The College of Saint Rose Writing Center, 2011
Paraphrasing Practice
Why is paraphrasing such a valuable skill?
When you paraphrase an idea from a source, you need to make sure you fully understand the point the
author is trying to convey—an activity that requires close reading and critical thinking skills.
Paraphrasing also shows your reader that you have spent a good amount of time thinking about your
sources and how they are integral to your own writing.
5 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing
1. Read the original passage several times until you feel you fully understand it.
2. Imagine how you would explain this passage verbally to someone who had not read it.
3. Put the passage aside and write/type it in your own words.
4. Check your version with original. Make sure that the structure of your version and that of the
original are different. Make sure that you have not used any of the distinct wording from the
original. If you have, and cannot think of how else to phrase these words, place quotation marks
around them.
5. Once you feel you have a strong paraphrase—one that is worded and structured differently from
the original— place a properly formatted parenthetical citation after it.
Paraphrasing Examples
MLA
Original text:
“
Romeo and Juliet
is not only the tale of two young, doomed lovers; it is the story of
how youth can be destroyed when the banality of adulthood is imminent” (Smith 76).
Incorrect Paraphrase
Romeo and Juliet
is not only a story of a young pair of tragic lovers; it is a tale of
the destruction of youth in the face of the monotony of adulthood (Smith 76).
Although the writer has properly cited the idea, this is an incorrect paraphrase
because he/she has not changed the structure of the author’s original sentence,
instead simply substituting synonyms for various words.
Correct Paraphrase
• It is the uninspired lifestyle of being an adult, and the destruction of one’s childhood
innocence that results from its onset, that truly characterizes
Romeo and Juliet
, not simply
the story of tragic unrequited love (Smith 76).
The writer has used his/her own wording and has restructured the order of ideas
within the sentence.
