Ask OASIS Ineffective Paraphrasing Strategies
Explore the accordion below to see examples of ineffective paraphrasing strategies that lead to plagiarism.
Switching Up a Few Words
Replacing just a word or two of a source's phrasing with synonyms does not show enough understanding and engagement with the text. Review the examples below to better understand this ineffective paraphrasing strategy.
Original Passage: Severin and Tankard (1992)
There is evidence to suggest that newsmakers are becoming particularly savvy about placing items on the media agenda. When, for example, President Reagan was running for his second term, he took a tour to promote his administration's record on environmentalism. The tour was full of photo opportunities, including the president's standing on a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay and the president's wearing a park ranger's hat at Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.
Paraphrase Attempt 1: Plagiarism
Evidence suggests that newsmakers are becoming especially smart about putting items on the media agenda (Severin & Tankard, 1992). When President Reagan was running for his second term, he conducted a tour to market his administration's record on environmentalism (Severin & Tankard, 1992). The tour was full of photo opportunities, including the president standing on a fishing boat in the Chesapeake Bay and the president wearing a park ranger's hat at a cave in Kentucky (Severin & Tankard, 1992).
Paraphrase Attempt 2: Not Plagiarism
Severin and Tankard (1992) noted President Reagan's shaping of news coverage when he ran for reelection in 1984. By posing for a photo opportunity in a boat on the Chesapeake Bay, Reagan, according to Severin and Tankard, aimed to present himself as especially concerned about environmentalism.
No Citation
One common misconception about paraphrasing is that, because you are using your own words and phrasing, you do not need to include a citation. However, even if you successfully express an author’s meaning in your own words and sentence structure, you must give credit to the original source for their idea through an in-text citation. Review the examples below to learn how to avoid this ineffective paraphrasing strategy:
Original Passage: Bryan et al. (2020)
When school counselors and other school staff develop academic enrichment, leadership, mentoring, and college readiness programs in partnership with family and community members and organizations, they provide students in urban, high-poverty schools with the supports, information, networks, opportunities, and resources that middle-class and affluent children in low-poverty schools typically have. These partnerships serve to reduce the inequities in opportunities between students in urban and suburban schools.
Paraphrase Attempt 1: Plagiarism
School staff can close the achievement gap between high-poverty and low-poverty students by building key partnerships with communities and families
Paraphrase Attempt 2: Not Plagiarism
School staff can close the achievement gap between high-poverty and low-poverty students by building key partnerships with communities and families (Bryan et al., 2020).
No Quotation Marks
Occasionally, you may choose to include a few of the same words as the original passage in your paraphrase. In this case, always use quotation marks around a source's exact words or phrasing. Quotation marks serve as a marker for the reader, indicating where your voice ends and the source's voice begins.
Paraphrase Attempt 1: Plagiarism
Student diversity is one variable that must be considered in meeting the academic needs of students (Smith & McTighe, 2006). According to Tomlinson (1991), differentiated instruction is an approach that effectively engages students through different levels and modalities to address the existing academic diversity. Conversely, Tomlinson stated that as a result of a lack of sufficient research, few studies document the effectiveness of differentiated instruction on student learning (p. 19).
Paraphrase Attempt 2: Not Plagiarism
Student diversity is one variable that must be considered in meeting the academic needs of students (Smith & McTighe, 2006). According to Tomlinson (1991), differentiated instruction is an approach that effectively engages students through different levels and modalities to address the existing academic diversity. Conversely, Tomlinson stated that "as a result of a lack of sufficient research," few studies document the effectiveness of differentiated instruction on student learning (p. 19).