Paraphrasing

Adapted from “Chapter 5: The Research Process” of An Introduction to Technical Communication, by David Murray, Michelle Miller, and Sherena Huntsman. Copyright © Sherena Huntsman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

In technical-report writing, usually the better approach is to paraphrase. When you paraphrase, you convey the information fact-by-fact, idea-by-idea, and point-by-point in your own words. The writer of the original passage ought to be able to read your paraphrase and say that it is precisely what she or he had meant.

Paraphrases are necessary and preferable for a number of reasons:

You paraphrase because the content of the passage is so important to your report that you need every bit of it.
When you paraphrase, you adjust the wording of the original to meet the needs of your audience, the purpose of your report, and your own writing style. In other words, you “translate” other writers’ material into your own.
A report of mostly direct quotations would be hard to read.
Readers tend to skip over direct quotations, particularly long ones.
One final reason for paraphrasing: you are actually writing bits of the rough draft of your report as you paraphrase.

Here is an example of an original passage and its paraphrase, with the unique wording of the original (some of which should be changed in the paraphrased version) in bold.

Original Passage

About a third of light-water reactors operating or under construction in the United States are boiling-water reactors. The distinguishing characteristic of a BWR is that the reactor vessel itself serves as the boiler of the nuclear steam supply system. This vessel is by far the major component in the reactor building, and the steam it produces passes directly to the turbogenerator. The reactor building also contains emergency core cooling equipment, a major part of which is the pressure suppression pool which is an integral part of the containment structure. . . . . earlier BWRs utilized a somewhat different containment and pressure suppression system. All the commercial BWRs sold in the United States have been designed and built by General Electric. Several types of reactors that use boiling water in pressure tubes have been considered, designed, or built. In a sense, they are similar to the CANDU, described in Chapter 7, which uses pressure tubes and separates the coolant and moderator. The CANDU itself can be designed to use boiling light water as its coolant. The British steam-generating heavy-water reactor has such a system. Finally, the principal reactor type now being constructed in the Soviet Union uses a boiling-water pressure tube design, but with carbon moderator.

Anthony V. Nero, A Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

Paraphrased Version

Boiling water reactors, according to Anthony V. Nero in his Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors, either completed or constructed, make up about one third of the light-water reactors in the U.S. The most important design feature of the BWR is that the reactor vessel itself acts as the nuclear steam supply system. The steam this important component generates goes directly to the turbogenerator. Important, too, in this design is the emergency core cooling equipment, which is housed with the reactor vessel in the reactor building. One of the main components of this equipment is the pressure suppression pool. The containment and pressure suppression system currently used in BWRs has evolved since the early BWR designs. General Electric is the sole designer and builder of these BWRs in the U.S. The different kinds of reactors that use boiling water in pressure tubes are similar to the CANDU, which separates coolant and moderator and uses pressure tubes, also. CANDU can also use boiling light water as a coolant. The British have designed a reactor generated steam from heavy water that uses just such a system. Also, the Soviets have developed and are now building as their main type of reactor a boiling pressure tube design that uses carbon as the moderator. [12:232]

Guide for Writing and Using Paraphrases

Here are some guidelines to remember when paraphrasing:

In most cases, paraphrase rather than use direct quotation.
Avoid the distinctive wording of the original passage.
Do not interpret, criticize, or select from the original passage.
Include bibliographic information on the author, source, and page numbers.
In the rough draft, cite the author’s name and other important details about her or him just as you would if were quoting directly.
Refer to the paraphrased author in such a way to make it clear where the paraphrase begins and ends.
Document a paraphrase just as you would a direct quotation. Mark the area of the paraphrase by citing the paraphrased author’s name at the beginning of the paraphrase and by inserting a footnote or parenthetical reference at the end.