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ADVANCED ENGLISH: Paraphrasing and Synonyms

 

What is Paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing is using your own words to express someone else's message or ideas. In a paraphrase, the ideas and meaning of the original source must be maintained; the main ideas need to come through, but the wording has to be your own.

Avoiding Plagiarism using Paraphrasing and Synonyms

Plagiarism is a serious issue for students who are trying to achieve a proficient level of English and/or who want to study in an English-speaking country. It is particularly serious for university students because plagiarizing someone else’s work in a study document can diminish or even destroy their grades or credibility. When researching or studying, any works that you refer to in your writings that are not your original thoughts or ideas should be correctly cited and referenced. 

Must students always use direct quotations? Not necessarily, but any part of the original text that you include in your paraphrased text should be in quotation marks.

Paraphrasing allows us to reduce a very lengthy quotation by using fewer words to convey the same message, and it can help avoid the temptation to use too many quotations. This is where synonyms come in handy, but you must be mindful of what words to use.

How to Paraphrase Without Plagiarizing

  • Read the original two or three times or until you are sure you understand it.
  • Put the original aside and try to write the main ideas in your own words. Say what the source says, but no more, and try to reproduce the source's order of ideas and emphasis.
  • Look closely at unfamiliar words, observing carefully the exact sense in which the writer uses the words.
  • Check your paraphrase, as often as needed, against the original for accurate tone and meaning, changing any words or phrases that match the original too closely. If the wording of the paraphrase is too close to the wording of the original, then it is plagiarism.
  • Include a citation for the source of the information (including the page numbers) so that you can cite the source accurately. Even when you paraphrase, you must still give credit to the original author.


Learning to use synonyms effectively can help you better communicate your ideas. Clear and concise text using a variety of synonyms can provide your readers with more interesting reading that will hold their interest. After all, this is ultimately the goal in academic writing so that new topics and research can be clearly presented to anyone interested.

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