Research Shortcuts

SHORTCUT 35. Paraphrase Carefully

SHORTCUT 35 Paraphrase Carefully Quotation is using the exact words of your source. Paraphrasing is rephrasing the ideas in your own words. Most students quote much too much, and make too little use of paraphrase. It's easy to know what to leave out, and what to put into your own words, if you keep in mind that, like every other part of your paper, whatever you quote should be clear, interesting, and to the point. If it's not to the point, leave it out. If it's unclear or uninteresting, rephrase it in better words. You may find that some parts of a quotation are to the point, and the rest extraneous. If you can do so without changing the meaning of the quotation, just leave out the extra parts, inserting a series of three dots (...) wherever you delete anything. Here's an example showing how to cite, right from the previous paragraph. Kesselman-Turkel and Peterson said, in their book Research Shortcuts (Contemporary Books, 1982), "Most students ... make too little use of paraphrase. It's easy to know . . . what to put into your own words. . .. If it's unclear or uninteresting, rephrase it in better words." Some parts of a quotation may be interesting and well put, and others tedious or hard to understand. In that case, quote the good parts and paraphrase the rest. It's amazing how fast this surgery turns a dull paper into a zippy one. But don't chop up quotations, stringing bits and pieces 100 Copyrighted Material Paraphrase Carefully 101 together with a few linking words of your own. It distracts the eye from your point. Instead, paraphrase most or all of the quotation. Here's bad paraphrasing: Kesselman-Turkel and Peterson say that "most students " don't paraphrase enough and that "it's easy to know" what to paraphrase: whatever's "unclear or uninteresting." This paraphrasing is much easier to read: Kesselman-Turkel and Peterson say that most students don't paraphrase enough and that it's easy to know what to paraphrase: whatever's "unclear or uninteresting ." When you paraphrase, aim for economy of words. Don't ever quote a source directly and, in addition, paraphrase or summarize her words. If your source needs translation, she should not be quoted directly in the first place. Graders often assume that redundancy comes from padding: adding words to lengthen an inadequately researched paper. Often as not, when they uncover redundancy, they lower the grade. Copyrighted Material ...