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Resource of the Week #42: A Resource on Paraphrasing Properly

By Barbara Gastel | 27 January 2012

Hello again. This week I learned of another resource on avoiding plagiarism. It includes guidance on paraphrasing (that is, on using one’s own words to present what others said).

This resource is titled “Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-Plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing”. It’s available in HTML and PDF.

Paraphrasing is an important skill in research writing. Such writing often must present content from others’ writing. One way to include such content without plagiarizing is to quote the material exactly (and indicate that one did so).

Usually, however, research writing doesn’t extensively quote others’ work. Rather, to present others’ information and ideas, one mainly paraphrases what was said (and, of course, cites the source).

But what constitutes adequate paraphrasing? How much must be changed? What kinds of changes are needed?

This resource helps answer such questions, largely by discussing examples of adequate and inadequate paraphrasing. Also, the PDF version contains an exercise in this regard.

This resource is by Miguel Roig, PhD, professor of psychology at St. John’s University. Funding came from the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), which also has posted other resources.

Thank you, Dr. Roig and ORI!

Until the next post— Barbara

Plagiarism

Posted by Asahngwa Constantine at 28 January 2012 07:56 AM

Dear Barbara,

Thanks so much for the resource. You are making a very huge transformation of junior research like me in the domain of scientific writing. Please do not stop. Continue to think about those of us who do not have the opportunity to attend a Western University or receive training on scientific writing.
Please have you also come across any resource on how to quote when writing a scientific paper or dissertation ? It goes beyond issues of plagiarism. I mean guidelines on how to quote scientifically.

Thanks

Plagiarism

Posted by Barbara Gastel at 28 January 2012 07:11 PM

Thanks very much for the comment. I'm glad that AuthorAID is proving useful.

I'll look for guidelines on quoting, and I hope to feature them as a Resource of the Week. Meanwhile, I suggest looking at university writing centers' websites, which sometimes include guidelines on quoting. Links to websites of many writing centers appear at http://writingcenters.org/links/writing-centers-online/. One website item that includes guidance on quoting is at http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/[…]/.

Again, thank you for writing-- Barbara

Thank you for information

Posted by Niraj Dhakal at 30 January 2012 03:13 PM

Dear Barbara
Thank your for your resource, I really learnt a lot about plagiarism and about authorship.

I still have
While paraphrasing is it necessary to write the paragraph in our own words without changing the meaning?
If our motto is to preserve the exact meaning of paragraph, then why do we need to rewrite the text in our own words? What is wrong in exactly copying the paragraph with citation?
Writing the same sentence in own words many times, would there be no chance of change in the meaning over a long run?
While paraphrasing how much percent of original text (words or sentences) should be retained? Is there any acceptable limit or criteria for this?

I would be grateful for the response

with regards
Niraj Dhakal

Thank you for information

Posted by Barbara Gastel at 01 February 2012 04:15 AM

Thank you for the thoughtful questions. I think that the answers are complex and that some of the questions raise interesting philosophical issues. A short response is that writing containing many large blocks of text from other sources tends to be poorly integrated and to lack cohesion. Often in the best academic writing, the author combines his or her own thoughts with (properly cited)information and ideas from other sources to yield a fresh and effective new piece of work.

With regard to how much original text is acceptable to retain when paraphrasing: The norm seems to differ somewhat among academic fields and among types of writing within a field. I suggest looking at published writing by some top scholars in one's own field and seeing how these scholars paraphrase, how much they quote, and how they quote.

I hope that this response has been of some use. Again, thank you for the questions.

Barbara

Thank you for information

Posted by Niraj Dhakal at 02 February 2012 12:35 PM

Dear Barbara,
Thank you for your response.
Your answer made me more confused, since I am writing my study for publication and I really was stuck in this issue.
Anyway i will surely follow your instructions since the way of writing and presenting is different for different fields.

with regards
Niraj

Thank you for information

Posted by Barbara Gastel at 02 February 2012 03:56 PM

Dear Niraj,

Thank you for the follow-up. I'm sorry the answer was confusing. If you haven't yet done so, I suggest looking at papers in the journal where you hope to publish your study; seeing how they use paraphrasing and quotation might help. Also, if you have an AuthorAID mentor, I suggest having him or her review a draft of your work, with particular attention to use of paraphrasing and quoting. He or she may be well acquainted with the norms in your field and able to provide specific guidance.

Wishing you all the best regarding publication of your study!

Barbara

Resource week 42: paraphrasing properly

Posted by Olo Ngnoh at 30 January 2012 06:06 PM

Dear friends,

I've been consulting and collecting useful information from authoraid but I failed to post a comment. Before any comment, allow me to offer you my best wishes for the remaining part of the year 2012 that must be a wonderful one to keep authoraid alive.
Authoraid is a good platform for all those who need easy to use information to develop their skills in scientific methods with a special attention to science writing and communication. May the Almighty God keep all of those contributing for the survival of this platform in perfect shape.
Thank all of you, Professor Nyasse Barthelemy

Resource week 42: paraphrasing properly

Posted by Barbara Gastel at 01 February 2012 03:51 AM

Thank you very much for the kind words.

With all best wishes--

Barbara (on behalf of the AuthorAID team)