Integrating Sources
Techniques for Paraphrasing
When you write a paraphrase, you restate other’s ideas in your own words. That is, you write the meaning of the author’s ideas. You use some of the author’s key terms, but you use many of your own words and sentence structures. You include in‐text citation, including the author’s last name and year of publication. WHAT ARE SOME TECHNIQUES WRITERS USE TO PARAPHRASE EFFECTIVELY?
Following are some techniques you can use to help you paraphrase. An effective paraphrase includes more than one of these techniques. If you use only one of these techniques when paraphrasing, you have not paraphrased effectively. 1. Change a word from one part of speech to another Original: Medical professor John Swanson says that global changes are influencing the spread of disease. Paraphrase: According to John Swanson, a professor of medicine, changes across the globe are causing diseases to spread (James, 2004). 2. Use Synonyms Original: The U.S. government declared that the AIDS crisis poses a national security threat. The announcement followed an intelligence report that found high rates of HIV infection could lead to widespread political destabilization. Paraphrase: The government of the United States announced that AIDS could harm the nation's security. The government warned the population after an important governmental study concluded that political problems could result from large numbers of people infected with HIV (Snell, 2005). 3. Change numbers and percentages to different forms Original: Minority groups in the United States have been hit hardest by the epidemic. African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 46 percent of the AIDS cases diagnosed in 1998. Paraphrase: The AIDS epidemic has mostly affected minorities in the United States. For example, in 1998, less than 15 percent of