Paraphrasing is a widely used literary device in all areas of writing and content creation. At the same time, it means one of the main challenges that students face when carrying out their university projects due to the lack of practice.
Therefore, in today’s article, we are going to explain what paraphrasing consists of, its meaning, and how you can paraphrase texts so that your essays and academic writings are excellent.
What does it mean to paraphrase?
Paraphrasing consists of rewriting the speech delivered by another person but with your own words. In this sense, paraphrasing is understood as the reinterpretation that we make of a writing, but preserving its meaning.
So, when paraphrasing, we must communicate the idea expressed by the original author but reformulating the text with our own words. In the same way, we must follow the same line of ideas and respect the coherence and cohesion of the new discourse.
When making use of this practice, we must give the pertinent credit to the original author; otherwise, we would be incurring in academic plagiarism. This is an extremely reprehensible and punishable activity.
What are the main benefits of paraphrasing?
The benefits that paraphrasing offers us are very diverse. We can say that by taking the ideas of another author and including them in our discourse, either for or against, will help us reinforce our hypothesis. Similarly, by making use of paraphrasing, we can demonstrate that we have understood the meaning and purpose of the text read. Therefore, our criteria as researchers will undoubtedly be positively validated.
Why is it important to paraphrase?
Being able to paraphrase a written text or document is extremely important since it shows that the person using this resource has understood the true meaning of the original text.
Therefore, the paraphrase shows that you have a great command of the subject matter. In addition, by rewriting the text with your own words, you limit the use of direct citations, providing your writing with greater fluency when reading.
In the same way, depending on its meaning, paraphrasing will allow you to strengthen your speech since you can use the reference text to emphasize your voice by approving or rejecting the original idea.
How to paraphrase according to APA rules?
As we have already seen, paraphrasing consists of rewriting the ideas of another author with our words. Although we are in charge of reversing and producing a new text, the original ideas belong to someone else. For this reason, we must mention the original author to avoid plagiarism.
For this, the APA Standards recommend paraphrasing as a useful practice to avoid direct quotes but complying with certain rules. Next, we detail the basic aspects that you must include when paraphrasing according to APA standards:
- You must always inform the last name of the author and the year of publication.
- It is recommended, but not required, that you provide the page number.
- If it is a paraphrase of several sentences, it is recommended to make a direct quote from it and then continue to mention it without having to quote it again.
- If the paraphrase incorporates multiple sources, it is advisable to repeat the quote so that the source is clear.
Tips for paraphrasing correctly
Here are some tips so that you can get the most out of this useful literary resource in your university life.
Reread the text: Go back to the original text as many times as necessary. Remember that the objective of this resource is to demonstrate that you have a good understanding of the source consulted while offering your readers a simplified version of the material in question.
Use cards to write your concepts: As you read the original text, we recommend that you rely on cards and memory aids so that you collect the ideas that seem fundamental and important to you. In this way, you will be making a new text from the original.
Compare the two texts: Be sure to compare the original text with the version you are building from the paraphrase. In this way, you will be able to verify that you have not lost coherence in the writing or have deviated from the ideological line of the original author.
Respect citations and bibliographical references: As we told you before, by citing the sources consulted, you avoid appropriating someone else’s speech. Therefore, recognizing the authors of the sources consulted prevents you from committing academic plagiarism.
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In Theses and Masters, we know that writing is not an easy job. For this reason, we put at your disposal an excellent group of professionals who can accompany you at all stages of your university life, whether you need to paraphrase a scientific essay or write a monograph.
Our services consist of personalized advice to help you choose the topic of your thesis, TFG, or TFM. In the same way, we can assist you in choosing the project methodology or in obtaining useful data for conclusions.
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