when directly quoting or paraphrasing

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Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

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This handout is intended to help you become more comfortable with the uses of and distinctions among quotations, paraphrases, and summaries. This handout compares and contrasts the three terms, gives some pointers, and includes a short excerpt that you can use to practice these skills.

What are the differences among quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing?

These three ways of incorporating other writers' work into your own writing differ according to the closeness of your writing to the source writing.

Quotations must be identical to the original, using a narrow segment of the source. They must match the source document word for word and must be attributed to the original author.

Paraphrasing involves putting a passage from source material into your own words. A paraphrase must also be attributed to the original source. Paraphrased material is usually shorter than the original passage, taking a somewhat broader segment of the source and condensing it slightly.

Summarizing involves putting the main idea(s) into your own words, including only the main point(s). Once again, it is necessary to attribute summarized ideas to the original source. Summaries are significantly shorter than the original and take a broad overview of the source material.

Why use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries?

Quotations, paraphrases, and summaries serve many purposes. You might use them to:

• Provide support for claims or add credibility to your writing
• Refer to work that leads up to the work you are now doing
• Give examples of several points of view on a subject
• Call attention to a position that you wish to agree or disagree with
• Highlight a particularly striking phrase, sentence, or passage by quoting the original
• Distance yourself from the original by quoting it in order to cue readers that the words are not your own
• Expand the breadth or depth of your writing

Writers frequently intertwine summaries, paraphrases, and quotations. As part of a summary of an article, a chapter, or a book, a writer might include paraphrases of various key points blended with quotations of striking or suggestive phrases as in the following example:

In his famous and influential work The Interpretation of Dreams , Sigmund Freud argues that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious" (page #), expressing in coded imagery the dreamer's unfulfilled wishes through a process known as the "dream-work" (page #). According to Freud, actual but unacceptable desires are censored internally and subjected to coding through layers of condensation and displacement before emerging in a kind of rebus puzzle in the dream itself (page #).

How to use quotations, paraphrases, and summaries

Practice summarizing the essay found here , using paraphrases and quotations as you go. It might be helpful to follow these steps:

• Read the entire text, noting the key points and main ideas.
• Summarize in your own words what the single main idea of the essay is.
• Paraphrase important supporting points that come up in the essay.
• Consider any words, phrases, or brief passages that you believe should be quoted directly.

There are several ways to integrate quotations into your text. Often, a short quotation works well when integrated into a sentence. Longer quotations can stand alone. Remember that quoting should be done only sparingly; be sure that you have a good reason to include a direct quotation when you decide to do so. You'll find guidelines for citing sources and punctuating citations at our documentation guide pages.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Citation Basics / Quoting vs. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing

Quoting vs. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing

If you’ve ever written a research essay, you know the struggle is real. Should you use a direct quote? Should you put it in your own words? And how is summarizing different from paraphrasing—aren’t they kind of the same thing?

Knowing how you should include your source takes some finesse, and knowing when to quote directly, paraphrase, or summarize can make or break your argument. Let’s take a look at the nuances among these three ways  of using an outside source in an essay.

What is quoting?

The concept of quoting is pretty straightforward. If you use quotation marks, you must use precisely the same words as the original , even if the language is vulgar or the grammar is incorrect. In fact, when scholars quote writers with bad grammar, they may correct it by using typographical notes [like this] to show readers they have made a change.

“I never like[d] peas as a child.”

Conversely, if a passage with odd or incorrect language is quoted as is, the note [sic] may be used to show that no changes were made to the original language despite any errors.

“I never like [sic] peas as a child.”

The professional world looks very seriously on quotations. You cannot change a single comma or letter without documentation when you quote a source. Not only that, but the quote must be accompanied by an attribution, commonly called a citation. A misquote or failure to cite can be considered plagiarism.

When writing an academic paper, scholars must use in-text citations in parentheses followed by a complete entry on a references page. When you quote someone using MLA format , for example, it might look like this:

“The orphan is above all a character out of place, forced to make his or her own home in the world. The novel itself grew up as a genre representing the efforts of an ordinary individual to navigate his or her way through the trials of life. The orphan is therefore an essentially novelistic character, set loose from established conventions to face a world of endless possibilities (and dangers)” (Mullan).

This quote is from www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/orphans-in-fiction , which discusses the portrayal of orphans in Victorian English literature. The citation as it would look on the references page (called Works Cited in MLA) is available at the end of this guide.

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing means taking a quote and putting it in your own words.

You translate what another writer has said into terms both you and your reader can more easily understand. Unlike summarizing, which focuses on the big picture, paraphrasing is involved with single lines or passages. Paraphrasing means you should focus only on segments of a text.

Paraphrasing is a way for you to start processing the information from your source . When you take a quote and put it into your own words, you are already working to better understand, and better explain, the information.

The more you can change the quote without changing the original meaning , the better. How can you make significant changes to a text without changing the meaning?

Here are a few paraphrasing techniques:

• Use synonyms of words
• Change the order of words
• Change the order of clauses in the sentences
• Move sentences around in a section
• Active – passive
• Positive – negative
• Statement-question

Let’s look at an example. Here is a direct quote from the article on orphans in Victorian literature:

“It is no accident that the most famous character in recent fiction – Harry Potter – is an orphan. The child wizard’s adventures are premised on the death of his parents and the responsibilities that he must therefore assume. If we look to classic children’s fiction we find a host of orphans” (Mullan).

Here is a possible paraphrase:

It’s not a mistake that a well-known protagonist in current fiction is an orphan: Harry Potter. His quests are due to his parents dying and tasks that he is now obligated to complete. You will see that orphans are common protagonists if you look at other classic fiction (Mullan).

What differences do you spot? There are synonyms. A few words were moved around. A few clauses were moved around. But do you see that the basic structure is very similar?

This kind of paraphrase might be flagged by a plagiarism checker. Don’t paraphrase like that.

Here is a better example:

What is the most well-known fact about beloved character, Harry Potter? That he’s an orphan – “the boy who lived”. In fact, it is only because his parents died that he was thrust into his hero’s journey. Throughout classic children’s literature, you’ll find many orphans as protagonists (Mullan).

Do you see that this paraphrase has more differences? The basic information is there, but the structure is quite different.

When you paraphrase, you are making choices: of how to restructure information, of how to organize and prioritize it.  These choices reflect your voice in a way a direct quote cannot, since a direct quote is, by definition, someone else’s voice.

Which is better: Quoting or paraphrasing?

Although the purpose of both quoting and paraphrasing is to introduce the ideas of an external source, they are used for different reasons. It’s not that one is better than the other, but rather that quoting suits some purposes better, while paraphrasing is more suitable for others.

A direct quote is better when you feel the writer made the point perfectly and there is no reason to change a thing. If the writer has a strong voice and you want to preserve that, use a direct quote.

For example, no one should ever try to paraphrase John. F. Kenney’s famous line: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

However, think of direct quotes like a hot pepper: go ahead and sprinkle them around to add some spice to your paper, but… you might not want to overdo it.

Conversely, paraphrasing is useful when you want to bring in a longer section of a source into your piece, but you don’t have room for the full passage . A paraphrase doesn’t simplify the passage to an extreme level, like a summary would. Rather, it condenses the section of text into something more useful for your essay. It’s also appropriate to paraphrase when there are sentences within a passage that you want to leave out.

If you were to paraphrase the section of the article about Victorian orphans mentioned earlier, you might write something like this:

Considering the development of the novel, which portrayed everyday people making their way through life, using an orphan as a protagonist was effective. Orphans are characters that, by definition, need to find their way alone. The author can let the protagonist venture out into the world where the anything, good or bad, might happen (Mullan).

You’ll notice a couple of things here. One, there are no quotation marks, but there is still an in-text citation (the name in parentheses). A paraphrase lacks quotation marks because you aren’t directly quoting, but it still needs a citation because you are using a specific segment of the text. It is still someone else’s original idea and must be cited.

Secondly, if you look at the original quote, you’ll see that five lines of text are condensed into four and a half lines. Everything the author used has been changed.

A single paragraph of text has been explained in different words—which is the heart of paraphrasing.

What is summarizing?

Next, we come to summarizing. Summarizing is on a much larger scale than quoting or paraphrasing. While similar to paraphrasing in that you use your own words, a summary’s primary focus is on translating the main idea of an entire document or long section.

Summaries are useful because they allow you to mention entire chapters or articles—or longer works—in only a few sentences. However, summaries can be longer and more in-depth. They can actually include quotes and paraphrases. Keep in mind, though, that since a summary condenses information, look for the main points. Don’t include a lot of details in a summary.

In literary analysis essays, it is useful to include one body paragraph that summarizes the work you’re writing about. It might be helpful to quote or paraphrase specific lines that contribute to the main themes of such a work. Here is an example summarizing the article on orphans in Victorian literature:

In John Mullan’s article “Orphans in Fiction” on bl.uk.com, he reviews the use of orphans as protagonists in 19 th century Victorian literature. Mullan argues that orphans, without family attachments, are effective characters that can be “unleashed to discover the world.” This discovery process often leads orphans to expose dangerous aspects of society, while maintaining their innocence. As an example, Mullan examines how many female orphans wind up as governesses, demonstrating the usefulness of a main character that is obligated to find their own way.

This summary includes the main ideas of the article, one paraphrase, and one direct quote. A ten-paragraph article is summarized into one single paragraph.

As for giving source credit, since the author’s name and title of the source are stated at the beginning of the summary paragraph, you don’t need an in-text citation.

How do I know which one to use?

The fact is that writers use these three reference types (quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing) interchangeably. The key is to pay attention to your argument development. At some points, you will want concrete, firm evidence. Quotes are perfect for this.

At other times, you will want general support for an argument, but the text that includes such support is long-winded. A paraphrase is appropriate in this case.

Finally, sometimes you may need to mention an entire book or article because it is so full of evidence to support your points. In these cases, it is wise to take a few sentences or even a full paragraph to summarize the source.

No matter which type you use, you always need to cite your source on a References or Works Cited page at the end of the document. The MLA works cited entry for the text we’ve been using today looks like this:

Mullan, John. Orphans in Fiction” www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/orphans-in-fiction.  Accessed 20. Oct. 2020

————–

See our related lesson with video:  How to Quote and Paraphrase Evidence

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Direct Quotes vs. Paraphrasing vs. Summarizing: Know the Difference

• Written By Lorraine Roberte
• Updated: February 22, 2024

Knowing the differences between direct quotes, paraphrasing, and summarizing is crucial no matter your occupation, from business owner to content marketer.

Why? Because it can prevent you from accidentally plagiarizing in the work you do for yourself and from breeching best practices.

Incorporating a mixture of these elements in your content can also help you tell a better story, so your audience keeps reading.

Direct quotes vs. paraphrasing vs. summarizing — understanding the difference

We’re breaking down the differences between direct quotes vs. paraphrasing and summarizing and how you can use them in your writing.

From press releases for your business to engaging blog posts for your target audience, you can make your writing more interesting by including trustworthy sources.

Direct quotes

Direct quotes include the exact words that someone said, with quotation marks and name attribution. They’re especially common when  writing about people .

Example: “Elon Musk said in a tweet that Starlink’s satellite broadband service coverage will be available on ‘most of Earth by end of year,’ although he noted that ‘cellular will always have the advantage in dense urban areas.'”

When to use direct quotes

According to the  APA style guide , you’ll need to use direct quotes when:

• Copying an exact definition
• The author’s words are memorable and succinct
• Responding or reacting to someone’s exact words

How to use direct quotes

In general, direct quotes are written verbatim. But you can make these small changes without alerting your readers:

• Changing the first letter of the quote to an upper or lowercase so that the quotation matches the context sentence’s syntax. Can also modify the punctuation at the end of the quote.
• Swapping single quotation marks to double quotation marks and vice versa
• Omitting footnote or endnote number references

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you restate someone else’s words, but not word for word.

Example (original quote): “It’s risky trusting employees as much as we do. Giving them as much freedom as we do. But it’s essential in creative companies where you have much greater risk from lack of innovation.” — Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO and co-founder . 

Example (paraphrase): “Netflix’s CEO and co-founder, Reed Hastings, feels that micromanaging workers can stifle innovation in creative businesses.”

When to paraphrase

It can be helpful to paraphrase if you want to keep your writing more conversational. It’s also useful when breaking up direct quotes or explaining the original source in simpler terms. That way, the information better fits the tone and style of your writing.

How to paraphrase

Paraphrasing involves putting a section of the source information entirely into your own words while staying true to its original meaning. You can link to the source in the place that makes the most sense, such as “report” for an industry report.

You can keep from  plagiarizing when paraphrasing  by using synonyms for words mentioned in the source. It’s important to restate phrases differently (even if they’re just a few words) to avoid the same sentence structure. If you don’t, you could still be plagiarizing, despite crediting the source.

If you use exact words from the original material while paraphrasing, you must put the word or words in quotes. The exception is generic terms that are difficult to find synonyms for.

Summarizing

When you summarize, you use your own words to describe the critical points of what someone else said or that you heard or read in a source.

Example (original quote): “In a diverse population of older patients who were hospitalized for acute decompensated heart failure, an early, transitional, tailored, progressive rehabilitation intervention that included multiple physical-function domains resulted in greater improvement in physical function than usual care.” —  Study in the New England Journal of Medicine

Example (summary): “A recent study shows physical rehabilitation programs to be helpful for older populations with hospitalizations from heart failure.”

When to summarize

Summaries are excellent at giving readers the key insights they need from a longer text when proving your point. They also add context while keeping at a manageable length whatever  type of article  you’re writing.

How to summarize

You don’t need to include any quotes or attribution when summarizing, just a brief overview that often links back to the original material for more details. It may also introduce essential points from the original text, allowing readers to understand the source without clicking through it.

Now that you know the difference between direct quotes, paraphrasing, and summarizing, you can confidently write content for your business.

Need help creating engaging blog posts for your business? Talk to a content specialist at ClearVoice today about your needs.

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APA Citation Guide (7th edition): Quotes vs Paraphrases

• Book Examples
• Article Examples
• Media Examples
• Internet Resources Examples
• Other Examples
• Quotes vs Paraphrases
• Reference Entry Components
• Paper Formatting

What's the Difference?

Quoting vs paraphrasing: what's the difference.

There are two ways to integrate sources into your assignment: quoting directly or paraphrasing.

Quoting  is copying a selection from someone else's work, phrasing it exactly as it was originally written. When quoting place quotation marks (" ") around the selected passage to show where the quote begins and where it ends. Make sure to include an in-text citation. 

Paraphrasing  is used to show that you understand what the author wrote. You must reword the passage, expressing the ideas in your own words, and not just change a few words here and there. Make sure to also include an in-text citation. 

Quoting Example

There are two basic formats that can be used:

Parenthetical Style:

Narrative Style:

Quoting Tips

• Long Quotes
• Changing Quotes

What Is a Long Quotation?

A quotation of more than 40 words. 

Rules for Long Quotations

There are 4 rules that apply to long quotations that are different from regular quotations:

• The line before your long quotation, when you're introducing the quote, usually ends with a colon.
• The long quotation is indented half an inch from the rest of the text, so it looks like a block of text.
• There are no quotation marks around the quotation.
• The period at the end of the quotation comes before your in-text citation as opposed to after, as it does with regular quotations.

Example of a Long Quotation

At the end of Lord of the Flies the boys are struck with the realization of their behaviour:

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (Golding, 1960, p.186)

Changing Quotations

Sometimes you may want to make some modifications to the quote to fit your writing. Here are some APA rules when changing quotes:

Incorrect spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Add the word [sic] after the error in the quotation to let your reader know the error was in the original source and is not your error.

Omitting parts of a quotation

If you would like to exclude some words from a quotation, replace the words you are not including with an ellipsis - ...

Adding words to a quote

If you are adding words that are not part of the original quote, enclose the additional words in square brackets - [XYZ]

Secondary Source Quotes

What is a secondary source.

In scholarly work, a primary source reports original content; a secondary source refers to content first reported in another source.

• Cite secondary sources sparingly—for instance, when the original work is out of print, unavailable, or available only in a language that you do not understand.
• If possible, as a matter of good scholarly practice, find the primary source, read it, and cite it directly rather than citing a secondary source.

Rules for Secondary Source Citations

• In the reference list, provide an entry only for the secondary source that you used.
• In the text, identify the primary source and write “as cited in” the secondary source that you used. 
• If the year of publication of the primary source is known, also include it in the in-text citation.

Example of a Secondary Source Use

Quote & In-Text Citation

Reference List Entry

Paraphrases

Paraphrasing example.

When you write information from a source in your own words, cite the source by adding an in-text citation at the end of the paraphrased portion as follows:

If you refer to the author's name in a sentence you do not have to include the name again as part of your in-text citation, instead include the year of publication following his/her name:

NOTE : Although not required, APA encourages including the page number when paraphrasing if it will help the reader locate the information in a long text and distinguish between the information that is coming from you and the source.

Paraphrasing Tips

• Long Paraphrases

Original Source

Homeless individuals commonly come from families who are riddled with problems and marital disharmony, and are alienated from their parents. They have often been physically and even sexually abused, have relocated frequently, and many of them may be asked to leave home or are actually thrown out, or alternatively are placed in group homes or in foster care. They often have no one to care for them and no one knows them intimately.

Source from: 

Rokach, A. (2005). The causes of loneliness in homeless youth. The Journal of Psychology, 139, 469-480. 

Example: Incorrect Paraphrasing

Example: correct paraphrasing.

If your paraphrase is longer than one sentence, provide an in-text citation for the source at the beginning of the paraphrase. As long as it's clear that the paraphrase continues to the following sentences, you don't have to include in-text citations for the following sentences.

If your paraphrase continues to another paragraph and/or you include paraphrases from other sources within the paragraph, repeat the in-text citations for each.

Additional Resource

• Paraphrasing (The Learning Portal)

Tip sheet on paraphrasing information

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A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

Depending on the conventions of your discipline, you may have to decide whether to summarize a source, paraphrase a source, or quote from a source.

When and how to summarize

When you summarize, you provide your readers with a condensed version of an author's key points. A summary can be as short as a few sentences or much longer, depending on the complexity of the text and the level of detail you wish to provide to your readers. You will need to summarize a source in your paper when you are going to refer to that source and you want your readers to understand the source's argument, main ideas, or plot (if the source is a novel, film, or play) before you lay out your own argument about it, analysis of it, or response to it.

Before you summarize a source in your paper, you should decide what your reader needs to know about that source in order to understand your argument. For example, if you are making an argument about a novel, you should avoid filling pages of your paper with details from the book that will distract or confuse your reader. Instead, you should add details sparingly, going only into the depth that is necessary for your reader to understand and appreciate your argument. Similarly, if you are writing a paper about a journal article, you will need to highlight the most relevant parts of the argument for your reader, but you should not include all of the background information and examples. When you have to decide how much summary to put in a paper, it's a good idea to consult your instructor about whether you are supposed to assume your reader's knowledge of the sources.

Guidelines for summarizing a source in your paper

• Identify the author and the source.
• Represent the original source accurately.
• Present the source’s central claim clearly.
• Don’t summarize each point in the same order as the original source; focus on giving your reader the most important parts of the source
• Use your own words. Don’t provide a long quotation in the summary unless the actual language from the source is going to be important for your reader to see.

Stanley Milgram (1974) reports that ordinarily compassionate people will be cruel to each other if they are commanded to be by an authority figure. In his experiment, a group of participants were asked to administer electric shocks to people who made errors on a simple test. In spite of signs that those receiving shock were experiencing great physical pain, 25 of 40 subjects continued to administer electric shocks. These results held up for each group of people tested, no matter the demographic. The transcripts of conversations from the experiment reveal that although many of the participants felt increasingly uncomfortable, they continued to obey the experimenter, often showing great deference for the experimenter. Milgram suggests that when people feel responsible for carrying out the wishes of an authority figure, they do not feel responsible for the actual actions they are performing. He concludes that the increasing division of labor in society encourages people to focus on a small task and eschew responsibility for anything they do not directly control.

This summary of Stanley Milgram's 1974 essay, "The Perils of Obedience," provides a brief overview of Milgram's 12-page essay, along with an APA style parenthetical citation. You would write this type of summary if you were discussing Milgram's experiment in a paper in which you were not supposed to assume your reader's knowledge of the sources. Depending on your assignment, your summary might be even shorter.

When you include a summary of a paper in your essay, you must cite the source. If you were using APA style in your paper, you would include a parenthetical citation in the summary, and you would also include a full citation in your reference list at the end of your paper. For the essay by Stanley Milgram, your citation in your references list would include the following information:

Milgram, S. (1974). The perils of obedience. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), The Blair reader (pp.725-737).

When and how to paraphrase

When you paraphrase from a source, you restate the source's ideas in your own words. Whereas a summary provides your readers with a condensed overview of a source (or part of a source), a paraphrase of a source offers your readers the same level of detail provided in the original source. Therefore, while a summary will be shorter than the original source material, a paraphrase will generally be about the same length as the original source material.

When you use any part of a source in your paper—as background information, as evidence, as a counterargument to which you plan to respond, or in any other form—you will always need to decide whether to quote directly from the source or to paraphrase it. Unless you have a good reason to quote directly from the source , you should paraphrase the source. Any time you paraphrase an author's words and ideas in your paper, you should make it clear to your reader why you are presenting this particular material from a source at this point in your paper. You should also make sure you have represented the author accurately, that you have used your own words consistently, and that you have cited the source.

This paraphrase below restates one of Milgram's points in the author's own words. When you paraphrase, you should always cite the source. This paraphrase uses the APA in-text citation style. Every source you paraphrase should also be included in your list of references at the end of your paper. For citation format information go to the Citing Sources section of this guide.

Source material

The problem of obedience is not wholly psychological. The form and shape of society and the way it is developing have much to do with it. There was a time, perhaps, when people were able to give a fully human response to any situation because they were fully absorbed in it as human beings. But as soon as there was a division of labor things changed.

--Stanley Milgram, "The Perils of Obedience," p.737.

Milgram, S. (1974). The perils of obedience. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), The Blair reader (pp.725-737). Prentice Hall.

Milgram (1974) claims that people's willingness to obey authority figures cannot be explained by psychological factors alone. In an earlier era, people may have had the ability to invest in social situations to a greater extent. However, as society has become increasingly structured by a division of labor, people have become more alienated from situations over which they do not have control (p.737).

When and how much to quote

The basic rule in all disciplines is that you should only quote directly from a text when it's important for your reader to see the actual language used by the author of the source. While paraphrase and summary are effective ways to introduce your reader to someone's ideas, quoting directly from a text allows you to introduce your reader to the way those ideas are expressed by showing such details as language, syntax, and cadence.

So, for example, it may be important for a reader to see a passage of text quoted directly from Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried if you plan to analyze the language of that passage in order to support your thesis about the book. On the other hand, if you're writing a paper in which you're making a claim about the reading habits of American elementary school students or reviewing the current research on Wilson's disease, the information you’re providing from sources will often be more important than the exact words. In those cases, you should paraphrase rather than quoting directly. Whether you quote from your source or paraphrase it, be sure to provide a citation for your source, using the correct format. (see Citing Sources section)

You should use quotations in the following situations:

• When you plan to discuss the actual language of a text.
• When you are discussing an author's position or theory, and you plan to discuss the wording of a core assertion or kernel of the argument in your paper.
• When you risk losing the essence of the author's ideas in the translation from their words to your own.
• When you want to appeal to the authority of the author and using their words will emphasize that authority.

Once you have decided to quote part of a text, you'll need to decide whether you are going to quote a long passage (a block quotation) or a short passage (a sentence or two within the text of your essay). Unless you are planning to do something substantive with a long quotation—to analyze the language in detail or otherwise break it down—you should not use block quotations in your essay. While long quotations will stretch your page limit, they don't add anything to your argument unless you also spend time discussing them in a way that illuminates a point you're making. Unless you are giving your readers something they need to appreciate your argument, you should use quotations sparingly.

When you quote from a source, you should make sure to cite the source either with an in-text citation or a note, depending on which citation style you are using.  The passage below, drawn from O’Brien’s  The Things They Carried , uses an MLA-style citation.

On the morning after Ted Lavender died, First Lieutenant Jimmy Cross crouched at the bottom of his foxhole and burned Martha's letters. Then he burned the two photographs. There was a steady rain falling, which made it difficult, but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it with his body holding the photographs over the tight blue flame with the tip of his fingers.

He realized it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental, too, but mostly just stupid. (23)

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried . New York: Broadway Books, 1990.

Even as Jimmy Cross burns Martha's letters, he realizes that "it was only a gesture. Stupid, he thought. Sentimental too, but mostly just stupid" (23).

If you were writing a paper about O'Brien's The Things They Carried in which you analyzed Cross's decision to burn Martha's letters and stop thinking about her, you might want your reader to see the language O'Brien uses to illustrate Cross's inner conflict. If you were planning to analyze the passage in which O'Brien calls Cross's realization stupid, sentimental, and then stupid again, you would want your reader to see the original language.

• Locating Sources
• Evaluating Sources
• Sources and Your Assignment
• A Source's Role in Your Paper
• Choosing Relevant Parts of a Source
• The Nuts & Bolts of Integrating

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• Using sources
• Integrating Sources
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MLA Citation Guide (9th Edition): Quoting vs. Paraphrasing

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Quoting vs Paraphrasing: What's the Difference?

There are two ways to integrate sources into your assignment: quoting directly or paraphrasing.

Quoting is copying a selection from someone else's work, phrasing it exactly as it was originally written. When quoting place quotation marks (" ") around the selected passage to show where the quote begins and where it ends. Make sure to include an in-text citation.

Paraphrasing is used to show that you understand what the author wrote. You must reword the passage, expressing the ideas in your own words, and not just change a few words here and there. Make sure to also include an in-text citation.

Quoting Examples

• Long Quotations

Modifying Quotations

Quoting - Example:

There are two basic formats that can be used when quoting a source:

Parenthetical Style:

Narrative Style:

Note: If there are no page numbers, as in a website, cite the author name only.

What is a Long or Block Quotation?

A long or block quotation is a quotation which is 4 lines or more.

Rules for Long Quotations

There are 4 rules that apply to long quotations that are different from regular quotations:

• The line before your long quotation, when you're introducing the quote, usually ends with a colon.
• The long quotation is indented half an inch from the rest of the text, so it looks like a block of text.
• There are no quotation marks around the quotation.
• The period at the end of the quotation comes before your in-text citation as opposed to after, as it does with regular quotations.

Example of a Long Quotation

At the end of Lord of the Flies the boys are struck with the realization of their behaviour:

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (Golding 186)

• Sometimes you may want to make some modifications to the quote to fit your writing. Here are some MLA rules when changing quotes:

Changing Quotations

Omitting parts of a quotation

• If you would like to exclude some words from a quotation, replace the words you are not including with an ellipsis - ...

Adding words to a quote

If you are adding words that are not part of the original quote, enclose the additional words in square brackets - [XYZ]

Paraphrasing

Correct vs. Incorrect Paraphrasing

Long Paraphrases

Paraphrasing - Examples:

When you write information from a source in your own words, cite the source by adding an in-text citation at the end of the paraphrased portion as follows:

If you refer to the author's name in a sentence you do not have to include the name again as part of your in-text citation, instead include the page number if there is one:

Original Source

Homeless individuals commonly come from families who are riddled with problems and marital disharmony, and are alienated from their parents. They have often been physically and even sexually abused, have relocated frequently, and many of them may be asked to leave home or are actually thrown out, or alternatively are placed in group homes or in foster care. They often have no one to care for them and no one knows them intimately.

Source from:

Rokach, Ami. "The Causes of Loneliness in Homeless Youth." The Journal of Psychology, 139, 2005, pp. 469-480. Academic Search Premier.

Example: Incorrect Paraphrasing

Example: Correct Paraphrasing

If you paraphrase a source more than once in a single paragraph and no other sources are mentioned in between, provide an in-text citation for the source at the end of each paraphrase. In the examples, the second in-text citation only includes the page number since it is clear that the same source is still being paraphrased.

If your paraphrase continues to another paragraph and/or you include paraphrases from other sources within the same paragraph, repeat the in-text citations for each.

In-Text Citation Tips

• Repeated Use of Sources
• Sources with Same Author and Publication Year
• Citing More Than One Source
• AI-Generated Text

If you are using information from a single source more than once in succession (i.e., no other sources referred to in between), you can use a simplified in-text citation.

When you are citing two different sources that share the same author, for the Works Cited List list the first title only, and for any subsequent titles by the same author list three dashes (---) in place of the author name.

For in-text citations, include a shortened version of the source title following the author name.

Example: In-text citations (Haynes, Noah's Curse 84) (Haynes, The Last Segregated Hour 57)

If you would like to cite more than one source within the same in-text citation, simply record the in-text citations as normal and separate them with a semi-colon (;).

In-text Citations & AI-generated Text

AI-generated content may not be considered as an acceptable source for your course work. Be sure to evaluate the content carefully and check with your instructor if you are permitted to use it as a source. See Citation Examples: Artificial Intelligence for more information. For in-text, include the shortened text of the prompt surrounded by quotation marks such as: ("Shortened text of prompt").

Direct Quote Example

Paraphrasing Example

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APA 7: Paraphrasing vs. Quoting

• About Citations
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Paraphrasing vs. Directly Quoting

Paraphrase means to describe the ideas and words of another author in your own words . 

• Your paraphrase must be sufficiently distinct from the original passage. Paraphrasing is not simply changing a word or two or rearranging the author's sentences (you might as well use the original passage in quotation marks).
•  An effective paraphrase will convey the author's facts or conclusions accurately but in your own unique style.
• Learn more about paraphrasing  from the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University.

Once you write a paraphrase, you must cite the original source of your information. Some students believe that it is only necessary to cite a source if they use a direct quote. Not true! Putting someone else's idea into your own words does not turn it into your own work. You must give the original author credit even when you paraphrase. Paraphrasing well shows that you understand the meaning of the original passage.

To directly quote   means to use the exact words and phrases of an author or creator.

• Quotes must be reproduced word for word, with quotation marks " " around quotes of less than 40 words.
• For long passages, use a block format (more on that below).
• Most instructors will accept a few direct quotes in your paper, especially if the author defines a term or theory. In most cases, however, instructors want you to demonstrate how much you understand a work by putting the ideas in your own words. 

Need practice? Check out this guide from the American Psychological Association .

What's Included in This Guide?

Paraphrasing.

Directly Quoting

Citing with Page Numbers

Citing Without Page Numbers

Block Quotations

While it is not necessary to include a page number or paragraph number when paraphrasing or summarizing another’s ideas, you can include a page or paragraph number for clarity. For additional information, see The Publication Manual, p. 269. We recommend that you check with your instructor for their requirement.

• Use direct quotes sparingly. You’ll want to paraphrase sources in your own writing style.
• Reproduce quotations exactly word for word.
• Quotations of less than 40 words are enclosed by “double quotation marks” and incorporated into the text of your paragraph.
• In the citation, include the author’s last name, publication year, and page or paragraph number.
• For quotations over 40 words, use a block quotation following the guidelines below .

Citing Specific Parts of a Text or Exact Quotes – Sources with Page Numbers

When citing the printed original or the exact copy of a document (i.e., the .pdf version), include the page number when directly quoting. If you place your quote at the end of a sentence, end the quotation with double quotes, add the citation, then end the sentence with a period.

Citing Specific Parts of a Text or Exact Quotes - Sources Without Page Numbers

Sometimes page numbers are unavailable, such as on a web page or the text version of an article. Instead of p. for “page number,” count the paragraphs and use para. with the paragraph number. For example:  

(Jones, 2017, para. 5)

For sources with headings, refer to the closest section heading and then count the paragraphs:     

(Jones, 2017, Methods section) OR (Jones, 2017, Methods section, para. 6)

To create a block quotation (text of 40 words or more)

• Start the quote on a new line indented one tab or five spaces
• Indent the entire block of text
• Double-space the entire block; make sure there are no extra blank lines before or after the block
• Do not use quotation marks around the quote
• To cite, include the author and date in the narrative before the quotation and end the block with the page number OR cite in parenthesis at the end of the block quote
• DON'T end the quotation with a period
• See  The Publication Manual,  pp. 272-273 for more information
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Apa citation guide (apa 7th edition): quoting vs. paraphrasing.

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Quoting vs Paraphrasing

Quoting vs paraphrasing: what's the difference.

There are two ways to integrate sources into your assignment: quoting directly or paraphrasing.

Quoting  is copying a selection from someone else's work, phrasing it exactly as it was originally written. When quoting place quotation marks (" ") around the selected passage to show where the quote begins and where it ends. Make sure to include an in-text citation. 

Paraphrasing  is used to show that you understand what the author wrote. You must reword the passage, expressing the ideas in your own words, and not just change a few words here and there. Make sure to also include an in-text citation. 

• Long quotations
• Modifying quotations

Quoting - Examples

There are two basic formats that can be used when quoting a source:  

Parenthetical Style

Narrative style, what is a long quotation.

A quotation of more than 40 words. Long quotations are formatted as blocks of texts called block quotations.

Rules for Block Quotations

There are 4 rules that apply to block quotations that are different from regular quotations:

• The line before your block quotation, when you're introducing the quote, usually ends with a colon.
• The block quotation is indented half an inch from the rest of the text, so it looks like a block of text.
• There are no quotation marks around the quotation.
• The period at the end of the quotation comes before your in-text citation as opposed to after , as it does with regular quotations.

Example of a Block Quotation

At the end of Lord of the Flies the boys are struck with the realization of their behaviour:

The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (Golding, 1960, p.186)

Modifying Quotations

Sometimes you may want to make some modifications to the quote to fit your writing. Here are some APA rules when changing quotes:

Incorrect spelling, grammar, and punctuation

• Add the word [sic] after the error in the quotation to let your reader know the error was in the original source and is not your error.

Omitting parts of a quotation

• If you would like to exclude some words from a quotation, replace the words you are not including with an ellipsis - ...

Adding words to a quote

• If you are adding words that are not part of the original quote, enclose the additional words in square brackets - [XYZ]

Additional Resource

Additional resource:.

• Using Quotations (The Learning Portal) Tip sheet on how and when to use quotations

Paraphrasing

• Correct vs. incorrect paraphrasing
• Long paraphrases

Paraphrasing - Examples

When you write information from a source in your own words, cite the source by adding an in-text citation at the end of the paraphrased portion as follows:

If you refer to the author's name in a sentence you do not have to include the name again as part of your in-text citation, instead include the year of publication following their name:

  Note: Although not required, APA encourages including the page number(s) when paraphrasing long or complex sources, such as books, so that the reader can easily refer to the paraphrased information in your source. Always clarify with your instructor about their preference regarding page numbers in paraphrase in-text citations.

Correct vs. Incorrect Paraphrasing

Original Source

Homeless individuals commonly come from families who are riddled with problems and marital disharmony, and are alienated from their parents. They have often been physically and even sexually abused, have relocated frequently, and many of them may be asked to leave home or are actually thrown out, or alternatively are placed in group homes or in foster care. They often have no one to care for them and no one knows them intimately.

Source from: 

Rokach, A. (2005). The causes of loneliness in homeless youth. The Journal of Psychology , 139, 469-480.  

Example of Incorrect Paraphrasing:

Example of Correct Paraphrasing:

Long Paraphrases

If your paraphrase is longer than one sentence, provide an in-text citation for the source at the beginning of the paraphrase. As long as it's clear that the paraphrase continues to the following sentences, you don't have to include in-text citations for the following sentences.

If your paraphrase continues to another paragraph and/or you include paraphrases from other sources within the paragraph, repeat the in-text citations for each.

• Paraphrasing (The Learning Portal) Tip sheet on paraphrasing information

In-text Citation Tips

• Citing after each sentence
• Sources with same author and publication year
• Citing more than one source

Citing only once at the end of the paragraph isn't enough, as it doesn't clearly show where you started using information from another person's work or ideas. When you use a source more than once in a paragraph, you need to cite the source the first time it is mentioned, and then continue to make it clear that the same work is being paraphrased in subsequent sentences. 

This can be tricky though - you want your paper or assignment to flow nicely while properly citing your sources. There is a way you can avoid having to write full in-text citations each and every time by adding a lead-in sentence to your paragraph, "narrative" style.

  Bad (Do not do this).  In this paragraph, the citation occurs only at the end and reader does not know exactly when/where information comes from the source: 

  Correct but ugly.  This paragraph is technically correct for APA, but it is difficult to read in large part because the in-text citations are intrusive and awkward:

  Good.  These paragraphs are "APA correct" and easy to read. Note the reader knows exactly when/where information from the source is used:

Note: The above examples are adapted  from Rasmussen College .

When you are citing two different sources that share the same author and year of publication, assign lowercase letters after the year of publication (a, b, c, etc.). Assign these letters according to which title comes first alphabetically. Use these letters in both in-text citations and the Reference list.

Example In-Text:

Example Reference List entries:

If you would like to cite more than one source within the same in-text citation, simply record the in-text citations as normal and separate them with a semi-colon. List the sources alphabetically by author's last name or first word used from the title if no author is given, in the same order they would appear on the References List.

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Quoting and Paraphrasing

Download this Handout PDF

College writing often involves integrating information from published sources into your own writing in order to add credibility and authority–this process is essential to research and the production of new knowledge.

However, when building on the work of others, you need to be careful not to plagiarize : “to steal and pass off (the ideas and words of another) as one’s own” or to “present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.”1 The University of Wisconsin–Madison takes this act of “intellectual burglary” very seriously and considers it to be a breach of academic integrity . Penalties are severe.

These materials will help you avoid plagiarism by teaching you how to properly integrate information from published sources into your own writing.

1. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 888.

How to avoid plagiarism

When using sources in your papers, you can avoid plagiarism by knowing what must be documented.

Specific words and phrases

If you use an author’s specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source.

Information and Ideas

Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source.

Information : If a piece of information isn’t common knowledge (see below), you need to provide a source.

Ideas : An author’s ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition. If a source provided any of these, you need to acknowledge the source.

Common Knowledge?

You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge:

General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain.

Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. For instance, you may not need to cite a reference to Piaget’s developmental stages in a paper for an education class or give a source for your description of a commonly used method in a biology report—but you must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers.

If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source.

Paraphrasing vs. Quoting — Explanation

Should i paraphrase or quote.

In general, use direct quotations only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words. Also, it’s often conventional to quote more extensively from sources when you’re writing a humanities paper, and to summarize from sources when you’re writing in the social or natural sciences–but there are always exceptions.

In a literary analysis paper , for example, you”ll want to quote from the literary text rather than summarize, because part of your task in this kind of paper is to analyze the specific words and phrases an author uses.

In research papers , you should quote from a source

• to show that an authority supports your point
• to present a position or argument to critique or comment on
• to include especially moving or historically significant language
• to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized

You should summarize or paraphrase when

• what you want from the source is the idea expressed, and not the specific language used to express it
• you can express in fewer words what the key point of a source is

How to paraphrase a source

General advice.

• When reading a passage, try first to understand it as a whole, rather than pausing to write down specific ideas or phrases.
• Be selective. Unless your assignment is to do a formal or “literal” paraphrase, you usually don?t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper.
• Think of what “your own words” would be if you were telling someone who’s unfamiliar with your subject (your mother, your brother, a friend) what the original source said.
• Remember that you can use direct quotations of phrases from the original within your paraphrase, and that you don’t need to change or put quotation marks around shared language.

Methods of Paraphrasing

• Look away from the source then write. Read the text you want to paraphrase several times until you feel that you understand it and can use your own words to restate it to someone else. Then, look away from the original and rewrite the text in your own words.
• Take notes. Take abbreviated notes; set the notes aside; then paraphrase from the notes a day or so later, or when you draft.

If you find that you can’t do A or B, this may mean that you don’t understand the passage completely or that you need to use a more structured process until you have more experience in paraphrasing.

The method below is not only a way to create a paraphrase but also a way to understand a difficult text.

Paraphrasing difficult texts

Consider the following passage from Love and Toil (a book on motherhood in London from 1870 to 1918), in which the author, Ellen Ross, puts forth one of her major arguments:

• Love and Toil maintains that family survival was the mother’s main charge among the large majority of London?s population who were poor or working class; the emotional and intellectual nurture of her child or children and even their actual comfort were forced into the background. To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence. (p. 9)

Children of the poor at the turn of the century received little if any emotional or intellectual nurturing from their mothers, whose main charge was family survival. Working for and organizing household subsistence were what defined mothering. Next to this, even the children’s basic comfort was forced into the background (Ross, 1995).

According to Ross (1993), poor children at the turn of the century received little mothering in our sense of the term. Mothering was defined by economic status, and among the poor, a mother’s foremost responsibility was not to stimulate her children’s minds or foster their emotional growth but to provide food and shelter to meet the basic requirements for physical survival. Given the magnitude of this task, children were deprived of even the “actual comfort” (p. 9) we expect mothers to provide today.

You may need to go through this process several times to create a satisfactory paraphrase.

Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases

Paraphrasing is often defined as putting a passage from an author into “your own words.” But what are your own words? How different must your paraphrase be from the original?

The paragraphs below provide an example by showing a passage as it appears in the source, two paraphrases that follow the source too closely, and a legitimate paraphrase.

The student’s intention was to incorporate the material in the original passage into a section of a paper on the concept of “experts” that compared the functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

The Passage as It Appears in the Source

Critical care nurses function in a hierarchy of roles. In this open heart surgery unit, the nurse manager hires and fires the nursing personnel. The nurse manager does not directly care for patients but follows the progress of unusual or long-term patients. On each shift a nurse assumes the role of resource nurse. This person oversees the hour-by-hour functioning of the unit as a whole, such as considering expected admissions and discharges of patients, ascertaining that beds are available for patients in the operating room, and covering sick calls. Resource nurses also take a patient assignment. They are the most experienced of all the staff nurses. The nurse clinician has a separate job description and provides for quality of care by orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and providing direct support where needed, such as assisting in emergency situations. The clinical nurse specialist in this unit is mostly involved with formal teaching in orienting new staff. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist are the designated experts. They do not take patient assignments. The resource nurse is seen as both a caregiver and a resource to other caregivers. . . . Staff nurses have a hierarchy of seniority. . . . Staff nurses are assigned to patients to provide all their nursing care. (Chase, 1995, p. 156)

Word-for-Word Plagiarism

Critical care nurses have a hierarchy of roles. The nurse manager hires and fires nurses. S/he does not directly care for patients but does follow unusual or long-term cases. On each shift a resource nurse attends to the functioning of the unit as a whole, such as making sure beds are available in the operating room , and also has a patient assignment . The nurse clinician orients new staff, develops policies, and provides support where needed . The clinical nurse specialist also orients new staff, mostly by formal teaching. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist , as the designated experts, do not take patient assignments . The resource nurse is not only a caregiver but a resource to the other caregivers . Within the staff nurses there is also a hierarchy of seniority . Their job is to give assigned patients all their nursing care .

Why this is plagiarism

Notice that the writer has not only “borrowed” Chase’s material (the results of her research) with no acknowledgment, but has also largely maintained the author’s method of expression and sentence structure. The phrases in red are directly copied from the source or changed only slightly in form.

Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Chase as the source of the content, the language of the passage would be considered plagiarized because no quotation marks indicate the phrases that come directly from Chase. And if quotation marks did appear around all these phrases, this paragraph would be so cluttered that it would be unreadable.

A Patchwork Paraphrase

Chase (1995) describes how nurses in a critical care unit function in a hierarchy that places designated experts at the top and the least senior staff nurses at the bottom. The experts — the nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist — are not involved directly in patient care. The staff nurses, in contrast, are assigned to patients and provide all their nursing care . Within the staff nurses is a hierarchy of seniority in which the most senior can become resource nurses: they are assigned a patient but also serve as a resource to other caregivers. The experts have administrative and teaching tasks such as selecting and orienting new staff, developing unit policies , and giving hands-on support where needed.

This paraphrase is a patchwork composed of pieces in the original author’s language (in red) and pieces in the student-writer’s words, all rearranged into a new pattern, but with none of the borrowed pieces in quotation marks. Thus, even though the writer acknowledges the source of the material, the underlined phrases are falsely presented as the student’s own.

A Legitimate Paraphrase

In her study of the roles of nurses in a critical care unit, Chase (1995) also found a hierarchy that distinguished the roles of experts and others. Just as the educational experts described above do not directly teach students, the experts in this unit do not directly attend to patients. That is the role of the staff nurses, who, like teachers, have their own “hierarchy of seniority” (p. 156). The roles of the experts include employing unit nurses and overseeing the care of special patients (nurse manager), teaching and otherwise integrating new personnel into the unit (clinical nurse specialist and nurse clinician), and policy-making (nurse clinician). In an intermediate position in the hierarchy is the resource nurse, a staff nurse with more experience than the others, who assumes direct care of patients as the other staff nurses do, but also takes on tasks to ensure the smooth operation of the entire facility.

Why this is a good paraphrase

The writer has documented Chase’s material and specific language (by direct reference to the author and by quotation marks around language taken directly from the source). Notice too that the writer has modified Chase’s language and structure and has added material to fit the new context and purpose — to present the distinctive functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

Shared Language

Perhaps you’ve noticed that a number of phrases from the original passage appear in the legitimate paraphrase: critical care, staff nurses, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, nurse clinician, resource nurse.

If all these phrases were in red, the paraphrase would look much like the “patchwork” example. The difference is that the phrases in the legitimate paraphrase are all precise, economical, and conventional designations that are part of the shared language within the nursing discipline (in the too-close paraphrases, they’re red only when used within a longer borrowed phrase).

In every discipline and in certain genres (such as the empirical research report), some phrases are so specialized or conventional that you can’t paraphrase them except by wordy and awkward circumlocutions that would be less familiar (and thus less readable) to the audience.

When you repeat such phrases, you’re not stealing the unique phrasing of an individual writer but using a common vocabulary shared by a community of scholars.

Some Examples of Shared Language You Don’t Need to Put in Quotation Marks

• Conventional designations: e.g., physician’s assistant, chronic low-back pain
• Preferred bias-free language: e.g., persons with disabilities
• Technical terms and phrases of a discipline or genre : e.g., reduplication, cognitive domain, material culture, sexual harassment

Chase, S. K. (1995). The social context of critical care clinical judgment. Heart and Lung, 24, 154-162.

How to Quote a Source

Introducing a quotation.

One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Don’t simply drop quotations into your paper and leave it to the reader to make connections.

Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements:

• A signal that a quotation is coming–generally the author’s name and/or a reference to the work
• An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text

Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement.

Ross (1993), in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], “To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence” (p. 9).

The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase:

Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As [connection] Ross observes [signal], “Maternal thinking about children’s health revolved around the possibility of a child’s maiming or death” (p. 166).

Formatting Quotations

Short direct prose.

Incorporate short direct prose quotations into the text of your paper and enclose them in double quotation marks:

According to Jonathan Clarke, “Professional diplomats often say that trying to think diplomatically about foreign policy is a waste of time.”

Longer prose quotations

Begin longer quotations (for instance, in the APA system, 40 words or more) on a new line and indent the entire quotation (i.e., put in block form), with no quotation marks at beginning or end, as in the quoted passage from our Successful vs. Unsucessful Paraphrases page.

Rules about the minimum length of block quotations, how many spaces to indent, and whether to single- or double-space extended quotations vary with different documentation systems; check the guidelines for the system you’re using.

Quotation of Up to 3 Lines of Poetry

Quotations of up to 3 lines of poetry should be integrated into your sentence. For example:

In Julius Caesar, Antony begins his famous speech with “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.75-76).

Notice that a slash (/) with a space on either side is used to separate lines.

Quotation of More than 3 Lines of Poetry

More than 3 lines of poetry should be indented. As with any extended (indented) quotation, do not use quotation marks unless you need to indicate a quotation within your quotation.

Punctuating with Quotation Marks

Parenthetical citations.

With short quotations, place citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark, comma, semi-colon, colon):

Menand (2002) characterizes language as “a social weapon” (p. 115).

With block quotations, check the guidelines for the documentation system you are using.

Commas and periods

Place inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows:

Hertzberg (2002) notes that “treating the Constitution as imperfect is not new,” but because of Dahl’s credentials, his “apostasy merits attention” (p. 85).

Semicolons and colons

Place outside of closing quotation marks (or after a parenthetical citation).

Question marks and exclamation points

Place inside closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question/exclamation:

Menand (2001) acknowledges that H. W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage is “a classic of the language,” but he asks, “Is it a dead classic?” (p. 114).

[Note that a period still follows the closing parenthesis.]

Place outside of closing quotation marks if the entire sentence containing the quotation is a question or exclamation:

How many students actually read the guide to find out what is meant by “academic misconduct”?

Quotation within a quotation

Use single quotation marks for the embedded quotation:

According to Hertzberg (2002), Dahl gives the U. S. Constitution “bad marks in ‘democratic fairness’ and ‘encouraging consensus'” (p. 90).

[The phrases “democratic fairness” and “encouraging consensus” are already in quotation marks in Dahl’s sentence.]

Indicating Changes in Quotations

Quoting only a portion of the whole.

Use ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate an omission within a quotation–but not at the beginning or end unless it’s not obvious that you’re quoting only a portion of the whole.

Adding Clarification, Comment, or Correction

Within quotations, use square brackets [ ] (not parentheses) to add your own clarification, comment, or correction.

Use [sic] (meaning “so” or “thus”) to indicate that a mistake is in the source you’re quoting and is not your own.

Additional information

Information on summarizing and paraphrasing sources.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). (2000). Retrieved January 7, 2002, from http://www.bartleby.com/61/ Bazerman, C. (1995). The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines (5th ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Leki, I. (1995). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 185-211.

Leki describes the basic method presented in C, pp. 4-5.

Spatt, B. (1999). Writing from sources (5th ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 98-119; 364-371.

Information about specific documentation systems

The Writing Center has handouts explaining how to use many of the standard documentation systems. You may look at our general Web page on Documentation Systems, or you may check out any of the following specific Web pages.

If you’re not sure which documentation system to use, ask the course instructor who assigned your paper.

• American Psychological Assoicaion (APA)
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Chicago/Turabian (A Footnote or Endnote System)
• American Political Science Association (APSA)
• Council of Science Editors (CBE)
• Numbered References

You may also consult the following guides:

• American Medical Association, Manual for Authors and Editors
• Council of Science Editors, CBE style Manual
• The Chicago Manual of Style
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

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Direct Quotations and Paraphrasing Explained

By Erin Wright

Direct Quotations

Direct quotations present the original writer’s or speaker’s words verbatim. Direct quotations can be formatted as run-in or block quotations.

Run-In Quotations

Run-in quotations are woven into your text. They are usually prefaced or concluded with an independent clause or a noun and verb phrase (e.g., “Tom said,” “Jane says,”) identifying the speaker or writer.

Gerry stormed into the conference room: “The mandatory team meeting began at 3:00 p.m., but Joe didn’t show up.”

Susan said, “He went to the warehouse for supplies.”

“Well, he should have let us know,” replied Brian.

Kitchen blogger Bob Smith claims, “The new ACME dish soap will eliminate the need for electric dishwashers within five years.”

Run-in quotation fragments can also be incorporated into a sentence without an introductory phrase.

The researcher said his findings were “solid and represented the available data,” but admitted that “further study should be done if additional information comes to light.”

Visit “ How to Introduce Run-in Quotations ” for more information and detailed examples.

Block Quotations

Block quotations are longer quotations presented as blocks of text indented from your own writing.

You can find additional guidance in my three-part block quotation series:

Block Quotations, Part 1: How to Introduce Block Quotations

Block Quotations, Part 2: How to Format Block Quotations

Block Quotations, Part 3: Block Quotation Issues and Concerns

Paraphrasing

When paraphrasing, you include someone else’s content, although not their exact words, in your own writing while maintaining the original writer’s or speaker’s thought or idea. Because paraphrasing doesn’t represent your own thought or idea (even if you put a lot of thought into how to write the paraphrased content), the original writer or speaker must be credited either directly in the sentence and/or in a citation, endnote, or footnote to avoid plagiarism. 1

According to Professor Sniffledorf, the new rocket technology will allow humans to land on Mars in 2031.

The new rocket technology will allow humans to land on Mars in 2031 (Sniffledorf, 2017).

The in-text citation in the example above, “(Sniffledorf, 2017),” would be accompanied by a corresponding entry in your reference list documenting the author’s or speaker’s name, the source’s location (journal, book, website, etc.), the publisher, and the year of publication, as well as the page numbers, if applicable. Citation formatting varies by style guide, so consult your preferred guide if you are required to follow a specific style.

• The Chicago Manual of Style , 17th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), 13.3; MLA Handbook , 8th ed. (New York: Modern Language Association, 2016), 57–58; Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2020), 8.23–8.24.
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10.3: When to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize

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If your final product is a research paper, essay, or presentation much of your writing will be devoted to:

• Reporting what others have said about your research question.
• Describing the situation surrounding your research question for your audience and explaining why it’s important.
• Convincing your audience that your answer is correct or, at least, the most reasonable answer. Giving them evidence.

To accomplish this you will often paraphrase, summarize, or use direct quotes when appropriate. But how should you choose which technique to use when?

Tip: Citing Sources

Remember to cite your sources when quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. See How to Cite Sources for details.

Choose a direct quote

• when what you’re quoting is the text you’re analyzing
• when a direct quote is more accurate and concise than a summary or paraphrase would be and conciseness matters
• when the author is a particular authority whose exact words would lend credence to your argument
• when the author has used particularly effective language that is just too good to pass up.

Choose to paraphrase or summarize rather than to quote directly when the meaning is more important than the particular language the author used and you don’t need to use the author’s preeminent authority to bolster your argument at the moment.

Choose to paraphrase instead of summarizing when you need details and specificity . Paraphrasing lets you emphasize the ideas in source materials that are most relevant to your research project instead of the exact language the author used. It also lets you simplify complex material, sometimes rewording to use language that is more understandable to your reader.

Choose to summarize instead of paraphrasing when you need to provide a brief overview of a larger text. Summaries let you condense the resource material to draw out particular points, omit unrelated or unimportant points, and simplify convey how the author’s message.

For more tips on paraphrasing and summarizing, including an example of how to do one of each we suggest visiting the Excelsior Owl Writing Lab . While you’re at this site, you’ll notice other helpful information available about the writing process.

Chap. 15: Quoting and Paraphrasing/Summary Skills

When to quote, when to summarize or paraphrase.

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC

The real “art” to research writing is using quotes and summaries/paraphrases  from evidence effectively in order to support your point. there are certain “rules,” dictated by the rules of style you are following, such as the ones presented by the mla or the ones presented by the apa..

• A quote contains the exact words of another writer, along with quotation marks around those words.
• A paraphrase or summary is a restatement of the original words in a source. When writers summarize or paraphrase, they place the original ideas into their own in words and sentence structure.
• When you quote and summarize/paraphrase information, you must indicate where the information was found through citing your sources.

When all is said and done, the question of when to quote and when to paraphrase depends a great deal on the specific context of the writing and the effect you are trying to achieve. Learning the best times to quote and paraphrase takes practice and experience.

The difference between a summary and paraphrase:.

Both a summary and paraphrase involve putting source material into your own words. A summary is shorter than a paraphrase .

In general,  it is best to use a quote when:

• The exact words of your source are important for the point you are trying to make.  This is especially true if you are quoting technical language, terms, or very specific word choices.
• You want to highlight your  agreement  with the author’s words.  If you agree with the point the author of the evidence makes and you like their exact words, use them as a quote.
• You want to highlight your  disagreement  with the author’s words.  In other words, you may sometimes want to use a direct quote to indicate exactly what it is you disagree about. This might be particularly true when you are considering the antithetical positions in your research writing projects.

In general,  it is best to summarize or paraphrase when:

• There is no good reason to use a quote to refer to your evidence.  If the author’s exact words are not especially important to the point you are trying to make, you are usually better off paraphrasing the evidence.
• You are trying to explain a particular a piece of evidence in order to explain or interpret it in more detail.  This might be particularly true in writing projects like critiques.
• You need to balance a direct quote in your writing.  You need to be careful about directly quoting your research  too  much because it can sometimes make for awkward and difficult to read prose. So, one of the reasons to use a paraphrase instead of a quote is to create balance within your writing.

Introduce  your quotes and paraphrases to your reader, especially on first reference.

• Explain  the significance of the quote or paraphrase to your reader.
• Cite  your quote or paraphrase properly according to the rules of style you are following in your essay.
• Quote when  the exact words are important, when you want to highlight your agreement or your disagreement.
• Paraphrase when  the exact words aren’t important, when you want to explain the point of your evidence, or when you need to balance the direct quotes in your writing.

Examples of Quotes and Paraphrases

Here are four examples of what I mean about properly quoting and paraphrasing evidence in your research essays. In each case, I begin with a  BAD  example, or the way  NOT  to quote or paraphrase.

Quoting in MLA Style

Here’s the first  BAD  example, where the writer is trying to follow the rules of MLA style:

There are many positive effects for advertising prescription drugs on television. “African-American physicians regard direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines as one way to educate minority patients about needed treatment and healthcare options” (Wechsler, Internet).

This is a potentially good piece of information to support a research writer’s claim, but the researcher hasn’t done any of the necessary work to explain where this quote comes from or to explain why it is important for supporting her point. Rather, she has simply “dropped in” the quote, leaving the interpretation of its significance up to the reader.

Now consider this revised  GOOD  (or at least  BETTER ) example of how this quote might be better introduced into the essay:

In her  Pharmaceutical Executive  article, Jill Wechsler writes about one of the positive effects of advertising prescription drugs on television noting that “African-American physicians regard direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medicines as one way to educate minority patients about needed treatment and healthcare options.”

In this revision, it’s much more clear what point the writer is trying to make with this evidence and where this evidence comes from.

• Contributed by  Steven D. Krause
• Professor (English Language and Literature) at  Eastern Michigan University

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Paraphrasing vs. Quoting: What’s the Difference?

When you write your next research paper, you may ask, “when should I use paraphrasing vs. quoting?” This guide will help you know. 

The question of paraphrasing vs. quoting is important for writers. You must get this right in your writing to avoid plagiarism, create ethical written works, and make clear points.

Both paraphrasing and quoting are tools you can use to do this, but many writers do not know the difference between these two words. If you do not use them correctly and cite them appropriately, you could be guilty of plagiarism, which puts your academic or professional career at risk.  

Quoting and paraphrasing are fairly similar, and they even require similar citations. Yet there are subtle differences you must understand, so you give the proper credit to the source. This guide will help you understand the difference between paraphrasing and quoting, so you can use both of these tools correctly in your next written piece.

When editing for grammar, we also recommend taking the time to improve the readability score of a piece of writing before publishing or submitting.

Paraphrasing vs. Quoting: When to Use Which

When to use paraphrases, how to indicate a paraphrase, tips for paraphrasing, when to use quoting, how to format quotes, apa style citation, mla style citations, chicago/turabian style citations, summarizing and paraphrasing, how to decide if something is common knowledge, a final word on paraphrasing vs. quoting, what is the difference between paraphrasing and quoting, are summarizing and paraphrasing the same.

Paraphrasing and quoting are both processes to use another author’s work in your writing. They are confusing because they have different best-case uses. After you understand their differences, you will be able to decide how to use them in your writing.

What Is a Paraphrase?

A paraphrase is a restatement of an original author’s idea in your own words. It would help if you completely changed the wording from the source material to count it as a paraphrase. You may do so by changing the:

• Sentence structure

However, you must keep the main points the same and properly attribute the source material’s author in your writing based on the style guide assigned to your projects, such as MLA or APA. Check out our allegory vs. symbolism explainer.

Paraphrases are used when you want to restate a source and do not need to use the exact words to do so. It works well when you merge multiple sources into one written piece to

Paraphrases should make up the majority of your academic writing because you need to be able to convey the author’s ideas in your own words. Simply quoting many sources word-for-word does not show that you have truly understood the material and reached your conclusions.

Even though paraphrases are written in your own words, you will need to cite them when writing research papers and other types of academic writing. Failing to cite an idea from someone else and claiming it as your own violate copyright laws and is a form of plagiarism.

To cite a paraphrase, check the style guide or publication manual assigned to your project and add the citation appropriately. You might also be interested in our analogy vs. metaphor guide.

Paraphrasing can be a challenging skill to learn. To do it, you must be able to take someone else’s work and make it your own without changing the main ideas.

One tip that can make paraphrasing easier is reading the original text fully and closing it. Without opening it again, write your paraphrase. Then, look at the original text again to make sure the paraphrase seems unique but still conveys the right original thought.

What Is a Quote?

Quoting happens when you use the other author’s exact words. You change nothing of what they said, and you put the words in quotation marks or set them off with special indentation, depending on the length of the quote.

Quoting works best when using your ideas or restating an original idea would weaken the key points. It also works well when you need to create a sense of authority in your statement and lack that authority as the author. Some times when a quote is the best choice over a paraphrase include:

• When using statistics and data from an authoritative source
• When quoting a piece of literature in a literary analysis paper
• When defining a word from a trusted dictionary
• When including a court decision in a piece of writing

Over-quoting is a common mistake in academic writing, especially with inexperienced writers. It shows little academic prowess to string together a bunch of quotes with attribution and call it your work. Use quotation sparingly and in those instances when it is necessary to make the point you need to make.

Keep in mind that not all written works require a quote. For most papers, one to two quotes are all that is necessary, if any are necessary at all. The rest of the work should be your ideas or paraphrases.

Citing quotes is similar to citing paraphrases. You will use the APA, Chicago/Turabian, or MLA style citations. The main difference is that you must show that the piece is a quote.

Often, you will include in-text citations to introduce the quote. For example, you may say:

An example of simile can be seen in Alcott’s Little Women when the author writes, “. . . she tried to get rid of the kitten which had scrambled up her back and stuck like a burr just out of reach.” (Alcott, 183)

In this quote, the author’s name and the resource both show up in the dialogue, but the writer still uses proper parenthetical citations at the end of the quote. The quote itself has quotation marks, indicating it is a quote, and ellipses that show it starts in the middle of the author’s sentence.

If your quote is 40 words or longer, you will use a block quotation. Each style guide has its formatting for block quotations, but this style sets off the quote by indenting it and changing the spacing, which is visually different from the rest of the paper. Block quotations do not use quotation marks.

Citations for Quotes, Paraphrases, and Summaries

Whether you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a work, you will cite it in the same way. The citation style is based on the style guide for your work. The works you cite in the text also get included in the works cited or bibliography page at the end of the paper.

If you are writing a paper that requires APA style, then you will use in-text citations in the following format:

(Author’s last name, year of publication, page number)

If you put the author’s name in the actual text in APA style, you can omit it in the parenthesis. If the publication has no date, you put n.d. instead of the date. If there is not a page number, you can put some other identifier, such as paragraph number, chapter, section, or timestamp. However, this is only necessary for direct quotes. The page number or its substitutes are not necessary for paraphrases.

MLA style in-text citations follow this format:

(Author’s last name, page number)

Omit the page number for this format if it is unavailable in the source.

Chicago style requires a more complex citation format. It uses footnotes for both paraphrases and quotes. The first time you use a resource, you use this format for the footnote:

The author’s first and last name, title (publication city: Publisher, date), and the page number.

For additional citations using a previously listed resource, use this format:

Author last name, abbreviated title, page number.

Another consideration in this discussion is the idea of summarizing. Summarizing a work means condensing it to its main points. Typically, a summary is much shorter than the original work, while a paraphrase is fairly similar in length.

Like quotes and paraphrases, summaries require in-text citations in the expected format. You will choose to summarize if you are taking a large work, like a full book, report, or speech, and using most of its key points in your report.

The Issue of Common Knowledge

With quotes, paraphrases and summaries, you must cite the source any time you use someone’s ideas in your writing or quote someone directly. However, you do not have to cite something if it is considered common knowledge, even if you found the information in another work. As long as you are not taking a direct quote, if the fact is common knowledge does not require citation. 

According to MIT , something is common knowledge if it is “information that the average, educated reader would accept as reliable without looking it up.” For example, if you said that the sky is blue, you would not have to cite this because most people know and accept this as fact.

The idea of common knowledge becomes tricky when you are doing academic writing. Sometimes, a fact is a common knowledge to the chosen audience for your work. For example, laws of physics may not be something the average person knows, but a physicist or scientist would, and you may not have to cite the place you found the law if you are writing for an academic group.

Some questions that can help you decide if something is common knowledge include:

• Who is my intended audience?
• What does my intended audience know?
• Is this an accepted fact in my field or niche?
• Is there a specific fact or statistic being cited, or just general knowledge they already know?

After answering these questions, you might have a better idea of whether or not your information is common knowledge. If it is, then you don’t have to cite it. If you are not sure, go ahead and cite it. Better to cite too often than to end up being guilty of plagiarism.

Paraphrasing and quoting both have a place in academic writing. However, quoting, which refers to using another writer’s exact words, needs to be sparse in your work. Writing a work primarily of quotes is not really writing; it’s just taking other people’s work and putting it together in a new format.

Paraphrasing is far more common. Paraphrasing keeps the original meaning of the work but changes the wording into your own words. This strategy shows that you have understood the meaning of the works you cite but have pulled that out and used it to support your ideas and thesis statement. Most of your academic writing should be paraphrased, supporting your thoughts, ideas, and conclusions.

Regardless of whether you are quoting or paraphrasing, you will need to cite your sources for any idea you use that is not common knowledge or your idea. If in doubt, cite your source to avoid falling victim to plagiarism, leading to academic dismissal or a failing grade on your project.

FAQs about Paraphrasing vs. Quoting

When paraphrasing something, you reword it but keep the main idea in place. The structure of the sentences and the words themselves must be different. When you quote something, you use the writer’s actual words word-for-word, placing the quote within quotation marks or blocking text.

No, but summarizing and paraphrasing are similar. You are condensing the original work into its main points when you summarize. When paraphrasing, you restate the work in your own words without condensing. Both require citations, and both are good strategies to use in an academic or research paper.

Grammarly is one of our top grammar checkers. Find out why in this Grammarly review .

Nicole Harms has been writing professionally since 2006. She specializes in education content and real estate writing but enjoys a wide gamut of topics. Her goal is to connect with the reader in an engaging, but informative way. Her work has been featured on USA Today, and she ghostwrites for many high-profile companies. As a former teacher, she is passionate about both research and grammar, giving her clients the quality they demand in today's online marketing world.

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• How to Paraphrase | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

How to Paraphrase | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples

Published on April 8, 2022 by Courtney Gahan and Jack Caulfield. Revised on June 1, 2023.

Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas into your own words. Paraphrasing a source involves changing the wording while preserving the original meaning.

Paraphrasing is an alternative to  quoting (copying someone’s exact words and putting them in quotation marks ). In academic writing, it’s usually better to integrate sources by paraphrasing instead of quoting. It shows that you have understood the source, reads more smoothly, and keeps your own voice front and center.

Every time you paraphrase, it’s important to cite the source . Also take care not to use wording that is too similar to the original. Otherwise, you could be at risk of committing plagiarism .

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Table of contents

How to paraphrase in five easy steps, how to paraphrase correctly, examples of paraphrasing, how to cite a paraphrase, paraphrasing vs. quoting, paraphrasing vs. summarizing, avoiding plagiarism when you paraphrase, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about paraphrasing.

If you’re struggling to get to grips with the process of paraphrasing, check out our easy step-by-step guide in the video below.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Putting an idea into your own words can be easier said than done. Let’s say you want to paraphrase the text below, about population decline in a particular species of sea snails.

Incorrect paraphrasing

You might make a first attempt to paraphrase it by swapping out a few words for  synonyms .

Like other sea creatures inhabiting the vicinity of highly populated coasts, horse conchs have lost substantial territory to advancement and contamination , including preferred breeding grounds along mud flats and seagrass beds. Their Gulf home is also heating up due to global warming , which scientists think further puts pressure on the creatures , predicated upon the harmful effects extra warmth has on other large mollusks (Barnett, 2022).

This attempt at paraphrasing doesn’t change the sentence structure or order of information, only some of the word choices. And the synonyms chosen are poor:

• “Advancement and contamination” doesn’t really convey the same meaning as “development and pollution.”
• Sometimes the changes make the tone less academic: “home” for “habitat” and “sea creatures” for “marine animals.”
• Adding phrases like “inhabiting the vicinity of” and “puts pressure on” makes the text needlessly long-winded.
• Global warming is related to climate change, but they don’t mean exactly the same thing.

Because of this, the text reads awkwardly, is longer than it needs to be, and remains too close to the original phrasing. This means you risk being accused of plagiarism .

Correct paraphrasing

Let’s look at a more effective way of paraphrasing the same text.

Here, we’ve:

• Only included the information that’s relevant to our argument (note that the paraphrase is shorter than the original)
• Introduced the information with the signal phrase “Scientists believe that …”
• Retained key terms like “development and pollution,” since changing them could alter the meaning
• Structured sentences in our own way instead of copying the structure of the original
• Started from a different point, presenting information in a different order

Because of this, we’re able to clearly convey the relevant information from the source without sticking too close to the original phrasing.

Explore the tabs below to see examples of paraphrasing in action.

• Journal article
• Newspaper article
• Magazine article

Once you have your perfectly paraphrased text, you need to ensure you credit the original author. You’ll always paraphrase sources in the same way, but you’ll have to use a different type of in-text citation depending on what citation style you follow.

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It’s a good idea to paraphrase instead of quoting in most cases because:

• Paraphrasing shows that you fully understand the meaning of a text
• Your own voice remains dominant throughout your paper
• Quotes reduce the readability of your text

But that doesn’t mean you should never quote. Quotes are appropriate when:

• Giving a precise definition
• Saying something about the author’s language or style (e.g., in a literary analysis paper)
• Providing evidence in support of an argument
• Critiquing or analyzing a specific claim

A paraphrase puts a specific passage into your own words. It’s typically a similar length to the original text, or slightly shorter.

When you boil a longer piece of writing down to the key points, so that the result is a lot shorter than the original, this is called summarizing .

Paraphrasing and quoting are important tools for presenting specific information from sources. But if the information you want to include is more general (e.g., the overarching argument of a whole article), summarizing is more appropriate.

When paraphrasing, you have to be careful to avoid accidental plagiarism .

This can happen if the paraphrase is too similar to the original quote, with phrases or whole sentences that are identical (and should therefore be in quotation marks). It can also happen if you fail to properly cite the source.

Paraphrasing tools are widely used by students, and can be especially useful for non-native speakers who may find academic writing particularly challenging. While these can be helpful for a bit of extra inspiration, use these tools sparingly, keeping academic integrity in mind.

To make sure you’ve properly paraphrased and cited all your sources, you could elect to run a plagiarism check before submitting your paper. And of course, always be sure to read your source material yourself and take the first stab at paraphrasing on your own.

If you want to know more about ChatGPT, AI tools , citation , and plagiarism , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• ChatGPT vs human editor
• ChatGPT citations
• Is ChatGPT trustworthy?
• Using ChatGPT for your studies
• What is ChatGPT?
• Chicago style
• Critical thinking

 Plagiarism

• Types of plagiarism
• Self-plagiarism
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Academic integrity
• Consequences of plagiarism
• Common knowledge

To paraphrase effectively, don’t just take the original sentence and swap out some of the words for synonyms. Instead, try:

• Reformulating the sentence (e.g., change active to passive , or start from a different point)
• Combining information from multiple sentences into one
• Leaving out information from the original that isn’t relevant to your point
• Using synonyms where they don’t distort the meaning

The main point is to ensure you don’t just copy the structure of the original text, but instead reformulate the idea in your own words.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas in your own words.

So when does paraphrasing count as plagiarism?

• Paraphrasing is plagiarism if you don’t properly credit the original author.
• Paraphrasing is plagiarism if your text is too close to the original wording (even if you cite the source). If you directly copy a sentence or phrase, you should quote it instead.
• Paraphrasing  is not plagiarism if you put the author’s ideas completely in your own words and properly cite the source .

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To present information from other sources in academic writing , it’s best to paraphrase in most cases. This shows that you’ve understood the ideas you’re discussing and incorporates them into your text smoothly.

It’s appropriate to quote when:

• Changing the phrasing would distort the meaning of the original text
• You want to discuss the author’s language choices (e.g., in literary analysis )
• You’re presenting a precise definition
• You’re looking in depth at a specific claim

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If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Gahan, C. & Caulfield, J. (2023, June 01). How to Paraphrase | Step-by-Step Guide & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 15, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/how-to-paraphrase/

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