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Topic 4.9 of Writing Up Research

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

How to represent another author's work without quoting it directly — the difference between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarising, why patchwriting is an academic integrity problem even when unintentional, and how to paraphrase so that the restatement is genuinely your own.

~20 min total·4 quadrants of structured content

By the end of this topic, you will

Distinguish quoting, paraphrasing, and summarising and choose the appropriate technique for a given situation
Explain why patchwriting violates academic integrity even when the original source is cited
Paraphrase a passage by changing both the vocabulary and the sentence structure while retaining the meaning
Write a summary of a multi-paragraph argument in two or three sentences without distorting the original claim

Quadrant 1 · e-Tutorial

Video lectures and walkthroughs

Quadrant 2 · e-Content

Articles and case studies

research-methodology

Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Paraphrasing is not substituting synonyms. Summarising is not condensing the original sentence by sentence. Both require understanding the source deeply enough to restate its meaning in your own words and structure — and both still require a citation.

10 min read

Quadrant 3 · Web Resources

Downloadable material and curated external links

Web resources coming soon.

Quadrant 4 · Self-Assessment

Test your knowledge — earn a certificate on first pass

Assessment coming soon.