Paraphrasing Techniques for Writing a Research Paper

Paraphrasing Techniques for a Research Paper

A research paper can be defined as a document that contains a presentation of your argument, ideas, and opinions on a particular topic. Paraphrasing is important as it helps to add importance and value to your work. The main reason for research paraphrasing is to add relevance to your work while taking into account the opinions and ideas of other authors. By paraphrasing, it shows that you truly understand your work well enough and it interests you.

How to Paraphrase for a Research Paper

There is a difference between paraphrasing and quoting or summarizing. Here are the best research papers paraphrasing techniques that you can use;

Read and understand the viewpoints of other authors for effective

paraphrasing

Do not include your analysis or personal opinion or ideas in the paraphrased version. This is why understanding what the author means is important. Even when using different words or a different writing style or sentence structure, you still keep the original viewpoints of the author present in your paper.

Make sure to translate the specific sentence or passage you want to use in your own words

Don’t change the viewpoint of the author during paraphrasing, make sure to pass the same information the author wants to pass to the audience/reader. Don’t just use thesaurus but point out what the author would like the readers to know even if you are not writing it out in the exact way the author did.

Flip the sentence

You can also decide to flip the sentence for proper research paraphrasing. You don’t have to start from the exact beginning the author started from, you can decide to start from different sections of the text or move from end to beginning or vice versa.

Include citations

After successfully creating your own version of the chapter or sentence; make sure to recognize your sources as this ensure you effectively avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is the unethical practice of using words or ideas (either planned or accidental) of another author/ researcher without proper acknowledgement (enago academy). If you copy another person’s work make sure to cite the source and place the copied parts in quotation marks. Copying and pasting the work of other authors make you seem lazy and reduces the relevance of your paper. This is one of the reasons why paraphrasing is important.

Vary your introduction

Vary the way you introduce your sources, you can use words like “according to” “concludes that” or put the names of your sources in the bracket.

Avoid overuse of work from previous authors

In your original work, you can quite a limited amount from a previously written work because if you quote too much, you can get in trouble for copyright infringement. Although, there is no stated amount for the number of words to use before you stop being safe, try to use your initiative and know when you’re doing too much. Paraphrases are supposed to be just a small portion of the original work, if it becomes too much, it can be pointed out that the new work was gotten from the original one and that can make your work be seen as weak. For your paper to be relevant, it has to be able to have its own identity; i.e. stand on its own. Any paraphrased part of it should only be there to support and elucidate the research paper.

Some examples of paraphrasing include;

Original sentence

In the fourth season, Tyrion was banished from Westeros but he ignored the law and continued to sneak into the kingdom to see his love interest.

Paraphrased

Despite being exiled from Westeros in the fourth season, Tyrion persisted and kept paying a visit to his lover.

Original Sentence

Any trip to Fiji should include a visit to the underwater resort.

Paraphrased

Make sure to include an underwater resort experience when visiting Fiji.