What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is reproducing in your own words what someone else has said or written. The paraphrase must always be in the spirit of the original text. See Citation. It should be clear what you are saying, what other people’s ideas are and what text the paraphrase is based on: the Source citation.

In the text, you make a short reference by mentioning the author’s name and the year of publication. Unlike quoting, it is not necessary to give a page number when paraphrasing. It is allowed, however.

You must list the full sources in the list of sources at the end of your report.

See Reference list.

Example (APA-style):

Jansen (2004) says that student satisfaction increases when libraries are open on Sundays.

According to Jansen (2004), student satisfaction increases when libraries are open on Sundays.

Student satisfaction would increase if libraries were open on Sundays (Jansen, 2004).