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Plagiarism Prevention

Paraphrasing

In the previous section you learned about including direct quotes in your paper, but you don't want huge sections of your paper to be quotes from outside resources. Paraphrasing is a way to include outside ideas in your paper without use the exact same words. Paraphrasing is the probably the most common way to include outside research in your paper.

Paraphrasing means to use someone else's ideas, but NOT their words. Please note that changing just a few words in a sentence still counts as plagiarism. You need to read an outside resource, and then, using those ideas, make notes of what was important in your own words.

Some Hints for Paraphrasing

  • Close the book, turn over the article...
  • Use your own WORDS, not your own IDEAS
  • Use quotation marks for "borrowed words"
  • Double-check paraphrase against original
  • Use correct citations at end
  • Clearly introduce source in text

Paraphrasing Example

Original Source: Since I was a boy I have searched for ways to slingshot myself into the distance, faster and faster. When you turn the key on a car built for speed, when you hear that car rumble like an approaching storm and feel the steering wheel tremble in your hands from all that power barely under control, you feel like you can run away from anything, like you can turn your whole life into an insignificant speck in the review mirror.

My Paper: Rick Bragg loves powerful, speedy cars because they make him feel powerful, as if he could drive fast enough and far enough to leave his real life behind (13).

Works Cited: Bragg, Rick. "100 Miles per Hour, Upside Down and Sideways." The Reader, edited by Judy Sieg, rev. 3rd ed., Pearson Custom Publishing, 2010, pp. 13-16.