paraphrasing meaning literary

Quoting and Paraphrasing

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College writing often involves integrating information from published sources into your own writing in order to add credibility and authority–this process is essential to research and the production of new knowledge.

However, when building on the work of others, you need to be careful not to plagiarize : “to steal and pass off (the ideas and words of another) as one’s own” or to “present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.”1 The University of Wisconsin–Madison takes this act of “intellectual burglary” very seriously and considers it to be a breach of academic integrity . Penalties are severe.

These materials will help you avoid plagiarism by teaching you how to properly integrate information from published sources into your own writing.

1. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1993), 888.

How to avoid plagiarism

When using sources in your papers, you can avoid plagiarism by knowing what must be documented.

Specific words and phrases

If you use an author’s specific word or words, you must place those words within quotation marks and you must credit the source.

Information and Ideas

Even if you use your own words, if you obtained the information or ideas you are presenting from a source, you must document the source.

Information : If a piece of information isn’t common knowledge (see below), you need to provide a source.

Ideas : An author’s ideas may include not only points made and conclusions drawn, but, for instance, a specific method or theory, the arrangement of material, or a list of steps in a process or characteristics of a medical condition. If a source provided any of these, you need to acknowledge the source.

Common Knowledge?

You do not need to cite a source for material considered common knowledge:

General common knowledge is factual information considered to be in the public domain, such as birth and death dates of well-known figures, and generally accepted dates of military, political, literary, and other historical events. In general, factual information contained in multiple standard reference works can usually be considered to be in the public domain.

Field-specific common knowledge is “common” only within a particular field or specialty. It may include facts, theories, or methods that are familiar to readers within that discipline. For instance, you may not need to cite a reference to Piaget’s developmental stages in a paper for an education class or give a source for your description of a commonly used method in a biology report—but you must be sure that this information is so widely known within that field that it will be shared by your readers.

If in doubt, be cautious and cite the source. And in the case of both general and field-specific common knowledge, if you use the exact words of the reference source, you must use quotation marks and credit the source.

Paraphrasing vs. Quoting — Explanation

Should i paraphrase or quote.

In general, use direct quotations only if you have a good reason. Most of your paper should be in your own words. Also, it’s often conventional to quote more extensively from sources when you’re writing a humanities paper, and to summarize from sources when you’re writing in the social or natural sciences–but there are always exceptions.

In a literary analysis paper , for example, you”ll want to quote from the literary text rather than summarize, because part of your task in this kind of paper is to analyze the specific words and phrases an author uses.

In research papers , you should quote from a source

• to show that an authority supports your point
• to present a position or argument to critique or comment on
• to include especially moving or historically significant language
• to present a particularly well-stated passage whose meaning would be lost or changed if paraphrased or summarized

You should summarize or paraphrase when

• what you want from the source is the idea expressed, and not the specific language used to express it
• you can express in fewer words what the key point of a source is

How to paraphrase a source

General advice.

• When reading a passage, try first to understand it as a whole, rather than pausing to write down specific ideas or phrases.
• Be selective. Unless your assignment is to do a formal or “literal” paraphrase, you usually don?t need to paraphrase an entire passage; instead, choose and summarize the material that helps you make a point in your paper.
• Think of what “your own words” would be if you were telling someone who’s unfamiliar with your subject (your mother, your brother, a friend) what the original source said.
• Remember that you can use direct quotations of phrases from the original within your paraphrase, and that you don’t need to change or put quotation marks around shared language.

Methods of Paraphrasing

• Look away from the source then write. Read the text you want to paraphrase several times until you feel that you understand it and can use your own words to restate it to someone else. Then, look away from the original and rewrite the text in your own words.
• Take notes. Take abbreviated notes; set the notes aside; then paraphrase from the notes a day or so later, or when you draft.

If you find that you can’t do A or B, this may mean that you don’t understand the passage completely or that you need to use a more structured process until you have more experience in paraphrasing.

The method below is not only a way to create a paraphrase but also a way to understand a difficult text.

Paraphrasing difficult texts

Consider the following passage from Love and Toil (a book on motherhood in London from 1870 to 1918), in which the author, Ellen Ross, puts forth one of her major arguments:

• Love and Toil maintains that family survival was the mother’s main charge among the large majority of London?s population who were poor or working class; the emotional and intellectual nurture of her child or children and even their actual comfort were forced into the background. To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence. (p. 9)

Children of the poor at the turn of the century received little if any emotional or intellectual nurturing from their mothers, whose main charge was family survival. Working for and organizing household subsistence were what defined mothering. Next to this, even the children’s basic comfort was forced into the background (Ross, 1995).

According to Ross (1993), poor children at the turn of the century received little mothering in our sense of the term. Mothering was defined by economic status, and among the poor, a mother’s foremost responsibility was not to stimulate her children’s minds or foster their emotional growth but to provide food and shelter to meet the basic requirements for physical survival. Given the magnitude of this task, children were deprived of even the “actual comfort” (p. 9) we expect mothers to provide today.

You may need to go through this process several times to create a satisfactory paraphrase.

Successful vs. unsuccessful paraphrases

Paraphrasing is often defined as putting a passage from an author into “your own words.” But what are your own words? How different must your paraphrase be from the original?

The paragraphs below provide an example by showing a passage as it appears in the source, two paraphrases that follow the source too closely, and a legitimate paraphrase.

The student’s intention was to incorporate the material in the original passage into a section of a paper on the concept of “experts” that compared the functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

The Passage as It Appears in the Source

Critical care nurses function in a hierarchy of roles. In this open heart surgery unit, the nurse manager hires and fires the nursing personnel. The nurse manager does not directly care for patients but follows the progress of unusual or long-term patients. On each shift a nurse assumes the role of resource nurse. This person oversees the hour-by-hour functioning of the unit as a whole, such as considering expected admissions and discharges of patients, ascertaining that beds are available for patients in the operating room, and covering sick calls. Resource nurses also take a patient assignment. They are the most experienced of all the staff nurses. The nurse clinician has a separate job description and provides for quality of care by orienting new staff, developing unit policies, and providing direct support where needed, such as assisting in emergency situations. The clinical nurse specialist in this unit is mostly involved with formal teaching in orienting new staff. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist are the designated experts. They do not take patient assignments. The resource nurse is seen as both a caregiver and a resource to other caregivers. . . . Staff nurses have a hierarchy of seniority. . . . Staff nurses are assigned to patients to provide all their nursing care. (Chase, 1995, p. 156)

Word-for-Word Plagiarism

Critical care nurses have a hierarchy of roles. The nurse manager hires and fires nurses. S/he does not directly care for patients but does follow unusual or long-term cases. On each shift a resource nurse attends to the functioning of the unit as a whole, such as making sure beds are available in the operating room , and also has a patient assignment . The nurse clinician orients new staff, develops policies, and provides support where needed . The clinical nurse specialist also orients new staff, mostly by formal teaching. The nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist , as the designated experts, do not take patient assignments . The resource nurse is not only a caregiver but a resource to the other caregivers . Within the staff nurses there is also a hierarchy of seniority . Their job is to give assigned patients all their nursing care .

Why this is plagiarism

Notice that the writer has not only “borrowed” Chase’s material (the results of her research) with no acknowledgment, but has also largely maintained the author’s method of expression and sentence structure. The phrases in red are directly copied from the source or changed only slightly in form.

Even if the student-writer had acknowledged Chase as the source of the content, the language of the passage would be considered plagiarized because no quotation marks indicate the phrases that come directly from Chase. And if quotation marks did appear around all these phrases, this paragraph would be so cluttered that it would be unreadable.

A Patchwork Paraphrase

Chase (1995) describes how nurses in a critical care unit function in a hierarchy that places designated experts at the top and the least senior staff nurses at the bottom. The experts — the nurse manager, nurse clinician, and clinical nurse specialist — are not involved directly in patient care. The staff nurses, in contrast, are assigned to patients and provide all their nursing care . Within the staff nurses is a hierarchy of seniority in which the most senior can become resource nurses: they are assigned a patient but also serve as a resource to other caregivers. The experts have administrative and teaching tasks such as selecting and orienting new staff, developing unit policies , and giving hands-on support where needed.

This paraphrase is a patchwork composed of pieces in the original author’s language (in red) and pieces in the student-writer’s words, all rearranged into a new pattern, but with none of the borrowed pieces in quotation marks. Thus, even though the writer acknowledges the source of the material, the underlined phrases are falsely presented as the student’s own.

A Legitimate Paraphrase

In her study of the roles of nurses in a critical care unit, Chase (1995) also found a hierarchy that distinguished the roles of experts and others. Just as the educational experts described above do not directly teach students, the experts in this unit do not directly attend to patients. That is the role of the staff nurses, who, like teachers, have their own “hierarchy of seniority” (p. 156). The roles of the experts include employing unit nurses and overseeing the care of special patients (nurse manager), teaching and otherwise integrating new personnel into the unit (clinical nurse specialist and nurse clinician), and policy-making (nurse clinician). In an intermediate position in the hierarchy is the resource nurse, a staff nurse with more experience than the others, who assumes direct care of patients as the other staff nurses do, but also takes on tasks to ensure the smooth operation of the entire facility.

Why this is a good paraphrase

The writer has documented Chase’s material and specific language (by direct reference to the author and by quotation marks around language taken directly from the source). Notice too that the writer has modified Chase’s language and structure and has added material to fit the new context and purpose — to present the distinctive functions of experts and nonexperts in several professions.

Shared Language

Perhaps you’ve noticed that a number of phrases from the original passage appear in the legitimate paraphrase: critical care, staff nurses, nurse manager, clinical nurse specialist, nurse clinician, resource nurse.

If all these phrases were in red, the paraphrase would look much like the “patchwork” example. The difference is that the phrases in the legitimate paraphrase are all precise, economical, and conventional designations that are part of the shared language within the nursing discipline (in the too-close paraphrases, they’re red only when used within a longer borrowed phrase).

In every discipline and in certain genres (such as the empirical research report), some phrases are so specialized or conventional that you can’t paraphrase them except by wordy and awkward circumlocutions that would be less familiar (and thus less readable) to the audience.

When you repeat such phrases, you’re not stealing the unique phrasing of an individual writer but using a common vocabulary shared by a community of scholars.

Some Examples of Shared Language You Don’t Need to Put in Quotation Marks

• Conventional designations: e.g., physician’s assistant, chronic low-back pain
• Preferred bias-free language: e.g., persons with disabilities
• Technical terms and phrases of a discipline or genre : e.g., reduplication, cognitive domain, material culture, sexual harassment

Chase, S. K. (1995). The social context of critical care clinical judgment. Heart and Lung, 24, 154-162.

How to Quote a Source

Introducing a quotation.

One of your jobs as a writer is to guide your reader through your text. Don’t simply drop quotations into your paper and leave it to the reader to make connections.

Integrating a quotation into your text usually involves two elements:

• A signal that a quotation is coming–generally the author’s name and/or a reference to the work
• An assertion that indicates the relationship of the quotation to your text

Often both the signal and the assertion appear in a single introductory statement, as in the example below. Notice how a transitional phrase also serves to connect the quotation smoothly to the introductory statement.

Ross (1993), in her study of poor and working-class mothers in London from 1870-1918 [signal], makes it clear that economic status to a large extent determined the meaning of motherhood [assertion]. Among this population [connection], “To mother was to work for and organize household subsistence” (p. 9).

The signal can also come after the assertion, again with a connecting word or phrase:

Illness was rarely a routine matter in the nineteenth century [assertion]. As [connection] Ross observes [signal], “Maternal thinking about children’s health revolved around the possibility of a child’s maiming or death” (p. 166).

Formatting Quotations

Short direct prose.

Incorporate short direct prose quotations into the text of your paper and enclose them in double quotation marks:

According to Jonathan Clarke, “Professional diplomats often say that trying to think diplomatically about foreign policy is a waste of time.”

Longer prose quotations

Begin longer quotations (for instance, in the APA system, 40 words or more) on a new line and indent the entire quotation (i.e., put in block form), with no quotation marks at beginning or end, as in the quoted passage from our Successful vs. Unsucessful Paraphrases page.

Rules about the minimum length of block quotations, how many spaces to indent, and whether to single- or double-space extended quotations vary with different documentation systems; check the guidelines for the system you’re using.

Quotation of Up to 3 Lines of Poetry

Quotations of up to 3 lines of poetry should be integrated into your sentence. For example:

In Julius Caesar, Antony begins his famous speech with “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears; / I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him” (III.ii.75-76).

Notice that a slash (/) with a space on either side is used to separate lines.

Quotation of More than 3 Lines of Poetry

More than 3 lines of poetry should be indented. As with any extended (indented) quotation, do not use quotation marks unless you need to indicate a quotation within your quotation.

Punctuating with Quotation Marks

Parenthetical citations.

With short quotations, place citations outside of closing quotation marks, followed by sentence punctuation (period, question mark, comma, semi-colon, colon):

Menand (2002) characterizes language as “a social weapon” (p. 115).

With block quotations, check the guidelines for the documentation system you are using.

Commas and periods

Place inside closing quotation marks when no parenthetical citation follows:

Hertzberg (2002) notes that “treating the Constitution as imperfect is not new,” but because of Dahl’s credentials, his “apostasy merits attention” (p. 85).

Semicolons and colons

Place outside of closing quotation marks (or after a parenthetical citation).

Question marks and exclamation points

Place inside closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question/exclamation:

Menand (2001) acknowledges that H. W. Fowler’s Modern English Usage is “a classic of the language,” but he asks, “Is it a dead classic?” (p. 114).

[Note that a period still follows the closing parenthesis.]

Place outside of closing quotation marks if the entire sentence containing the quotation is a question or exclamation:

How many students actually read the guide to find out what is meant by “academic misconduct”?

Quotation within a quotation

Use single quotation marks for the embedded quotation:

According to Hertzberg (2002), Dahl gives the U. S. Constitution “bad marks in ‘democratic fairness’ and ‘encouraging consensus'” (p. 90).

[The phrases “democratic fairness” and “encouraging consensus” are already in quotation marks in Dahl’s sentence.]

Indicating Changes in Quotations

Quoting only a portion of the whole.

Use ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate an omission within a quotation–but not at the beginning or end unless it’s not obvious that you’re quoting only a portion of the whole.

Adding Clarification, Comment, or Correction

Within quotations, use square brackets [ ] (not parentheses) to add your own clarification, comment, or correction.

Use [sic] (meaning “so” or “thus”) to indicate that a mistake is in the source you’re quoting and is not your own.

Additional information

Information on summarizing and paraphrasing sources.

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). (2000). Retrieved January 7, 2002, from http://www.bartleby.com/61/ Bazerman, C. (1995). The informed writer: Using sources in the disciplines (5th ed). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Leki, I. (1995). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 185-211.

Leki describes the basic method presented in C, pp. 4-5.

Spatt, B. (1999). Writing from sources (5th ed.) New York: St. Martin?s Press, pp. 98-119; 364-371.

Information about specific documentation systems

The Writing Center has handouts explaining how to use many of the standard documentation systems. You may look at our general Web page on Documentation Systems, or you may check out any of the following specific Web pages.

If you’re not sure which documentation system to use, ask the course instructor who assigned your paper.

• American Psychological Assoicaion (APA)
• Modern Language Association (MLA)
• Chicago/Turabian (A Footnote or Endnote System)
• American Political Science Association (APSA)
• Council of Science Editors (CBE)
• Numbered References

You may also consult the following guides:

• American Medical Association, Manual for Authors and Editors
• Council of Science Editors, CBE style Manual
• The Chicago Manual of Style
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

Academic and Professional Writing

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The Heresy of Paraphrase

What if religions discovered new ways to measure art’s value?

Art has the power to inspire, provoke and draw out our best qualities. Quantifying these effects, however, is a beguiling challenge. How can the cognitive effects of art be separated from the art itself? Dr. James K.A. Smith relates a story, perhaps apocryphal,  about the poet TS Eliot. The story goes that Eliot gave a public reading of his masterpiece The Wasteland, and was then asked by an incredulous audience member, “What does the poem mean?” Eliot’s response was simple: he proceeded to reread the entire poem. “Because the only way that you could ever get the meaning of the poem,” says Dr. Smith, “is in the encounter with the work itself.”  

Dr. Smith is undertaking a research project supported by Templeton Religion Trust titled “The Art of Understanding and the Heresy of Paraphrase: Toward a Science of Art’s Irreducibility.” Dr. Smith is a professor of philosophy at Calvin University and editor in chief of Image journal, a literary quarterly at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery. The research seeks to forge new ways of measuring art’s cognitive impacts without losing sight of what makes art unique. Art cannot be reduced to mere data points, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to measure.

Lost in Translation

The concept of the “heresy of paraphrase” comes from literary theory, in particular the study of poetry. It holds that the full meaning of a poem cannot be transferred into another form, such as prose or propositional statements, because the meaning of the poem is partly contained in the form of the poem itself. If the form changes, the meaning changes along with it.

Aesthetic cognitivism is a school of thought that investigates how engagements with the arts can advance human understanding in measurable ways. Dr. Smith is one of a number of scholars exploring how this aspect of art can be measured. While others are freely borrowing tools and methods from the social sciences, Smith’s engagement with the problem takes a more considered approach. 

Dr. Smith is questioning some of the fundamental assumptions of aesthetic cognitivism. What if, in the act of measuring how art imparts understanding, we lose what makes art unique to begin with? Put another way, if we commit the “heresy of paraphrase” in order to track the way art operates, we may find that what we are measuring is not art at all, but some secondary effect.

“Our project is interested in saying, is there any way that we could come at this more obliquely,” wonders Dr. Smith, “to still try to assess the knowledge that’s gained without reducing it, or translating it, or paraphrasing it into some other kind of knowledge? How can we honor art’s unique irreducibility and at the same time take seriously the empirical accountability for the claim that art yields knowledge?”

The goal of this project is to produce new ways to measure art that are responsive to the phenomena being measured. The analytical tools need to do justice to the irreducibility of art. Smith explains that while the temptation is to use tools from the social sciences, this often ignores the unique qualities of art. Is it possible to come up with empirical measures that are indigenous to what the arts are, as opposed to just using available measures from the social and natural sciences?

Insights from Philosopher-Novelists

One portion of this research closely examines the output of one kind of artist in particular: philosophers who also write novels. These “philosopher-novelists” offer unique insights because they’re practiced at communicating complex ideas as both propositional statements and artworks. This raises the intriguing question, which ideas are best suited to philosophical essays, and which belong in novels? Philosopher-novelists, by alternating between these forms, understand that some kinds of knowledge belong within an artwork and it would be a mistake to try to explain them or quantify them. Sometimes the meaning is inextricably linked to the form.

Listening Closely to Artists

“The hypothesis is that if we let the poets and painters and composers and novelists speak from the integrity of their own fields,” Dr. Smith explains, “we could then explore a new methodology, which is going to look something like what sociologists and psychologists do who study all kinds of other modes of understanding, like religion, for example.” Religion, like art, relies on ways of knowing and experiencing the world that extend beyond the realms of natural sciences like biology and physics.

Accurately Communicating Art’s Value

The question of how to properly measure art’s relationship to understanding is key to accurately communicating art’s value as a human endeavor. It will allow the value of the arts to be explained more truthfully. Why does society need the arts? Many answers to this question rely on rubrics that are divorced from art itself. Many assert that the arts lead to understanding and a greater sense of collective empathy. If this is true, it should be measurable, and measuring it effectively will give new ways to explain art’s value to society at large. This is particularly important to arts institutions, as it will equip them with better tools for fundraising. One goal is to eventually build a repertoire of measurements and data sets that can be used by arts organizations to explain the value of what they do without paraphrasing the arts into something else.

Art cannot be reduced to mere data points, it reflects the irreducible complexity of humanity. It’s important that we don’t forfeit art’s unique qualities when we try to quantify its effects. Science can fall into the trap of assuming that humanity should be understood on a single frequency, but art reflects the depth of human complexity. Imagination precedes processing, we imagine before we know. Building better tools to understand art is essential because art is the currency of imagination, it’s just as complex as we are.

*The research team includes: Jonathan Anderson, painter and theologian, Duke Divinity School Mia Chung, pianist, Curtis Institute of Music Daniel Domig, painter, Vienna, Austria Ryan Doran, psychology, Cambridge University Jennifer Frey, philosophy, University of South Carolina Thalia Goldstein, psychology, George Mason University Shane McCrae, poet, Columbia University Aaron Rosen, religion & visual culture, Wesley Theological Seminary

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Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting

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Time Estimate

Activate students’ schemata regarding the similarities and differences among summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting.

Chalkboard/whiteboard

Computer Lab Option Materials

Digital projector

Write the words Summarizing , Paraphrasing and Quoting along the top of the whiteboard.

Elicit from students the rules they know related to each writing strategy.

Add additional information as needed. The board may appear as follows:

Computer Lab Option

Rather than using the whiteboard, one may choose to open up and project the above table in a word processing program, like Microsoft Word, completing the table as answers are elicited from students.

Aphorism Definition

What is an aphorism? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

An aphorism is a saying that concisely expresses a moral principle or an observation about the world, presenting it as a general or universal truth. The Rolling Stones are responsible for penning one of the most catchy aphorisms of all time: "You can't always get what you want." Aphorisms are often (though not always) witty or humorous, and they're used everywhere, from philosophical texts and great works of literature, to pop songs and everyday conversation.

Some additional key details about aphorisms:

• Aphorisms are memorable and convincing because of their pithiness. This pithiness can also be a weakness, though, since it usually means that bold assertions are being made without any elaboration or evidence to back them up.
• Many commonly used aphorisms are actually paraphrased quotations from literary, philosophical, political, and religious texts.
• Aphorisms are closely related to proverbs and adages . See below for more details on the relationships between these terms.

Aphorism Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce aphorism: aff -or-iz-um

Understanding Aphorisms

Aphorisms allow people to convey an idea or even a worldview using just a few words. As a result, they are used frequently in everyday speech, as well as in all types of literature. Some aphorisms are regional colloquialisms that originated as folk sayings, but even aphorisms that originate in literature are often quoted and repeated frequently enough that they become common in everyday speech.

It's important to remember that aphorisms do not have to express ideas that all people believe are true, or ideas that are true in every situation (if that were the case, aphorisms would be incredibly rare). Rather, an aphorism expresses an idea that someone (and usually the speaker) holds to be universally or generally true, though aphorisms can also be used to satirize (make fun of) ideas that others believe to be true.

Aphorisms, Adages, and Proverbs

Most people think that aphorisms, adages , and proverbs are all the same thing. However, some people maintain that adages and proverbs are two specific kinds of aphorism. Here's a rundown of the different perspectives on the relationship between these terms.

Aphorism vs. Adage

People who think that adages are a type of aphorism argue that an aphorism is a concise observation that has remained popular over time, whereas an adage is a new saying that conveys the same meaning as an older aphorism. By this definition, "carpe diem" (which means "seize the day") would be an aphorism, while "YOLO" (a recent acronym for "You Only Live Once") would be an adage.

Aphorism vs. Proverb

The word "proverb" comes from the latin proverbium , which means "words put forth." Because the word's etymology is linked to the idea of spoken language, some people say that proverbs are aphorisms that come from spoken language rather than from a literary source.

Aphorisms vs. Epigrams and Witticisms

Aphorisms, epigrams , and witticisms are all short, pithy statements, but they have some key differences that are important to understand. Aphorisms are set apart from epigrams and witticisms by two key factors:

• Aphorisms are truisms, meaning they convey an idea that is supposed to hold some universal truth.
• Aphorisms do not have to be funny.

Epigrams and witticisms, meanwhile, do not have to be truisms, though they do have to be funny. As a result, both epigrams and witticisms usually incorporate a punchline or satirical twist. Epigrams are further differentiated from witticisms and aphorisms because epigrams are typically written in verse.

Ironic Uses of Aphorism

While in most cases aphorisms are used as a genuine expression of an idea that the writer or speaker believes to be true, aphorisms may also be used ironically in order to cast doubt on an idea that is commonly taken as universal truth.

For example, consider the opening line of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice :

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

While it's difficult to know from this line alone if Jane Austen really believes that all wealthy single men are "in want of a wife," Austen's phrasing of this aphorism (a truism of Victorian England) hints that she might be a skeptic. All aphorisms express ideas that some believe to be universal truths, yet by stating outright that this"is a truth universally acknowledged," Austen creates a hyperbole (or overstatement) that is subtly satirical. As her novel goes on to show, not all wealthy single men should marry (or wish to marry), and Austen rejects the notion that in marriage, securing a fortune is just as important (or even more important) than finding love.

Aphorism Examples

Aphorism in literature.

Writers of literature often invent memorable aphorisms because they need to communicate a big idea in a striking way. Some aphorisms that originated in literature are now so common that their literary origin is practically unknown, while other aphorisms are still strongly associated with the authors that penned them.

Aphorism from Sextus Propertius' Elegies

In one of his elegies, the ancient Roman poet Sextus Propertius wrote the following line:

Always toward absent lovers love's tide stronger flows

While this line is unrecognizable today, it is the origin of the common aphorism "absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Aphorism in Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy begins his novel Anna Karenina with the following aphorism:

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

This aphorism sets a thematic backdrop for the novel, which follows several different unhappy families. In a way, Tolstoy's aphorism is a justification of (or explanation for) his subject matter: if all happy families are alike, then unhappy families must be the only interesting subject for literature.

Aphorism in The Importance of Being Earnest

In The Importance of Being Earnest , Jack and Algernon exchange the following lines, which include an aphorism and a witticism :

Jack: ...That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth, pure and simple. Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!

Through Algernon's aphorism , he expresses a general philosophical principle that cleverly questions Jack's use of the phrase, "the whole truth, pure and simple." Yet his next sentence, a witticism , uses that aphorism as a starting point to fuel a joke about the complex and often enigmatic nature of modern literature. The Importance of Being Earnest is a satire , and these lines show how Wilde uses aphorisms to pivot between serious and comic observations.

Aphorism in Everyday Speech

This list represents just a small fraction of the aphorisms people commonly use in everyday speech.

• You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
• All is fair in love and war.
• A jack of all trades is master of none.
• Measure twice, cut once.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
• Better safe than sorry.
• Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

Aphorism in Politics

Here's a short list of some famous aphorisms that come from political speeches or writing.

• You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. Variations on this phrase are frequently used by American politicians accusing their opponents of representing their policies in a disingenuous way. During the United States' 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama's use of the phrase stirred up controversy when some believed he was calling vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin a lipstick-wearing pig (read more about the origins of the phrase and the 2008 controversy here ).
• Religion is the opiate of the masses. This aphorism is paraphrased from political philosopher Karl Marx's book, A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right .
• Man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains. In The Social Contract , Jean-Jacques Rousseau uses this aphorism to critique the limitations that the modern state places on individual freedom.
• It is better to be feared than loved. This aphorism is paraphrased from Niccolo Machiavelli's work of political philosophy, The Prince.

Aphorism from the King James Bible

Many commonly-used aphorisms originated in religious texts. The King James Bible, known for its virtuosic use of language, is full of aphorisms such as these:

• You reap what you sow. This aphorism is a paraphrase of the line from the King James Bible, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
• Pride comes before the fall. This aphorism is a paraphrase of the line, "Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This aphorism is a paraphrase of the line, "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

Aphorism in Film

Since aphorism can heighten drama and convey a big idea succinctly, many of the most iconic and quotable moments from film involve aphorism:

• "With great power comes great responsibility." - Spiderman
• "My Mama always said, 'Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get.'" - Forrest Gump
• "Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you." - The Big Lebowski
• "A life without cause is a life without effect." - Barbarella
• "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." - The Godfather II
• "Tomorrow is another day!" - Gone With The Wind
• " Que sera sera. Whatever will be will be." - The Man Who Knew Too Much

Why Do Writers Choose to Write Aphorisms?

As the above examples from Anna Karenina and Pride and Prejudice show, aphorisms can make for excellent opening lines because they introduce big ideas in relatively few words—in other words, they pack a punch. Of course, aphorisms function just as well within the body of a work. Regardless of where they occur in a text, writers use aphorisms to cleverly and concisely express observations or philosophical ideas.

Because aphorisms are short phrases that evoke big ideas, writers often use them as shorthand for a work's central themes. For example, by opening Anna Karenina with the aphorism, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," Tolstoy introduces a theme that he will build on and explore throughout the novel: that unique and deeply personal forms of unhappiness are part and parcel of what it means to have individuality.

Aphorisms from well-known literary, political, philosophical, and religious texts are often repeated and adapted, recycled and reused. For that reason, writers sometimes use an aphorism coined by another writer to allude to that writer's ideas. For example, someone who writes, "religion is the opiate of the people" may do so in an effort to align herself with Marx's atheistic, anti-capitalistic worldview. A person who opens an essay with the phrase, "it is a truth universally acknowledged" is making an allusion to Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and thereby subtly informing his audience that, like the work of Austen, his writing should be read as social criticism.

Other Helpful Aphorism Resources

• The Wikipedia Page on Aphorism: A somewhat technical explanation, including various helpful examples.
• The dictionary definition of Aphorism: A basic definition that includes a bit on the etymology of aphorism (it comes from the Greek word "aphorismos," a word meaning "definition" that was originally used by Greek physician Hippocrates to refer to key scientific principles).
• If you're on the hunt for compelling and quotable aphorisms, check out this article from NPR , which excerpts sections of Geary's Guide to The World's Great Aphorists.

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Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is finding another way to say something when you don't know how to say it.

Paraphrasing is not only an essential skill for all speakers but also key to learners developing communicative ability beyond their existing knowledge of language.

Example The learner is describing a photograph of a glider and doesn't know the word, so paraphrases by saying ‘an airplane that uses the wind'.

In the classroom One way to practise paraphrasing is through word games. For example, in a definition game learners have to provide paraphrases, so that others can guess the original word. This can be done in written form in crossword activities as well.

Further links: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/heroes-villains-pride-prejudice-0 https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/windrush-generation https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/green-great https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/creativity-language-classroom  

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Words We're Watching: 'Patchwriting'

At summer’s end, nights get a bit longer and cooler, campers say goodbye to newfound friends, students are taken shopping for new clothes, and, before the leaves start to turn, one more thing is certain: lookups for the word plagiarism will spike in the dictionary.

Plagiarism and back-to-school are intrinsically linked for a good reason: at school and college orientations all over the country, policies concerning academic honesty are presented in official and legalistic terms—as well they should be. Honesty in research and study is a pillar of organized education. The research itself is increasingly being done online, which may lead to a very modern problem within this very traditional framework: when writing a paper using online sources, it is all too easy to copy. And paste.

'Patchwriting' refers to the act of making small changes and substitutions to copied source material.

But this ease of copying, while it certainly may encourage a lazy kind of deliberate plagiarism, may also reveal another consequence of this kind of internet-based research for keyboard-based composition: many students may be running before they can walk, in academic terms, and don’t yet understand the basics of scholarly attribution. In such cases, it seems that a new gray area has evolved, one that requires an intermediate term for text that is discovered to have been clearly copied and, though the work may be sloppy and deserve a low grade, there is no motivation of deliberate deception.

Just such a term was coined by writing professor Rebecca Moore Howard: patchwriting . In a 1993 article, she proposed the following definition:

Copying from a source text and then deleting some words, altering grammatical structures, or plugging in one-for-one synonym-substitutes.

Professor Howard elaborates further in an article from 1995:

Because patchwriting can result from a student's inexperience with conventions of academic writing, instruction in quotation and source attribution and a request for subsequent revision of the paper may be an appropriate response for the instructor. But because patchwriting often results from a student's unfamiliarity with the words and ideas of a source text, instruction in the material discussed in the source and a request for subsequent revision of the paper is even more frequently the appropriate response. Patchwriting can also be the result of a student's intent to deceive, in which case the minimum penalty is an "F" in the course and the maximum penalty, suspension from the university.

This final point is significant, because she is using the term in its “intermediate” sense only when referring to student work that can be revised. Educators encounter many such instances of essentially honest students who either don’t fully understand a text or haven’t mastered rhetorical restatement, and fall into the trap of using too much verbatim source material in this way. In other words, patchwriting can describe a less judgmental midpoint that can be seen as a “teachable moment” rather than an all-or-nothing accusation of plagiarism (which might, of course, bewilder and discourage a student). Indeed, specialized academic writing is often full of subject-specific vocabulary and expressions that must be acquired by students entering the field, and modeling their writing on that of published scholars is exactly what they need to do before they can produce competent scholarly writing of their own. Sometimes patchwriting represents useful training wheels for inexperienced writers.

But in serious academic writing, it’s clear that patchwriting is more problematic:

In academia, patchwriting is considered an offense equal to that of plagiarism. If [Jonathan] Lethem had submitted this as a senior thesis or dissertation chapter, he'd be shown the door. — Kenneth Goldsmith, The Chronicle of Higher Education , 11 September 2011

Clearly, correct attribution and paraphrasing are important lessons to be learned, and not just in academia, but also in journalism: the Poynter Institute has been watching patchwriting in its coverage of the profession:

Rather than copying a statement word for word, the writer is rearranging phrases and changing tenses, but is relying too heavily on the vocabulary and syntax of the source material. It’s a form of intellectual dishonesty that indicates that the writer is not actually thinking for herself. — Kelly McBride, “'Patchwriting' is more common than plagiarism, just as dishonest,” poynter.org, 18 September 2012

The Poynter Institute has even created a handy flow chart to help journalists and editors identify plagiarism, patchwriting, and theft of ideas. Their description contains a definition of patchwriting that is similar to Professor Howard’s:

If a journalist has mirrored the language of another author save for a few word substitutions, they may be guilty of patchwriting . This is a lesser charge than plagiarism if the original author is credited.

Watching the evolution of this phenomenon—and the new word used to describe it—has been the mission of The Citation Project , led by Professor Howard and Professor Sandra Jamieson. Their updated definition of patchwriting :

restating a phrase, clause, or one or more sentences while staying close to the language or syntax of the source

Of course, in order for a term to be entered in a dictionary, it must show widespread and increasing use with a consistent meaning; we then derive the definition from a careful assessment of many citations. Even in the rare instances when the coiner of a given word is known, we don’t use their own wording of the definition of the term, since it represents only one point of view for a word that has become widely adopted.

Besides, that would be cheating.

Words We're Watching talks about words we are increasingly seeing in use but that have not yet met our criteria for entry .

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Definition of 'paraphrase'

paraphrase in American English

Paraphrase in british english, examples of 'paraphrase' in a sentence paraphrase, trends of paraphrase.

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In other languages paraphrase

• American English : paraphrase / ˈpærəfreɪz /
• Brazilian Portuguese : parafrasear
• Chinese : 释义
• European Spanish : parafrasear
• French : paraphraser
• German : umschreiben
• Italian : parafrasare
• Japanese : 別の言葉で言い換える
• Korean : 다른 말로 바꿔서 설명하다
• European Portuguese : parafrasear
• Spanish : parafrasear
• Brazilian Portuguese : paráfrase
• Chinese : 改述
• European Spanish : paráfrasis
• French : paraphrase
• German : Umschreibung
• Italian : parafrasi
• Japanese : 言い換え
• Korean : 다른 말로 바꿔서 설명한 것
• European Portuguese : paráfrase
• Spanish : paráfrasis

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Paraphrasing Tool – Academic Rephrase Tool for Researchers

Ref-n-write’s paraphrasing tool has a powerful AI (Artificial Intelligence) module that is specifically designed for academic writing. It is very important to avoid plagiarism when it comes to academic writing. You can no longer use your own text after it is published, it should be paraphrased manually or with a good rephrase tool, otherwise it will be considered self-plagiarism . Ref-n-write has been ranked as one of the best paraphrasing tools available out there. Ref-n-write’s legacy phrase templates feature offers the ability to rephrase sentences individually, while the newly added paraphrasing tool allows the users to rephrase paragraphs with one click. These tools work hand-in-hand with the academic phrasebank and rewording tools to provide a full suite of tools for researchers. This makes Ref-n-write one of the best research tools available for students and academics. In a recent survey of rewriter tools available to students and academics to reduce plagiarism, Ref-n-write was rated as the best scholarly paraphrasing tool . Click here to see the video of paraphrasing tool in action rephrasing a paragraph.

What is a Paraphrasing Tool?

A paraphrasing tool is used to rewrite or rephrase a sentence without altering its meaning. This is accomplished by substituting any number of alternate versions for specific words, phrases, sentences, or even whole paragraphs to create a slightly different variant.

How do you use the Ref-n-Write’s Paraphrasing Tool in Word?

You have to select a passage and click the ‘Paraphrase’ button in the Ref-n-write’s button panel. Ref-n-Write will rewrite the text and display the results in the panels below. Following figure demonstrates Ref-n-Write’s paraphrasing tool in action.

Can Ref-n-write’s Paraphrasing Tool correct grammatical errors in the text?

The Ref-n-Write’s paraphrasing tool functions as a grammar checker. In addition to rephrasing and rewording the text the tool can detect and correct grammatical errors. You don't have to spend extra money on a separate grammar check as these tools can be quite expensive and you have to sign up for an annual subscription.

How do you Rephrase a Sentence?

Rephrasing a sentence follows the same process as paraphrasing, but the most important consideration is to make the sentence clearer. Rephrasing may or may not be coupled with rewording or synonym adjustments. It may only entail rearranging the original sentence as long as clarity is obtained.

Can Ref-n-write Rephrase a Sentence?

Perfectly! It is an all-in-one tool that will assist you with every aspect of academic writing. Ref-n-write makes it very easy to rephrase, reword, rewrite, paraphrase, cite and avoid plagiarism.

Is it Okay to use a Paraphrasing tool?

Yes, it is okay to use a paraphrasing tool. However, there has been much debate about whether or not using a paraphrasing tool is a good practice. Some may argue that it prevents authors and students from improving their ability to express themselves in their own words. As with any invention, these paraphrasing tools can be misused. But that doesn’t mean using them is bad. These tools provide suggestions and ideas to help the user paraphrase, but the final product is still up to the user. Only when authors, students, or users see these paraphrasing tools as a direct substitute for citation does it become a bad practice.

How do you Paraphrase Correctly?

• • Read the text to get an understanding of its message and flow.
• • Identify and highlight keywords that must not be changed to retain the text’s meaning.
• • Identify words that can be rearranged or moved without changing the meaning or flow of the text.
• • Identify words and phrases that can be changed and replace them with appropriate synonyms.
• • Double-check that you included all of the vital information in the original text.

How do you Professionally Paraphrase?

You Paraphrase professionally by following our guidelines on paraphrasing correctly and appropriately citing and referencing the source materials. A paraphrasing tool (ideally Ref-n-write) will make the process quicker and faster, increase the overall quality of your work, and provide you with a greater variety of ideas to work with.

How do you Rephrase a Paragraph?

• • Paraphrasing each sentence that makes up the paragraph.
• • Ensuring there is an adequate flow from sentence to sentence
• • Ensuring every sentence is clear
• • Ensuring the meaning of each sentence and the overall message of the whole paragraph is not altered

How can I make a Sentence Better?

It is essential that a good sentence be clear, concise, appropriately punctuated, free of grammar errors, and have a proper flow. All of the elements stated above must be improved for a sentence to be better. Effective paraphrasing may help you improve a sentence, and employing the right paraphrasing tools can help you improve a sentence even more.

Can you use the Ref-n-Write’s Paraphrasing Tool Offline?

Most of the existing rephrase tools requires access to the internet. On the contrary, the Ref-n-write’s paraphrasing tool can be operated in both online and offline modes. Following images show the rephrased output of the paraphrasing tool when operating in online and offline modes. If you look at the rephrased paragraph, you will notice that the rephrased sentences are colour coded in offline mode indicating the confidence of each word replacement - green means very confident; blue means moderately confident and red means not very confident. There is no colour coding in the online mode, however the quality of rephrasing is much better in the online paraphrasing mode compared to the offline mode. It is highly recommended to use the paraphrasing tool in online mode since this is much more powerful than the offline mode.

How do you Paraphrase a file with Ref-n-Write?

Ref-n-Write allows users to paraphrase their file one passage at a time. This enables the author to learn and understand the paraphrasing process and do it without outside help in the future. Since Ref-n-write is a Microsoft Word add-in, paraphrasing can be applied directly to the document without losing the formatting.

What is the best free online paraphrasing tool?

There is no such thing as the best online paraphrasing tool. An excellent online paraphrasing tool should provide final paraphrased results that adhere to the steps recommended in our guideline to correctly paraphrasing. Ref-n-write provides a 15-day free trial period in which you can test the paraphrasing feature before charging a one-time fee.

Can I get the paraphrasing tool for free?

As the saying goes, “the great ones don’t come cheap.” Ref-n-write is the best academic paraphrasing tool available. It is a Microsoft Word add-in that is compatible with both Windows and Mac computers. If you are a scholar, student, researcher, author, or you have a job that requires a lot of writing, Ref-n-write is the best for you. Ref-n-write provides a 15-day free trial period before charging a one-time fee of around £29.99 for the full version. That is significantly less expensive than any other paraphrasing tool that charges a monthly fee. It aids in citation and allows you to import your source materials and conduct a full-text search to avoid plagiarism. Ref-n-write is the most affordable all-in-one paraphrasing tool available.

What is the difference between free and paid Paraphrasing tool?

Paraphrasing with a free or paid tool follows the same steps as mentioned above for correctly paraphrasing. However, when compared to the paid version of Ref-n-write, using a free tool has some limitations on the word count of the text being paraphrased.

Is Ref-n-write Paraphrasing Tool Safe?

Ref-n-write’s paraphrasing tools are secure and dependable. They take the security and privacy of their members seriously, and they operate in line with all relevant privacy and data protection legislation.

Is using Paraphrasing Tool Cheating?

Some may argue that employing paraphrasing tools is unethical because the information is not original and the tools do not acknowledge the original writer. Paraphrasing, on the other hand, is not plagiarism if adequately cited and referenced. Hence, utilising paraphrasing tools with correct citation and reference is not considered cheating.

Is Paraphrasing Tool Legit?

The utilisation of paraphrase tools determines their legitimacy. When used correctly, they are legal; nevertheless, when misused, they constitute plagiarism, which is illegal. True, these paraphrase tools make work easier and faster, especially when one is on a tight deadline, but they must be utilised correctly.

Can Turnitin Detect Paraphrasing Tool?

An excellent way to avoid plagiarism scanners is by paraphrasing. Turnitin’s algorithms do not detect paraphrasing. They are primarily concerned with recognising similar language structures, grammatical patterns, and phrases. This paraphrasing tool will not be flagged as plagiarised as long as it generates unique content that exhibits little or no similarity to anything in the Turnitin database.

Is Paraphrasing Tool Plagiarism?

As previously stated, combining paraphrasing tools with proper citation and referencing is a good practice. Yes, some of these paraphrasing tools can produce 100% unique content, but the source material should be acknowledged. As a result, if proper citation is not used, a paraphrasing tool can constitute plagiarism.

Is there a Website that can Paraphrase Sentences for you?

You can try the Ref-n-write paraphrasing tool on the website, however it is recommended to install the plugin on your Microsoft Word as it offers more options and is easy to use. If you conduct a Google search, you will be presented with an unending list of websites to consider. Many of these websites reword sentences; they do not adequately rewrite them.

What is the Best Paid Paraphrasing tool?

We are possibly the best paid paraphrasing tool available. Ref-n-write does more than just paraphrase; it also assists with citation and referencing and allows you to import all of your source materials and perform a full-text search to check for similarity and text overlap. Our academic phrase bank provides you with a variety of phrases related to your topic of interest from which to choose. Ref-n-write helps you enhance your writing to suit today’s standards. Oh, and did I forget to mention that it is very affordable compared to other paid tools? We give you good value for your money.

How do you Use the Paraphrasing Tool in Word?

Microsoft Word’s Web version now includes rewrite suggestions, but it is very basic. However, this is a new function and has not yet been implemented on the PC or mobile versions. There are various paraphrasing tools available as Microsoft Word add-ins on PC, including Ref-n-write and many others. These add-ins will assist you in rewording your texts in a variety of ways.

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