A summary shrinks a whole source. A paraphrase restates one passage in your own words and your own sentence structure, at about the same length, so you can use its details.
Key idea
A fair paraphrase changes both the words and the sentence structure, keeps the meaning exactly, and cites the source. Swapping a few synonyms is not enough.
Why it works
A writer’s sentences are their work, just as the ideas are. If you keep the shape of someone’s sentence and change a few words, you are still borrowing their writing. Purdue OWL calls a paraphrase “your own rendition of essential information and ideas” expressed in a new form; writing teachers call the too-close version patchwriting.
- Read the passage until you understand it.
- Cover it, and write the idea as you would explain it to a friend.
- Compare: did you keep the meaning? Did any phrase of three or more words slip in unchanged? Rewrite it, or quote it.
- Add the citation.
Worked example: Paraphrase a sentence
Original: “Students who slept nine hours recalled more of the previous day’s lesson.” (Delgado 205)
- The idea: more sleep, better memory of yesterday’s lesson.
- New structure: start with the lesson, or with memory.
- Cite it.
Answer: “The longer students slept, the more they remembered of what they had learned the day before (Delgado 205).”
Common mistake
Swapping in a few synonyms but keeping the source’s sentence structure (patchwriting). That still borrows the author’s writing, and it counts as plagiarism. Check by laying your version beside the original: if the sentences line up phrase by phrase, start again from the idea, not the words.
The sources in these examples are invented for practice: the authors, titles and publishers are made up. Some phrases have no good substitute, like a name or a technical term (“chlorophyll”). Keep those; the rest should be yours.