what is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is a writing technique used to summarize or restate someone else's ideas in your own words. It involves taking a phrase, sentence, or even a large block of text and rewriting it in your own words while retaining the original meaning. Using paraphrasing is an important skill for expressing your understanding of a topic and can be challenging as it requires you to be concise and provide an accurate representation of the original source.

There are several reasons for why you would need or want to use paraphrasing. One is if you don't have permission to directly quote someone else's words, or if the original author isn't known. You may also use it if you have identified the author but their words don't fit the style or tone of writing that you prefer using. Paraphrasing can be used as an aid to understanding information, making it easier to take notes, discuss with others, or write essays on a certain topic without having to read and parrot back what somebody else has said in their own words.

When doing paraphrasing, always make sure that you reference where the source material is from by citing any relevant writings at the end of your document. It's also important to note that when paraphrasing, one should not use the exact same sentence structure as what was provided in the original source material as this can constitute plagiarism even if different wording has been used; this type of "patchwork plagiarism" should be avoided at all costs as it may lead to legal ramifications if caught.

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