How to avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing correctly
1. Acknowledge the sources
By acknowledging the sources we are giving credit to the author whose ideas or words we use. Acknowledging the sources can be done with:
· Summary and citation
Example:
Messerli (2012) suggested that consuming chocolate could improve cognitive function.
· Quotation and citation
Example:
According to Nittono et al (2012), ‘images of baby animals were rated as cuter and more infantile than the images of adult animals…’ (p.6).
2. Summarising
We summarise by cutting down a lengthy text while keeping the main points. Then, we rebuild the key points into a new sentence(s). The aim is to reduce excessive material.
3. Paraphrasing
In paraphrasing, we aim to restate the information provided by certain sources. For instance the following sentence:
There has been much debate about the reasons for the industrial revolution happening in the eighteenth-century Britain, rather than in France or Germany.
could be paraphrased as:
Why the industrial revolution occurred in Britain in the eighteenth century, instead of on the continent, has been the subject of considerable discussion.
(Bailey, 2011, p.50)
Ways to paraphrase:
· Change the vocabulary
We can use synonyms to help us change the vocabulary.
Tip: Google provides more information than the thesaurus (click on the ‘right-click’ button on the mouse for more options on MS Word).
For example:
In addition to the synonyms, it identifies the word class (such as noun, verb, or adjective).
The blue-coloured words are hyperlinks to their own definitions.
· Change the word class
Work between the noun (n), verb (v), and adjective (adj).
· Change the sentence structure
Rearrange the word order.
An example of paraphrasing using these strategies:
Quote: “It has been suggested that intense emotional arousal plays a significant role in the onset of acute coronary events…” (Brown et al, 2013, p.5)
Paraphrased into the following sentence:
The notable involvement of vigorous emotional arousal in acute coronary events has been shown in the literature (Brown et al, 2013).
In this example the word order is now different; the wordplay (v) is changed into involvement (n), the word significant is swapped with its synonym: notable and the word intense is swapped with its synonym: vigorous
‘Effective paraphrasing is a key academic skill
needed to avoid the risk of plagiarism:
it demonstrates your understanding of a source’
(Bailey, 2011, p.50)
References:
Bailey, S. (2011) Academic writing: A handbook for international students. 3rd ed. Oxon: Routledge.
Brown, R., Kemp, U. and Macefield, V. (2013) Increases in muscle sympathetic nerve activity, heart rate, respiration, and skin blood flow during passive viewing of exercise. Frontier in Neuroscience, 7, pp.1-6.
Messerli, F.H. (2012) Chocolate consumption, cognitive function, and Nobel Laureates. The New England Journal of Medicine, 367, pp.1562-1564.
Nittono, H., Fukushima, M., Yano, A. and Moriya, H. (2012) The power of kawaii: Viewing cute images promotes a careful behavior and narrows the attentional
focus. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046362.