responsible use of other people’s ideas and ChatGPT.
Therefore, the main goal in writing is to maintain integrity and avoid plagiarism.
You may plagiarize even if you try to integrate your own words, but copy 3-5 words from other writer’s work. plagiarism also involves copying the sentence structure, even if several words have been changed. Remember that you should include an in-text citation for the idea that is not your own.
It is important to paraphrase properly to:
- Create unique and high-value content or paper
- Add credibility to your words
- Show transparency
- Minimize the use of direct quotes
Note that direct quotes can be used only if preserving their wording is important for analysis. It mainly concerns fiction literature sources. Using quotes from such sources is necessary for critique. In other cases, it is better to paraphrase.
3. How to paraphrase and Avoid Plagiarism?
Follow these 5 steps to paraphrase without plagiarism:
- First, read the passage to get familiar with the idea
- Write down the idea and add key terms or words
- Think about connections between these keywords and the main idea
- Write down your version in your own style
- Compare your version with the original text
- Check for plagiarism using Grammarly
Example of Paraphrasing
You can find an example of paraphrasing, with each step being described below.
Start with reading the passage for the first time to capture the main idea.
Then, highlight or write down the key words or terms, as in the example below.
Now, try to draw a concept map in your mind or on a piece of paper around the concept of integrity without using the source. Include the concepts you have remembered.
It is time to write down what you have remembered with focus on the keywords.
The concept of integrity has different meanings for researchers, students, and university or academic support staff. It has positive and negative connotations. First, integrity refers to honesty in authorship and the provision of credible, accurate, and true information. Second, it is the opposite to plagiarizing, buying essays, or cheating on exams. Finally, integrity requires specific policies and rules (Davis, 2023).
The next step is to compare your version with the one in the original source. The choice of words and sentence structure should be different, but you should retain the original idea. Write in your own style. Include an in-text citation of the original source.
Finally, let’s check the paraphrased part for plagiarism using Grammarly as the best tool for writers.
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It does not only show the result of plagiarism, but grammar issues.
Key Takeaways
Remember that by maintaining integrity in your writing, you can create credible, high-value content and unique papers based on the best practices of honesty and transparency:
- Paraphrase the original source by keeping the idea but changing the wording and sentence structure.
- Read and reread your sentences and original sentences.
- Always check for plagiarism.
- Fix in case it is detected.
- Remember to give credit to the original work by including an in-text citation.
- Take into account that paraphrasing properly can make your work based on evidence, but without plagiarism.
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Reference
Davis, A. (2023). Academic integrity in the time of contradictions. Cogent Education, 10(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2023.2289307
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