To paraphrase a passage is to restate the material in your own words. Read the material carefully, absorb the idea, close the book, and write the idea in your own words. Transfer the exact idea of the original passage to your note card, but use your own words.
You are paraphrasing improperly if you
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Retain the sentence pattern of the original and simply change the word order.
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Use more than three words in succession from the original source.
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Distort the meaning of the original passage.
Whenever possible, use the paraphrase method of note taking instead of quoting the information directly. Paraphrasing encourages you to select and extract information most relevant to your purpose and lessens the temptation to quote excessively. Paraphrasing also helps make both the note taking and writing more efficient. Remember that all paraphrasing as well as quoting must be documented in your paper.
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