4.7 Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing means expressing the thought, meaning and attitude of another author in your own words, in a clear and straightforward way. It is therefore similar to quoting, but it is done indirectly, without using the original writer's actual words or speech marks. With paraphrasing, you avoid continuous strings of direct quotations and are able to maintain your own style and tone of writing. However, as with direct quoting, it is essential that you do proper referencing for all your paraphrases.

With a paraphrase, your aim is to relate what the author has said to your own piece of work, and this often requires you to provide an interpretation, or gloss, on their ideas in some way, to make them fit into your argument. A paraphrase is not just a simple re-wording of the original.

How long should a paraphrase be?

􀂃 There is no set length, as it depends on how much of a writer's work you want to refer to, and in how much detail. In some cases, paraphrasing may simply involve reducing, or summarising, what the original writer has said into a single sentence:

The first published professional response to ape language studies was an article by Jacob Bronowski and Ursula Bellugi (1970). They argued that although chimpanzees might be able to use reference, they could not break grammatical units down to their units and recombine them (a process they called 'reconstitution').

􀂃 It may give a more detailed description of a writer's argument, consisting of a paragraph or more:
Levins (1968) used fitness sets to identify the optimal genetic strategy in response to environmental variation. The optimal genetic strategy is not determined solely by the nature of the environmental heterogeneity but partly by the perception of that heterogeneity. For example, it is very unlikely that …. The general conclusion of these analyses of fitness sets was that fine-grained species would evolve a strategy of monomorphism, whereas coarse-grained species would maintain polymorphism.
(Note: for brevity, the dots indicate that 5 sentences are omitted; these provide the detail of the writer's argument.)

􀂃 You may want to give your opinion, or commentary, on the writer's ideas at the same time as paraphrasing them:

When Freud begins to discuss 'lapses of memory' in terms of repression, he seems to move on less firm ground. He does not, of course, claim that all lapses are due to repression. His concern is to show that at least some are and, to this end, he gives examples in which a name or a word is unexpectedly forgotten and proceeds to demonstrate that the forgotten item is associated either directly or indirectly with unpleasant circumstances. Here we may cite two of his most convincing examples ….

What language changes do I make when paraphrasing?

􀂃 vocabulary.
* keep the specialised terms that are related to the topic, or those for which there are no synonyms, e.g calcium, neutron, protein
* do not change proper nouns (e.g. names of countries and organisations), numbers, formulae
* for the rest of your text, use different vocabulary whenever possible, especially simpler phrases and more common synonyms and expressions. Using your own words makes your paraphrase fit in with the style of the rest of your text.

􀂃 grammar
* the grammar of the original needs to be changed, so that the points you are reporting on fit in with the grammatical flow of your text
* if your paraphrase is summarising and thus shortening the original, this will involve reducing perhaps 3 or 4 sentences (or more) down to one. This will require you to use a variety of subordinate clauses and adverbial or participle phrases.

How do I do in-text referencing?
The same guidelines described in Section 4.8 on Quoting apply to paraphrasing.

Language to use to introduce paraphrases
􀂃 You can use the same 'reporting' verbs for paraphrasing as are given in Section 4.8 on Quoting. In particular, verbs that reflect the original writer's purpose or attitude towards his/her subject are useful when paraphrasing, e.g.
X identifies … as …
X defends his position by arguing that ….
X attacks his opponents with his statement that …
X affirms his opinion that …

􀂃 Note that the 'reporting' verb can be followed by that … (or this can be omitted). Punctuation: there is no comma before or after that:
Fred Hein explains that each person's heredity is unique, except for identical twins.

􀂃 The normal grammatical rules for writing indirect speech apply:
* When the reporting verb is in the past tense, the verb tense in the reported clause, together with pronouns and time phrases may also have to be changed to indicate the correct time references.
MacSpratt (6) found that when sheep were deficient in nitrogen, the rate of mitosis in wool follicles was 63% of normal and concluded that nitrogen is essential to normal growth of wool.

Note that the last verb is is in the present tense: this is because the writer is generalising, or making a conclusion about what he regards as a general truth. If the writer knows that later work found this conclusion to be false, he would use was instead.

􀂃 You can also use the other introductory phrases given in the section on quoting. These in fact are more commonly used with indirect quotations than with direct ones.

􀂃 With indirect quotations, you can also simply put the name of the source at the end of the paraphrase, without any 'reporting' verb or introductory phrase:
Changes in the surface heating of the earth will result in changes in the heating of the atmosphere which in turn can affect the climate (Cohen, 1994).

Points to check in your own writing
􀂃 Are all my paraphrases relevant?
􀂃 Have I paraphrased the points from my sources accurately?
􀂃 Are my paraphrases of the right length? (not too short, not too long)
􀂃 Have I added my own opinion to the paraphrases? If so, have I made it clear what are the original writer's points and what are mine?
􀂃 Have I structured my paraphrases grammatically into my text, so as to maintain a natural and logical flow?
􀂃 Are they all properly referenced?

4.8 Quoting

When writing a research paper or report, it is normal to include references and quotations from the work of others. This is for one or more of the following reasons:
􀂃 to cite evidence or opinions from an authority on the subject in support of your argument
􀂃 to put forward someone else's viewpoint that you intend to argue against
􀂃 to show the range of source materials you have used to support or challenge your own ideas
􀂃 to acknowledge that your arguments derive from the work of others and thereby put them into their academic context

What kinds of quotation are there?
Quotations in your text can either be
􀂃 direct: that is, you use the actual words of the original writer, or
􀂃 indirect: that is, you paraphrase what the original source says by putting the ideas in your own words.
In general, it is preferable to use the indirect, or paraphrasing, method since this incorporates the other author's ideas better into the flow of your own text. However, there are occasions when direct quotations are better:
􀂃 when the author expresses an idea in a particularly succinct or memorable way that it is impossible to improve on it
􀂃 when the writer is such an important authority on the subject that his/her actual words are significant
􀂃 when you want to avoid any ambiguity about the quoted ideas

How long should direct quotations be?
In principle, you should keep quotations as brief as is necessary for them to make their point. Avoid using long quotations in case they detract from your own argument; only quote longer passages if you intend to analyse the writer's argument in detail.
How should I punctuate quotations?
􀂃 if your quotation is short, maybe only two or three words, try to run it within the grammatical flow of your sentence. This means single quotation marks are sufficient (together with appropriate referencing)
The conclusion of their analysis is that commercial nodule mining is unlikely for 'the foreseeable future' (35).

􀂃 if your quotation is a little longer and is preceded by an introductory phrase, then you can use a comma or a colon before the quotation itself.
In one of his many publications concerning the role of science, Freeman wrote: 'Much scientific research is concerned with the exploration of the unknown. By definition we cannot know the outcome of such explorations and still less can we know its future impact on technology.' (39)

􀂃 most importantly, you must make sure you keep grammatical and logical cohesion between the quotation and your own text. To do this, you may have to
add or delete words from the original, though you should keep these changes as small as possible. Where you add words, put square brackets round them.
According to popular view of evolution, even after Darwin, 'each [species] could realise its inner potential, which gradually unfolded.' (Kuper, 1985, p. 4)

􀂃 if you omit some of the author's original words which are not relevant to your purpose, use three dots (…) to show where you have left the words out.
Case argued that the stage concept is valid: '… children go through the same sequence of substages across a wide variety of content domains, and … they do so at the same rate, and during the same age range.' (Case, 1985, p.231)

􀂃 if the quotation contains another quotation, then use single quotation marks ('…') for your quotation and double quotation marks for the author's quotation ("…").
A New Scientist survey of 1982 concluded that this was 'in accord with the ideas expressed by C. P. Snow (1964) when he spoke of "the gulf of mutual incomprehension that lies between the literary and scientific worlds".' (3)

􀂃 if your quotation is long, say, more than three lines, then it should be indented as a separate paragraph. In this case, there are no quotation marks at all.
James (1983) devoted a whole chapter to instinct. He began with the following statement:
Instinct is usually defined as the faculty of acting is such a way as to produce certain ends, without foresight of the ends, and without previous education in the performance …. They are functional correlates of structure. With the presence of a certain organ goes, one may say, almost always a native aptitude for its use. (p. 1004)

How do I do in-text referencing?
There are two ways in which an author can be cited, and you will need to check with your publisher which one to use:

􀂃 the name and year system: used mainly in biological and earth sciences, as well as the social sciences, education, linguistics.
􀂃 the number system: used in the applied sciences, such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, mathematics, physics and medicine.

The name and year system. Place the year in brackets immediately after the author's name. Add the page number reference, if needed, at the end of the sentence, again in brackets.
Jones(1992) found that 'these data of psychological development suggest that retarded adolescents are atypical in maturational growth.' (p.215)
The number system. Place the number in brackets immediately after the author's name when it occurs, or alone at the end of the sentence. The numbers you give to your citations refer to your list of references at the end of your work, and these can be arranged either alphabetically (by author) or consecutively as they appear in the text. You can add a page number reference too, if you want.

Kanner (1, p. 249) labelled the disorder as 'early infantile autism'.

All in-text citations, either name-and-year or number, must of course refer to your list of references at the end of your work.

Language to use to introduce quotations
􀂃 There are a wide variety of 'reporting' verbs and verb phrases that you can use to introduce a quotation. Here are some of the more common ones
acknowledge … admit … allege … argue …
assert … assume … believe … claim …
conclude … contend … demonstrate … describe …
emphasise explain … imply … indicate …
make the point … observe … point out … postulate …
predict … propose … prove … report …
say … show … state … suggest …
think … write

Be careful about the verb tenses of these verbs:
* If you use MLA Style, you should put the verbs in the present tense both for personal comments and for quotations.
* If you use APA style (more common for the natural sciences), you should put the verbs in the past tense for citations, and only use the present tense for generalisations and statements about unchanging facts. (See the example quotations above).

􀂃 You can introduce your citation with any of these longer phrases:
According to X, …
As X has shown, …
For X, …
In X's view, …
By this, X meant …
X was of the opinion that …
X distinguished between … and …
X characterised / considered / defined / recognised / referred to / regarded … as …
X illustrated his / her argument by saying / stating / showing that …
X laid particular emphasis on …
X makes the following claim / point / statement: …
X put forward the theory that …
Referring to …, X said / stated / showed …

Points to check in your own writing
􀂃 How many quotations have I used?
􀂃 Would indirect quotation (paraphrase) be better than direct quotation in some cases?
􀂃 How long are my quotations?
􀂃 Are all my quotations relevant?
􀂃 Are they all well structured grammatically into the sentence?
􀂃 Is the punctuation accurate?
􀂃 Are they all properly referenced?