What
is a paraphrase? The quick definition is: putting an
author's writing in your own words. A paraphrase is another
way of putting something - a "telling beside" (from para- "beside"
+ phrasis "to tell") (Online Etymology Dictionary, 2005). For
example, "four score and seven years ago" can be accurately
paraphrased as "eighty-seven years ago." Put these
two phrases side by side and they are clearly equivalent. But
paraphrase is not always quite like this.
Paraphrase, at least in academic writing,
is often hard to distinguish from summary.
Writers often paraphrase other writers in order
to save space and time. Doing this effectively depends on your ability
to accurately capture the essence of someone's idea or argument
without omitting any crucial details. While truly pithy condensations
of another writer's words are not always possible, there is
almost always some degree of summary in a paraphrase.
Consider the following excerpt from an essay by Marc Krell (2000):
Quote
Following the Holocaust, Jews must
continue to concern themselves with their religious, social,
and political relationship to Christian culture because they
face opposition from both ends of the spectrum. On the one
hand, right wing white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK
view Jews as the demonic minority with financial and political
control over the majority Christian culture. On the other
hand, Jews have been associated with the majority Christian
"monoculture" by many multiculturalists. (73 words)
Paraphrase
...Jews, after
the Holocaust, are in the contradictory position of being
considered as a malignant entity within Christian culture
by right-wing racists, and as privileged majority members
by some on the left (Krell, 2000). (32 words)
Paraphrasing can often coexist with quoting, such as in the following example:
Paraphrase With Quote
It has been argued that Jews, after the Holocaust, are in the contradictory position of being
considered as a "demonic minority" within Christian culture by racists on the right, and as
privileged majority members by many leftists (Krell, 2000).
Warning:
- When you paraphrase, the important principle to remember
is that, regardless of how much the words have changed, or
to what extent you have condensed someone else's text, the
idea is still someone else's, and the paraphrase needs to
be cited in the text according to APA, MLA or some other style
guidelines.
- When you paraphrase, be careful that you are NOT just changing a few words;
usually, you will want to either change the language substantially or quote.
- Too much paraphrasing in your writing will start to turn your own work into
restatements of others' work. Use paraphrase judiciously.
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