Lesson 6:
Incorporating Resources

Objectives

Understanding Plagiarism

Integrate Your Research

Cite Your Sources

Resources

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Integrating Your Research

Paraphrasing

A paraphrase is not a condensation of a passage. Paraphrases, unlike summaries, require you to restate all the information in the original source, not just the main idea. A paraphrase leaves no piece of information out.

However, a paraphrase is not simply choosing a few synonyms and inserting them into the original sentence. Doing that is plagiarism. To paraphrase, you must alter the syntax (word and phrase order) of the sentence.

For example, if the original text is:

In the 1950s, many women’s prisons had nurseries in which infants could stay with their mothers from several weeks to two years, depending on the institution.

Then this is plagiarism:

In the middle of the twentieth century, most penal institutions for women had places where babies could remain with their moms from a few weeks to two years, depending upon the penal institution (Kauffman 62-63).

Why is this plagiarism? The writer just plugged in synonyms (in bold) and did not change the structure of the sentence.

An appropriate paraphrase might be:

According to Kelsey Kauffman, nurseries existed in many prisons for women at mid-century, and this allowed women to keep their babies with them from a few weeks to two years. Exactly how long depended upon the institution (62-63).

Consider: The differences among quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing. How should you decide whether to quote, summarize, or paraphrase a passage from a resource?