Be conscious of where your eyes are as you put words on paper or on a screen. If your eyes are on your source at the same moment your fingers are flying across the keyboard, you risk doing something that weeks, months, even years later could result in your public humiliation....You are least likely to plagiarize inadvertently if, as you write, you keep your eyes not on your source but on the screen or on your own page, and you report what your source has to say after those words have filtered through your own understanding of them. (170, original emphasis)
Booth, Colomb, and Williams emphasize the importance of processing what you read fully so that you have a complete understanding of it before you try to paraphrase it. That way, you won't find it necessary to keep looking at the original while you are trying to incorporate it into your own text. The more dependent you are on the source when you write, the more likely you are to use its language instead of your own. Even if it's unintentional, that kind of plagiarism can come back to haunt you later (170).
1. Does the paraphrase restate the information and ideas from the source accurately?
2. Does the paraphrase use the borrower's own language and style, and not the original author's?
3. Does the paraphrase clearly identify the original author/source of the paraphrased material?
1. Does the paraphrase restate the information and ideas from the source accurately? YES
2. Does the paraphrase use the borrower's own language and style, and not the original author's? YES
3. Does the paraphrase clearly identify the original author/source of the paraphrased material? YES
Is this an acceptable paraphrase?
Answer: YES. All of the main points of the original are included.
Answer: YES. The ideas are all there but they are extensively reworded. The order that the ideas are presented in has also been changed.
Answer: YES. You can see the authors' names and a parenthetical reference highlighted in red.
How does it all add up?
YES, this is an acceptable paraphrase. All three conditions were answered YES.
Good job! Hopefully now you have a clearer idea of what makes a good paraphrase. Use paraphrasing to both improve your writing and avoid plagiarism.
