Paraphrasing Sources: What Is Paraphrasing?

Last update 5/6/2020

 

Visual: Screen opens to a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The title Walden University Writing Center and tagline “Your writing, grammar, and APA experts” appears on the screen. The screen changes to show the series title "Paraphrasing Sources" and the video title "What is Paraphrasing?”

Audio: Guitar music.

 

Visual: A blue slide with green boxes appears with a heading that reads "Paraphrasing: What it is and why it matters." The two green boxes, stacked vertically, read "Definition" and "Importance."  Next to "Definition" is an arrow pointing to the right with text in it that reads: “Presents key point of an author’s ideas in a new way” and “Uses you own words and sentence structure." Next to "Importance" is an arrow also pointing to the right with text that reads: “Gives you deeper understanding of source and topic” followed by “Show critical thinking."

Audio: What is paraphrasing and why does it matter? When we talk about paraphrasing, it is something that can easily feel abstract, especially because it is one of those words that is thrown around in writing communities or by instructors, when not everyone may know what it means. Essentially, paraphrasing is giving the key point of the author’s idea in a new way. So, it’s taking information you read and putting it in your own voice using your own words and sentence structure while still maintaining the original meaning of the information. Paraphrasing really gives you a deeper understanding of the source and a deeper understanding of the topic you’re reading about, and shows that you are able to critically think about the topic. Paraphrasing is really being able to dig into a topic and rearticulate it in a new way that still maintains the foundation and original meaning of the source. In this way, paraphrasing is a powerful strategy for including evidence because it’s an active way to integrate what sources are saying in your own writing.    

 

Visual: The screen changes to an ending slide with slide a background image with a person typing on a laptop and a notebook and pencil, along with the Walden University Writing Center logo. The email address writingsupport@mail.waldenu.edu appears on the screen.