The document cautions about five hazards of paraphrasing: 1) Changing only a few words is still plagiarism. 2) Keeping the same sentence structure and order of presentation is also plagiarism. 3) Adding ideas or explanations belongs in subsequent discussion, not in the paraphrase itself. 4) Adding interpretation or assessment should come after the paraphrase. 5) Creating a straw man fallacy by misrepresenting the source makes it an easier target for rebuttal and is unfair.

1. Cautions about
Paraphrasing

2. Beware of these paraphrasing
hazards…
1. Changing only some of the words—if
you change only a few words or
include various phrases from the
original source in your paraphrase,
you are committing plagiarism!

3. 2. Changing words but keeping the same
sentence structure and order of
presentation—paraphrasing must be
more than substituting synonyms for
every word in the original. Rewrite the
source. If you do not change the
sentence structure and order of
presentation, you are committing
plagiarism!

4. 3. Adding ideas or explanation—the
paraphrase should reflect the source
accurately. Explanation of the
paraphrase should come in your own
subsequent discussion, not in the
paraphrase itself.

5. 4. Adding interpretation or assessment—
the paraphrase should not include
your evaluation or judgment of the
ideas. Evaluate afterwards. The
paraphrase must be objective and not
include any emotive or sarcastic
words in the paraphrase.

6. 5. Creating a straw man fallacy—writers
who exaggerate or misrepresent the
source in a way that makes it an
easier target for rebuttal commit the
straw man fallacy. Take care that your
paraphrase is fair, especially if you are
hostile towards the source.

7. Sources:
 Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Compact Handbook. 7th
ed. New York: Longman, 2010. Print.
 Hacker, Diana and Nancy Sommers. A Writer’s Reference
7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
 Harris, Robert. Using Sources Effectively. 3rd ed. Glendale,
CA: Pyrczak Publishing, 2011. Print.
 Howard, Rebecca Moore. Writing Matters: A Handbook for
Writing and Research. New York: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print.
 Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. The Brief
Wadsworth Handbook. 6th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2010.
Print.