Paraphrasing a text is always an excellent way to get good support for your ideas. With this, it becomes possible to make statements about some information contained in a source, but using your own words.
However, there is no doubt that this can be a somewhat complicated task, especially for those with little practice. This is because it is extremely important to keep the original idea, but without copying any part or word of it. Not to mention that it is extremely important that you also know how to position your ideas in this quote and still quote the sources correctly. So, let’s go one step at a time and better understand how to paraphrase a text.
How to paraphrase a text?
Basically, a paraphrase is when you read a text, absorb the idea and then reaffirm what was read using your own words. Thus, when you make a paraphrase, it is not necessary to replicate sentence by sentence exactly, but to present your idea.
In fact, paraphrasing a text is not a simple task. So, here are some tips for paraphrasing a text:
In a paraphrase, it is interesting to condense the citations, reducing the words until reaching a synthesis of the main idea.
The paraphrase must be sufficiently different from the original content so that plagiarism is not configured. Remember that if you don’t quote the sources of your “own words” and they are too close to the originals, this is still considered plagiarism.
Paraphrase is an excellent resource for avoiding those longer quotes without having to express your own thoughts on the topic.
Remember that paraphrasing does not mean summarizing. This is because a summary can be broader and focuses only on the main points of a whole. The paraphrase focuses on one concept or idea at a time.
