what is paraphrasing? when getting information from references, do you paraphrase or copy word for word?

Answer 1

Paraphrasing = summarizing in your own words

And paraphrasing is much easier than word-for word copying.

Answer 2

As others have said, it's taking the meaning, and saying it in your own words, or differently.

If you copy word for word, you need to indicate that you've done so: use quotation marks for short quotes, indented paragraphs for long.

Then you need to cite the source, including the page number.

When you paraphrase, you could list your sources at the end or in a footnote -- only include a page number or numbers if you only used those bits; if the whole work was used, just site it.

You don't want any paper to be nothing but quotes.

Paraphrasing is best when you can put the gist in fewer words than where you read it -- it goes into more detail than you need, or includes extraneous stuff not relevant to what you're writing about.

Answer 3

Paraphrasing, or restating information in your own words, is always better -- not to mention it will keep you out of trouble when doing homework and such.

An example follows.

Original information: This morning, I woke up and made coffee and then drank a cup.

Paraphrase: I started my day with a cup of coffee.

Answer 4

You can either quote your source, putting the information in quotation marks and mentioning where it came from, or rephrasing/paraphrasing into your own words. I think it's easier to quote than to rewrite.

Answer 5

Read at least 3 forms of the topic that you want to write about. Understand your topic, then in your own words, write as if you were explaining the topic to
someone.