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How to paraphrase properly

The following is an excerpt from a 1949 essay by Richard Hofstadter entitled "The Thesis Disputed."

American historical writing in the past century has produced two major theories or models of understanding, the economic interpretation of politics associated with Charles A. Beard, and the frontier interpretation of American development associated with Frederick Jackson Turner. Both views have had a pervasive influence upon American thinking, but Beard himself felt that Turner’s original essay on the frontier had "a more profound influence on thought about American history than any other essay or volume ever written on the subject." ...

[But] it became plain, as new thought and research was brought to bear upon the problem, that the frontier theory, as an analytic device, was a blunt instrument.

Let's say you want to communicate ALL of the information above by paraphrasing. You might start by taking out some of the unnecessary words and changing others. For instance, do you need to say "theories or models," or is just "theories" enough for your purposes? Can you rephrase the last sentence to make it fit better with your style of writing? Asking questions like this is a good way to start paraphrasing, but it is only the beginning.

You want to make sure that you are not just changing the appearance of the source while still copying its essential structure. That is, you need to translate the passage into your own voice. Otherwise, you are plagiarizing Richard Hofstadter's expression, even if you acknowledge that the ideas came from him. For example, the following would be an example of plagiarism, not paraphrasing:

In the past century, American writing on history has produced two major theories, Charles A. Beard's economic interpretation of American development, and the frontier interpretation of American development associated with Frederick Jackson Turner. Each view has exerted a pervasive influence on American thinking, but even Charles A. Beard had to admit that Turner's essay on the frontier had "a more profound influence on thought about American history than any other essay or volume ever written on the subject." Yet in time it became plain, as new research was brought to bear upon the problem, that the frontier theory, as a means of analyzing history, was not nearly precise enough. (Hofstadter, 1949)

This would be considered plagiarism because the sentence structure is too close to the original passage. All of the ideas are expressed in basically the same tone, with only a few changes in grammar and phrasing. In this case, it would have been more honest to retain all of the original words and put the entire passage in quotes -- acknowledging an indebtedness to Hofstadter for the expression of his ideas and not just those ideas themselves.

One way to avoid this is to jot down the main ideas of the original passage in your own words, creating a list like this:

  1. two main theories of American History
  2. Turner = frontier thesis
  3. Beard = economic interpretation of politics
  4. Turner was considered more influential -- even Beard admitted the fact
  5. recent research has undermined Turner's work

Then try writing a paragraph without looking at the original. In this case, it might turn out to be something like this:

In his 1949 essay "The Thesis disputed," Richard Hofstadter explains that there were two major currents of thought in historical writing about American development. He suggests that one of these, the "frontier thesis" associated with Frederick Jackson Turner, has been thought more influential than the other, the economic interpretation of politics associated with Charles A. Beard. He quotes Charles A. Beard admitting this fact to prove his point. Yet Hofstadter goes on to argue that Turner's frontier theory, influential as it may have been, has been undermined by more recent research developments. (Hofstadter, 1949)

This paragraph more successfully translates Hofstadter's work into an original form of expression. Instead of just changing some words, this paragraph comes up with its own way of organizing and communicating the information. It also avoids plagiarism by clearly giving Hofstadter credit for his ideas. With just a little bit of work, then, you can turn a case of potential plagiarism into a perfect paraphrase!

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