Paraphrase

Instead of direct quotations, some subjects (e.g. Nursing and Biology) require the inclusion of paraphrase when incorporating experts' information.

UNC at Chapel Hill’s Writing Center defines paraphrase as "taking another person’s ideas and putting those ideas in your own words. Paraphrasing does NOT mean changing a word or two in someone else’s sentence, changing the sentence structure while maintaining the original words, or changing a few words to synonyms. If you are tempted to rearrange a sentence in any of these ways, you are writing too close to the original. That’s plagiarizing, not paraphrasing."¹

Do you still need to cite information that has been paraphrased? Yes, even though the information is not a direct quote, you are still including someone else's ideas into your paper. An easy way to make sure you are paraphrasing and not plagiarizing is to close the text that you are reading, put it aside, and attempt to summarize the observed information. By doing this, you will be able to put another person's ideas in your own words. As an added precaution, check your work against the original with your professor before you submit your assignment for a grade.

1. “Plagiarism.” The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/plagiarism/. Accessed 18 May 2020.