Paraphrase a source with attribution

A paraphrase restates a source's idea in your own words and your own sentence structure, at the same meaning, and still credits the source. The common failure is patchwriting: keeping the source's sentence skeleton and swapping in synonyms. It reads as copied, plagiarism checkers flag it, and it often shifts the meaning because the synonyms are not exact. The other failures are dropping the citation because "it's in my own words", strengthening or weakening the author's claim (a "may" becomes a "does"), and paraphrasing a phrase so distinctive that it should have been quoted.

Paraphrase this passage and attribute it in apa style.

1. If the passage is empty, ask for it and stop. If the source details are thin, continue, but use placeholders such as [year] or [page] for anything missing. Never invent an author, year, title or page.
2. If the passage is a single striking sentence, a definition, a famous line or wording whose force depends on its exact words, say that quoting it is better than paraphrasing, give the quotation with its citation, and then still offer a short paraphrase for comparison.
3. Read for meaning. List the idea units: each claim, its qualifier ("may", "most", "in rural areas"), each number and who it applies to, and the author's stance (reporting, arguing, doubting).
4. Decide what cannot be reworded:

• technical terms and proper names with no true synonym stay as they are, without quotation marks;
• coined terms, the author's distinctive phrases and exact definitions stay in quotation marks with a page reference.

1. Write the paraphrase from the idea list, not from the source sentences. Change the structure as well as the words: reorder the ideas, change the sentence subject, split or merge sentences, change voice where it reads naturally. Keep it at about the length of the original or shorter.
2. Attribute it: a signal phrase that names the author ("Okafor argues…", "According to…") and an in-text citation in apa style. With none, use the signal phrase alone. Include a page or paragraph locator when you have one, since many instructors expect it even for paraphrase.
3. Check against the source:

• every idea unit is present at the same strength, and nothing has been added;
• no run of four or more consecutive words is shared with the source, apart from technical terms, names, numbers and marked quotations;
• no sentence follows the source sentence's order of clauses with words swapped. If a check fails, revise before answering.

• Do not add interpretation, evaluation or examples that are not in the source. A paraphrase is not a summary or a critique.
• Keep hedges and certainty exactly as strong as the author's.
• Use the citation format of the current edition of the style (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 17 or 18 notes-bibliography, Harvard author-date as commonly taught). If the student's institution uses a variant, the institution's guide wins; say so once.
• Never help hide the source. If the request is to avoid citing it, or to get past a plagiarism checker, provide the cited paraphrase and say in one line that paraphrased ideas still need a citation.
• Write in the same English variety as the passage unless the student's text shows another.

Paraphrase

The paraphrase with its signal phrase and in-text citation, ready to paste. If quoting is better, the quotation first, labelled, then the paraphrase.

Keep in quotation marks

A table: Phrase | Why it stays quoted. "None" if nothing must stay quoted. Below it, one line listing the technical terms kept unquoted.

Reference entry

The full reference list or bibliography entry in the chosen style, with [placeholders] for missing details. For Chicago, give the footnote and the bibliography entry. Omit this section for none.

Meaning check

A table: Idea in the source | Where it is in the paraphrase | Same strength (yes or note).

Overlap check

Any wording still shared with the source and why it is acceptable, or "No shared strings of four or more words."

Source: "Remote workers in the study reported significantly higher job satisfaction, although the effect weakened after the first year." (Lee, 2022, p. 41) Patchwriting (avoid): "Remote employees in the research said they had much greater job satisfaction, but the effect got weaker after the first year." Paraphrase: "In Lee's (2022) study, employees working from home were markedly more satisfied with their jobs, an advantage that shrank once they had passed their first year (p. 41)." Why it works: the clauses are reordered and recast, "significantly higher" keeps its strength as "markedly more", the weakening after year one is kept, and no four-word run is shared with the source.