Blog #8: BBG 7 "Integrating & Documenting Sources"

While reading chapter 7 “Integrating and Documenting Sources”, I decided to focus on paraphrasing. Paraphrasing a source is when you restate information from a source in your own words while keeping its length close to the original passage. This is done in order to convey the authors ideas, details, and evidence. You should paraphrase when you don’t want to directly quote the source, when your audience is different from the author’s audience, or when you want the source’s information to be conveyed with your words and in your own style. Paraphrasing can be tricky. If it is not done properly, a student would be “patch writing”. This is when certain words are replaced with its synonyms. It would still be very similar to the original passage. To paraphrase correctly, read the passage first, then put the text away and try to write it down for memory. Once that is done, put it in your own words. Make sure that it is restated in a way that the words and tone are your own, and that it flows with the rest of your paper. Also, compare your passage with the original passage to make sure that the content of the passage as well as the author’s intent remains the same, and that your sentences are not too similar to the source’s sentences. Finally, the most important step to paraphrasing is citing the source. If you do not cite the source when paraphrasing, you are plagiarizing. If done properly, the paraphrase will convey the authors ideas in your own words and style, and it will blend seamlessly with the rest of your composition.