To paraphrase is to communicate the author’s work in your own words and to acknowledge the source.
Used to rewrite text in your own words
Used to clarify meaning
Used to shorten a longer statement, but keep the main ideas
Giving credit to the original author of the idea
Assessing the evidence or arguments put out, identifying any flaws in the study's design, and determining the degree to which you agree with the writers' positions, opinions, or conclusions are the basic goals of critical reading (Specht, 2019).
Change the structure of the original passage
Change the words
Give a citation / reference
To summarise is to describe broadly the findings of a study without directly quoting from it.
Peixoto et al. (2024) examine two novel approaches to enhance customer service and meet cost-efficiency targets in their study of online retail delivery.
Introduce concepts from your sources by using reporting verbs and phrases. Your choice of language can reveal if the writers you're referencing are giving proven facts, presenting a case, offering a proposal, or drawing conclusions. Keep in mind that if you begin every citation or paraphrase in the same way, your work may become dull to read.
Table 1 lists reporting verbs that can be useful for incorporating other writers' ideas and language into academic writing.
Table 1: Reporting verbs for using in in-text citations
|
Say |
Explain |
Argue |
Other |
|
state |
show |
contend |
identify |
|
point out |
demonstrate |
suggest |
offer |
|
emphasise |
describe |
disagree |
question |
|
found |
justify |
question |
agree |
|
add |
clarify |
dispute |
predict |
|
confirm |
reason |
imply |
|
|
maintain |
|
debate |
|
| remark | claim | ||
| highlight | |||
| hold the view | |||
| affirm | |||
| assert |