Paraphrasing Vs. Quoting – How to write effective plagiarism free content?

Lets Discuss Paraphrasing vs. Quoting. There’s a Latin phrase that goes something like, ‘Ignorantia non est argumentum’. Now, if we are to coarsely translate the phrase it goes something like, “Ignorance of law can’t be used as an argument”.

Well, that goes pretty similar for plagiarism laws. Whether it’s academic or marketing, plagiarism is considered as a derogatory act; in fact, it’s called the “intellectual theft” in cases of academic plagiarism and you definitely won’t like to be labeled for it, is it?

That’s also one of the reasons why many academic students and online marketers lookout for professional paraphrasing services to get their work done, within the law. However, paraphrasing services aren’t the only solution and by learning the tricks of the trade, you can yourself write an honorable, original content and proudly present it in front of academia or your online readers.

Here in this blog, we will be looking at two of the core writing techniques; paraphrasing and quoting and how you can write plagiarism free content using these techniques.

Paraphrasing vs. Quoting – Which is better?

Ok, the ultimate choice between the two will mostly depend upon the type of content you are dealing with. For instance, if you are working with literary prose or poetry, quoting is the right approach, because, in this scenario, you aren’t required to unnecessarily go into the analysis of the prose or poetry and elucidate your thoughts without citing original sources.

As for scientific researches, it is important to remember that while you can use quotations as per your needs in scientific research, it is best to not use excessive direct quotations.

Quoting

As a general rule, it’s always best to restrict yourself to direct quotes only. You can obviously adjust them as per your needs and context while adding an argument in support or against them. Make sure you mention the author’s name. Also, leaving quotes uncommented is a practice which will be highly appreciated by educators.

When you are using quotes in your text, make sure you give them within “quotation marks” and cite the source the correct way.

Recommendations for Quoting to avoid Plagiarism

• Whenever you are using direct quotes, always give them in quotation marks
• Insert quotations inside the text
• For long quotations, you should use “Block Form” instead of quotation marks
• If you are quoting poetry up to 3 lines, you should use it with double quotation marks
• Long poetry quotes (more than 3 lines) should be used in “block form” without quotation marks
• Always prefer short poetry over long poetry
• Properly cite the author’s name
• Cite the source in the reference list

Paraphrasing

Moving on to paraphrasing, you most likely would already know that the core idea behind paraphrasing is to take the key concept from an existing text and writing it in your own words with definite arguments. However, it is important to remember that when we are talking about academic paraphrasing, it’s important to cite the original text in the reference list as well, even when you write the whole text by yourself.

It is important to use an established referencing style (APA, Harvard, etc.). If you feel that you aren’t well versed with reference styling, you can hire services of professional paraphrasing services. However, by little reading and researching, you can get the feel of each style and won’t need to spend money hiring professional paraphrasing services.

Recommendations for plagiarism free paraphrasing

• Read the passage thoroughly – the worst thing you can do when paraphrasing is to try paraphrase line by line without prior reading the text thoroughly. The best practice is to continue reading the text number of times until you no longer need to look at the text for the core idea
• Never copy – don’t try to copy the text (not even a single sentence). Give yourself the freedom to express everything in your wording
• Take notes – taking key points will help you follow a systematic approach in your writing, while not requiring to copying from the original text
• Use synonym – yes, you can use the synonyms to avoid plagiarism, but it’s equally important to not overdo it.
• Change sentence structure – Changing the sentences’ structure (active to passive and direct to indirect) is the best method to paraphrase a text