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.
Accordingly, can you paraphrase too much in a paper?
Just as with quotes, it is possible to paraphrase too often or too much. In fact, there are many times when a simple summary is preferable to a paraphrased passage. The difference between the two is that the summary focuses on several important points, while the passage is concerned with only one.
Additionally, how much of a research paper should be your own words?
In a research paper, you include information from sources such as books, articles, interviews, and Internet sites. You also use your own ideas, knowledge, and opinions. Most of your paper (as a rule of thumb, at least 80%) must be in your own words.
How much paraphrasing is appropriate?
Only paraphrase 1 is acceptable. Paraphrase 2 has mostly the same words and the sentence structure has only been changed in small ways. Paraphrase 2 would be considered plagiarised writing.
Should I paraphrase RRL?
To prevent plagiarism, you must not only write your literature review properly with the suitable style manual such as APA or Harvard, but also properly manage direct quotations and paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is acceptable if you rephrase the ideas using your own words and add citations.
Why is paraphrasing so hard?
One of the main difficulties of paraphrasing is that students often express other people’s ideas without changing enough of the words. Therefore, the student’s words in their assessment look very similar to those that they have read in the original.