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Academic English & Research vocabulary · Citing and Referencing

Paraphrase

Meaning in academic english & research, with examples

/ˈpærəfreɪz/verbCore term

In academic english & research, paraphrase means: To express an author's idea in your own words and sentence structure while keeping the original meaning; the source still needs a citation.

In Turkish: kendi cümleleriyle aktarmak, başka sözcüklerle ifade etmek, yeniden ifade etmek

How it is used

A core academic writing skill, used far more often than direct quotation in most disciplines. It is also a noun: 'a close paraphrase'. Tutors warn against patchwriting, which means only swapping a few words in the original sentence.

Example sentences

  1. Try to paraphrase the main argument instead of quoting the whole paragraph.

  2. This sentence is paraphrased from Smith (2019), so it still needs a citation.

Common collocations

  • paraphrase a source
  • paraphrase an argument
  • close paraphrase
  • accurately paraphrase
  • direct quotationThe exact words of a source copied into your text, marked with quotation marks or set as an indented block, and followed by a citation with a page number.
  • plagiarismPresenting someone else's words, ideas or work as your own without properly acknowledging the source.
  • citeTo mention a source, such as a book or article, in your writing to show where an idea, fact or quotation comes from.
  • in-text citationA short reference inside the main text, such as (Yılmaz, 2021) or a number [3], that points the reader to the full entry in the reference list.

More terms: Citing and Referencing

Practise with graded reading

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