Paraphrase

Paraphrasing is restating someone else's ideas in your own words while maintaining the original meaning. It's essential for integrating sources naturally and demonstrating your understanding.

The Process

1. Read the original carefully
2. Put it aside — don't look while paraphrasing
3. Restate in your own words and structure
4. Compare to ensure meaning is preserved
5. Cite the source

Techniques

• Synonym substitution — replace words with equivalents
• Sentence restructuring — change the order and structure
• Voice change — switch between active and passive
• Combining ideas — merge or split sentences

Example

Original: "Social media platforms deliberately design features that exploit psychological vulnerabilities to maximize user engagement."

Paraphrase: "Social media companies intentionally create elements that take advantage of mental weaknesses to increase user participation" (Smith 45).

Common Mistakes

• Patchwriting — only changing a few words
• Losing meaning — altering the original idea
• Forgetting to cite — paraphrases still need citations
• Over-complicating — making it unnecessarily wordy

Paraphrasing shows you understand the source, not just that you can copy it.

Quick Tips

• Use completely different sentence structure
• Maintain the original emphasis
• Keep technical terms when necessary
• Always cite, even for paraphrases