Here are some examples of good paraphrase. This chapter will explain how you can paraphrase this well, and why it's worth your time to do it:

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Source Passage

To stay on top of your work, remind yourself what really needs to get done. Post your to do list in a prominent spot and rank it by priority. Color code or bold the most important tasks and make sure you set aside enough time to address them.

Paraphrase

Prioritizing your tasks, figuring out how long they will take to do, and using color and boldfacing in your lists can help you be a productive worker (Goodman).

Source Passage

Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, and her colleague Stephen Voida infiltrated an office, cut 13 employees off from email for five days, strapped heart monitors to their chests, and tracked their computer use. Not surprisingly, the employees were less stressed when cut off from email. They focused on one task for longer periods of time and switched screens less often, thereby minimizing multitasking.

Paraphrase

During a five-day experiment, researchers found that workers who were denied access to email also did less frequent multitasking, experienced reduced stress, and showed an increased ability to concentrate (Lapowsky).

Source Passage

In Experiment 2, we investigated whether being in direct view of a multitasking peer would negatively influence learning as measured by performance on a comprehension test.

Paraphrase

The researchers' second experiment tested how much a student's learning was reduced by being near a classmate who was multitasking (Sana, Weston, and Cepeda 27).

Why paraphrase?

"If this sounds more like an affliction than a resume booster, that's because research has shown again and again that the human mind isn't meant to multitask. Even worse, research shows that multitasking can have long-term harmful effects on brain function" (Lapowsky).

Not only are our brains not designed for multitasking, but we can actually injure them by trying to do it (Lapowsky).

What does good paraphrase look like?

Good paraphrase has the following features:

1. It accurately expresses the ideas and information from a short passage - typically 1-3 sentences.
2. It expresses the source's ideas and information in fresh language. Quotation is used only to introduce keywords.
3. It does not include patchwriting; the rephrasing of the source goes beyond just changing a few words or reordering the sentence.
4. It may be shorter than, as long as, or longer than the sentences it is rephrasing.
5. The source it is paraphrasing is cited.

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Source Passage

Everybody multitasks. We have conversations while driving. We answer email while browsing the Web.

Patchwriting

We all multitask while driving and answering email (Thompson).

Clear Highlight

Source Passage

The goal was to examine whether there is a relationship between chronic media multitasking and cognitive control abilities.

Patchwriting

The researchers had the goal of examining the relationship between regular media multitasking and the ability of cognitive control (Ophir, Nass, and Wagner 15583).

How does good paraphrase happen?

Good paraphrase restates a passage from a source, in fresh language. Here's the trick: "fresh language" doesn't mean just changing a few words or verb tenses so that the passage isn't identical. It means actually saying the ideas from the source in a new voice.

Good paraphrase happens when you read a source passage until you understand it; that understanding is essential. If you don't understand it, you can't say it in your own voice; all you can do is fiddle with the wording.

It's very difficult (almost impossible!) to write good paraphrase while looking at the source. As long as you're looking at the passage you're paraphrasing, you won't be able to say it yourself; you'll just be trying to figure out how to change the words. Try this instead: read the passage; turn away from the source; and write what it says. Don't look at the source until you're finished. Then, once you have a draft of your paraphrase, go back to the source and make sure what you wrote was accurate. If it wasn't, make necessary revisions. This technique isn't easy; it takes practice. As you practice, though, you'll find yourself getting better and better at paraphrase - and at reading comprehension.

In most cases, good paraphrase does not include quotation. If you're stitching together quoted passages, you're avoiding plagiarism, but you're not paraphrasing.

Source Passage

To stay on top of your work, remind yourself what really needs to get done. Post your to do list in a prominent spot and rank it by priority. Color code or bold the most important tasks and make sure you set aside enough time to address them.

Stitched Quotations

Prioritizing your tasks, figuring out how long they will take to do, and using color and boldfacing in your lists can help you be a productive worker (Goodman).

Revision

Goodman says that multitaskers can be more successful when they are working on similar tasks.

Yet sometimes the source uses words for which there are no synonyms. These might be technical language; statistics; lists of mundane items; or keywords that vividly capture an idea. These should not be paraphrased; instead, quote (and cite) them the first time you use them in your text. Afterwards, just use them; you don't need to quote and cite them over and over within a single text that you're writing.

Technical information
in a paraphrase:

Technical information and technical terms usually cannot be paraphrased; you should just quote (and cite) it, instead.

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Source Passage

Three key issues surround the impact of task switching: (1) primary task completion, (2) secondary (interruptive) task completion, and (3) resumption lag.

Paraphrase

As they examine the effects of multitasking on learning, Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever emphasize the following: "(1) primary task completion, (2) secondary (interruptive) task completion, and (3) resumption lag" (949).

Source Passage

Salvucci, Taatgen, and Borst presented the Unified Theory of the Multitasking Continuum to explain task switching behaviors ranging from concurrent multitasking (e.g., listening and note-taking) requiring near simultaneous processing to sequential multitasking (e.g., writing a paper and reading an email) which allows more time (and control) between switches.

Paraphrase

The "Unified Theory of the Multitasking Continuum," Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever explain, was developed by Salvucci, Taatgen, and Borst to account for the whole range of multitasking, from near-simultaneous multitasking to "sequential multitasking" (Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever 950).

Source Passage

Another theoretical approach to why students multitask revolves around Flow Theory, which states that media use invokes a psychophysiological state that encompasses a strong, positive experience when confronted by a challenge balanced with the person's skill level, which compels someone's attention to the extent that other activities (e.g., the primary activities) become unimportant and neglected.

Paraphrase

Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever show the dangers of multitasking: According to Flow Theory, multitasking students may completely abandon the primary task (such as a classroom lecture) and focus instead on media use (such as texting), because they are adept at the distracting activity and feel good when doing it (950). The primary task in this case might be a classroom lecture, and the media use might be texting.

An important question to ask yourself before you decide to quote technical language: is it "technical" because it has no synonyms, or is it "technical" just because you don't understand it? If your answer is the latter, you need to work more with the material, so that you can paraphrase it. Don't quote a sentence just because you don't understand it!

Statistics and Numbers
in a paraphrase:

Lists of Items in
a Paraphrase:

Sometimes the material you need from a source is a list. You may be able to paraphrase it - usually by generalizing about it rather than finding synonyms for each item in the list.Sometimes, however, the list contains mundane items - names of states or people, for example - that cannot be paraphrased. In this case you must copy the list exactly, quote it, and cite it.

Keywords in a
Paraphrase:

Keywords aren't the same as technical language; keywords are particular words or phrases that are central to the information in the source. Sometimes they are quite ordinary, such as "personal computers" in the example below. Deciding what is and isn't a keyword is usually a matter of interpretation and critical reading; not everyone will agree on the identification of keywords. You should be conservative about identifying keywords, keeping in mind that they are special, central terms. If you're finding several keywords in every sentence you're paraphrasing, you've gone too far.

When you have read your source carefully and have identified keywords, you should use them rather than finding paraphrases for them. If they are ordinary language, such as "personal computers," you don't need to quote them:

Select carefully

As with picking quotations (see Chapter Four), you need to choose passages to paraphrase that make specific contributions to your text. Choose passages that capture key claims your source is making; passages that support claims you are making; passages that provide alternative viewpoints to your claims; and passages that give vivid examples and anecdotes.

Avoid patchwriting!

In the middle-school version of paraphrase, the writer makes surface changes to sentences from the source, by rearranging words, changing their grammatical structure, or using synonyms. This is patchwriting. It isn't really paraphrase, because it isn't restating ideas in the writer's own voice. It's just the writer tinkering with the source sentences, hiding the fact that they're being copied. Writers patchwrite when they're working too quickly with source material, not slowing down enough to think about what the source is actually saying. Writers also patchwrite when they don't understand what they are reading. It's impossible to restate what you don't understand!

Establish co-ownership

The thing you now "own," the source material you have paraphrased, still "belongs" to the sources, too. You are a sort of co-owner of that material. So even though you have paraphrased and are speaking it in your own words, you need to let your audience know who the co-owners are - where the ideas and information came from.