Welcome to the NWACC Library’s new website! Can’t find what you’re looking for? Email library@nwacc.edu
Paraphrasing is putting another author's words and ideas into your own words. An effective paraphrase includes the original source's main point and supporting details from it. It differs from summarizing in that a summary only provides the original author's main point.
A dictionary or thesaurus can help select words to use when paraphrasing. Often, a dictionary entry will include a list of synonyms. Synonyms are words that have the same or a similar meaning to the original word. A thesaurus is a collection of synonyms.