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Academic skills

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing means using someone else’s ideas. To paraphrase, reword the original sentence/section, without changing the meaning. Paraphrasing is an alternative to quoting. In academic writing, it is better to paraphrase instead of using quotes as it shows that you have understood the content and made it part of your argument. It is important to cite the source (give credit to the author). Make sure that your own words are not too similar to the original since this is considered to be plagiarism.

Check out Using English for Academic Purposes for Students in Higher Education.

How to Paraphrase video

Synthesising Information video