Here at E2, we are told not to
copy and paste writeups and to give
credit where credit is due
by quoting statements and phrases which are not our own. I know that I sometimes have trouble
paraphrasing because after I read something and then try to paraphrase it (by attempting to summarize
what I have just read in my own words, without looking at the original), my "paraphrase" ends
up looking an awful lot like the
original.
An
English teacher of mine from
high school had a
solution to this
problem. After attempting to
paraphrase, go back and compare your paraphrase with the original. If you used three or more consecutive
words directly from the original source, quote them. I found this
method very helpful in preventing unintentional
plagarism.