Paraphrasing

Introduce paraphrases clearly in your text, usually with a signal phrase that includes the author of the source, as the highlighted words in this example indicate:

Professor of linguistics Deborah Tannen says that she offers her book That’s Not What I Meant! to “women and men everywhere who are trying their best to talk to each other” (19). Tannen goes on to illustrate how communication between women and men breaks down and then to suggest that an awareness of “genderlects” improves relationships (297).

In the preceding passage, notice how the student writer brings authority to the point she makes in the first sentence. She introduces the author by title and name and then paraphrases her work, including quotations for important words and phrases. Note also that a page number is included in parentheses at the end of each paraphrase.