Paraphrasing is rewriting an author's work into your own words. Paraphrasing is useful because it allows you to condense ideas into shorter passages and to highlight similarities and differences between someone else's work and your own while retaining the tone of your own writing.
Keep in mind that although the information is in your own words, it is still the original author's work and ideas. You have merely rephrased them. Therefore, you must still cite the source.
Directly quoting a work is taking the exact words from a source and putting it into your own paper. Quotations should be used sparingly and are usually used in conjunction with paraphrasing and summarizing. Use quotations only when the exact words of what an author is saying is particularly significant to your point.
Quotation marks should be placed around the words or phrase, and the quote should be properly cited. For particularly long quotes, you will usually need to indent the passage into a block quote.
Original Passage, from page one of Lizzie Borden: A Case Book of Family and Crime in the 1880s by Joyce Williams, et al.:
The rise of industry, the growth of cities, and the expansion of the population were the three great developments of late nineteenth century American history. As new, larger, steam-powered factories became a feature of the American landscape in the East, they transformed farm hands into industrial laborers and provided jobs for a rising tide of immigrants. With industry came urbanization, the growth of large cities (like Fall River, Massachusetts, where the Bordens lived) which became the centers of production as well as of commerce and trade.
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Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. Steam-powered production had shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, and as immigrants arrived in the U.S., they found work in these new factories. As a result, populations grew, and large urban areas arose. Fall River was one of these manufacturing and commercial centers (Williams 1). |
Fall River, where the Borden family lived, was typical of northeastern industrial cities of the nineteenth century. As steam-powered production shifted labor from agriculture to manufacturing, the demand for workers "transformed farm hands into factory workers," and created jobs for immigrants. In turn, grown populations increased the size of urban areas. Fall River was one of these manufacturing hubs that were also "centers of . . . commerce and trade" (Williams 1). |
The increase of industry, the growth of cities, and the explosion of the population were three large factors of nineteenth century America. As steam-driven companies became more visible in the eastern part of the country, they changed farm hands into factory workers and provided jobs for the large wave of immigrants. With industry came the growth of large cities like Fall River, where the Bordens lived, which turned into centers of commerce and trade as well as production. |
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This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer accurately relays the information in the original use of the writer's own words AND the writer lets the reader know the source of the information. |
This is acceptable paraphrasing because the writer records the information in the original passage accurately, gives credit for the ideas in this passage, and indicates which part is taken directly from the writer's source by putting the passage in quotation marks and citing the page number. |
The preceding passage is considered plagiarism for two reasons: The writer has only changed a few words and phases, or changed the order of the original passage's sentences, and the writer has failed to cite a source for any of the ideas or facts. If you do either or both of these, you are plagiarizing. |
