WriteCast Episode 85: Paraphrasing versus Quoting
© Walden University Writing Center 2022
Transcript
Claire: Hi, all! This month we’ll discuss paraphrasing versus quoting in your scholarly writing! We also have a special guest today filling in for Kacy, my colleague and fellow writing instructor Brittany Rogers!
Brittany: Hello, everyone.
So for today’s episode like Claire said we are going to talk about paraphrasing and quoting. First, let’s quickly define these terms: Paraphrasing is when you rephrase the thoughts and ideas from a source in your own words and sentence structure. Quoting is when you use the exact words by a source and enclose them in quotation marks. Both require citations with the author and publication year, and quotations also require a page or paragraph number.
Claire: Right. So, APA says to paraphrase whenever possible in your writing. I know some of you are thinking, but a source said this so much better than I could! But paraphrasing is hard and I worry about plagiarism. But really, why can’t I just use quotes since it’s easier?
Brittany: These are good questions! First: APA states to paraphrase because it demonstrates critical thinking and engagement with the text, allows for concise and clear restating of ideas from a source, and keeps the writing in your own voice.
Claire: Additionally, paraphrasing requires some analysis after you have your source information, but you’ve also already done some of the work for the reader by pulling out the most relevant details and ideas you want to convey. However, with a quotation, you have to do a lot more work to integrate it—you need to contextualize it, introduce it clearly, and explain what it means in your own words afterwards. Does that sound like a lot of work?
Brittany: It does, right? So even though it may not seem like it, paraphrasing can actually save you time and energy since you’re doing part of that integration and contextualization by paraphrasing in the first place—you already have your mind in a space to reiterate the source information for your own purposes, whereas with a quotation, you might think: I can just plop that in there and be done. But, that’s really not effective and can be confusing for readers.
Claire: I have heard from many students over the years that they use quotations because they are nervous about paraphrasing. They worry that their own writing voice isn’t scholarly enough, they are language learners and want to represent the source correctly, or they just worry that they aren’t changing the original phrasing enough and might accidentally plagiarize.
Brittany: We hear you! These are real concerns. But, we’ll go through some quick steps for paraphrasing today that should help and, like anything, it gets easier with practice.
Claire: Before we start on the steps, I want to note something that I think gets overlooked pretty often when we talk about paraphrasing as well—you don’t have to paraphrase a single sentence. In fact, paraphrasing is much easier and more effective when you paraphrase a whole idea that’s present in several sentences or a whole paragraph, or even a whole section of a work. When you’re paraphrasing a larger piece of the original source, you don’t need to worry so much that you’re getting the rephrasing exactly right, because you aren’t trying to just re-say one idea that was in one sentence in a parallel sentence.
Brittany: That’s a really great point and so true!
Okay let’s go through some easy steps to help you paraphrase!
One: Read the passage until you understand it. Take notes as you go and jot down the takeaways and ideas—but be sure you fully understand what you’re reading or your paraphrase will probably be difficult and possibly inaccurate.
Claire: Two: Look away from the original source, close your browser, cover it with your hand, and then write the general ideas you just read in your own words. Don’t worry too much about being formal here, think of it like you’re explaining to a friend or just taking notes for yourself.
Brittany: Three: Once you’re done writing your own paraphrase, look back at the original source. Did you accidentally copy any language? Did you represent what the author said accurately? If you copied some language, you can change it! If you misrepresented the idea, try again after you give the passage another read or maybe take a little break.
Claire: Four: Once you’re happy with your paraphrase and ensured you didn’t copy original phrasing or misrepresent the source, add a citation! In text citations should be the author’s name and publication year.
Brittany: We can’t stress enough, too, that practice really helps with paraphrasing. And taking notes as you read will really help, too! Not only will you ensure you are noting where ideas came from originally, but you’ll be doing some practice paraphrasing as you go.
Claire: You might be wondering, okay, okay, so you’ve convinced me to mostly paraphrase, but when should I quote? Can I? Is it okay?
Brittany: Yes it’s okay! Just don’t rely on quotes heavily in your work. One of my favorite ways to quote is just to take a few words or kind of a key phrase—you don’t have to quote the whole sentence. You might just find a particular few words really impactful and want to sort of combine them with a paraphrase—that way you’re still integrating in your own words, but you can keep something really great from the source too.
Claire: And other cases where you might want to quote are when the author is using a lot of statistics or numerical results, because you really just can’t rephrase those effectively. Or if the author is defining a term you’ll be using throughout, that might be a good place to quote, too.
Brittany: But, in most cases, paraphrase all the way! We hope you’ve found this helpful, and we will link to some great paraphrasing and quotation resources in our show notes as well.
Claire: Thanks for coming in today, Brittany!
Brittany: You’re welcome it was great to be here this month. Until next time,
Claire: Keep writing.
Brittany: Keep inspiring.