Last modified April 10, 2017
From the Naval Postgraduate School’s Graduate Writing Center and Thesis Processing Office, located in the
Dudley Knox Library and online at https://my.nps.edu/web/gwc and https://my.nps.edu/web/thesisprocessing.
W
hy and How to Paraphrase Properly
To paraphrase means to describe a source’s passage completely in your own words, and with your own sentence structure.
Changing a source’s words here and there, or adding words to a source’s sentence, is known as “patchwork” or “mosaic”
plagiarism—it is not proper paraphrasing. Paraphrase when a source’s passage is complex, or written in a way that doesn’t
match your writing style. Paraphrase, for example, a short paragraph describing new DOD policy.
Paraphrasing allows you to strategically incorporate trusted information through the lens of your paper (your specific focus,
audience, and argument) and your lens as a writer (your voice and style). Direct quotes do not show your analysis of a source.
Paraphrasing shows your ability to think critically about the topic and understand others’ research. Generally, not more than 10
percent of a standard paper should be directly quoted material; the majority of text should be your own.
Steps toward a proper paraphrase:
1. Actively read source text until you truly understand the information.
2. Take notes in your own words, using quotation marks to clearly indicate key terms and borrowed phrases/language.
3. Working from your notes—not from the source—craft sentences using your own voice, language, and structur
e.
* Ti
p: If your paraphrased sentence is still too close to the original, start by finding the sentence’s primary subject an
d
verb. Then, using your own knowledge of the topic, reframe the sentence with these terms but from a new angle.
Fo
rmatting Rules for Direct Quotes
To quote means to take a source’s words directly/verbatim. Generally, directly borrowed language of about five words or
more must appear in quotation marks. Many citation styles require page numbers for direct-quote citations. Use a quote
when information is clear, accessible, and brief, or when language is particularly powerful or of historic importance. Quote,
for example, a precisely worded definition, legally binding declaration, controversial statement, or line from a famous speech.
• Use [brackets] around clarifying language you have changed or added into a direct quote. However, if you find you must
frequently add or change language to clarify, it may be best to paraphrase the information instead.
Example: Well into the nineteenth century, as political scientist Mavis Bachman discovered, “the word [democracy]
was repeatedly used by conservatives to smear opponents of all kinds” (2014, p. 32).
• Use an ellipsis to indicate if you drop words mid-sentence.
Example: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union … do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.”
43
• “For quotes within quotes, use ‘single quotation marks’ for the inside pair” [3].
•
Use a block quote when you are quoting more than five lines from the original. Introduce the block quote with a source
s
ignal phrase. Indent the quoted text one-half inch from each regular margin. Single-space the block quote. Add a
citation at the end of the block quote.
• F
or quotes within block quotes, use “regular double quotation marks” for the internally quoted material.
• Insert [sic] into a direct quote to indicate an error was the source author’s and not your own. You do not need to use [sic]
to indicate a variant spelling—for example, if quoting a British source that spells “color” as “colour.”
Example: Historian Charles Bear argued in 1999 that “most of the drafters of the Constitution viewed demorcacy
[sic] as something rather to be dreaded then [sic] encouraged” (p. 407).
• “If you add emphasis (italics, boldface, underline, etc.) that did not appear in the original source, indicate so after the
closing quotation marks” (emphasis added).