You're here, probably know a thing or two about paraphrasing but still struggle to master the art of it. Fear not! I'll explain how to paraphrase in five easy steps and give you a few tips along the way. Stay tuned! Hi, I'm Jessica from Scribbr and we're here to help you achieve your academic goals and in this video we'll be talking about paraphrasing. So what is paraphrasing? A paraphrase is a rewriting of a specific passage from someone else. It's done in your own words, without changing the original meaning and also not removing any information. Okay, we know the meaning so let's get started. Here are five easy steps to paraphrasing. Step 1, read the passage several times to fully understand the meaning. Step 2, note down the key concepts. Step 3, write your version of the text without looking at the original. Step 4, compare your paraphrase text with the original one and if you find phrases too similar, make changes. Step 5, cite the source of the text like the example here. You can also cite easily with the scribbr citation generator. Remember, you don't need the quotation marks to paraphrase. Okay, I know what you're thinking, you know the steps but it's still quite difficult to actually produce a piece of text that's different from the original. Don't you worry, I have four tips to help make everything easier for you. Whenever you see this little pause button It's there to remind you If you ever need more time to read through the examples, you can pause and take your time. Tip number one start your first sentence at a different point from the original source. Tip number two use synonyms. Make use of the thesaurus if you can't think of any synonyms. Tip number three change the sentence structure. Try using passive voice if the original text used active and vice versa. Final tip, break long sentences into smaller sentences or combine sentences into a longer one. In this example you can see we've applied the four tips. First, we introduce the contacts followed by the last part of the original sentence. which is "the expectations of creators regulators and users." We also use quite a few synonyms such as exposed a critical turning point Made it apparent outpaces rapidly eclipsed power immense influence Third, we changed from active to passive voice. "technology outpaces what users, regulators or even its creators expected" "the expectations of creators, regulators and users have been rapidly eclipsed by technology" And finally, the original was one long sentence We broke it into two smaller sentences. Now that you know the tips for paraphrasing make sure you don't confuse it with quoting which is when you copy a source word by word. Naturally, you should end up paraphrasing most of the information you found instead of quoting if you have done your research thoroughly. Which is ultimately a better solution since this shows that you have digested your text. Your paper will have a much better flow plus your voice will remain dominant throughout the paper. With that being said, only use quotes when you are giving a definition presenting an author's position or when you want to support your argument. Make sure to check out this video on how to quote if you're interested. That's it for today's video if you've learned something give this video a like and if you have a question ask away in the comments down below and I will reply. See you soon in our next video!
