How to Paraphrase and Reference in Academic Assignments
Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s idea into your own words while keeping the original meaning intact. Markers value it far more than direct quotation, because it shows you have actually understood the source rather than just copied it. As referencing rules get stricter every year, this is one of the most useful skills you can build early.
1. Read the source until you understand it, not just recognise it
You cannot paraphrase something you have only skimmed. Read the passage properly, then set it aside and try to explain the idea from memory. If you can, you understand it well enough to paraphrase. If you can’t, go back and read it again before you write a single word.
2. Decide what has to stay exact and what can change
Specific facts, figures and named findings usually need to stay accurate. Everything else, sentence structure, word choice, the order ideas appear in, can and should change. A reliable technique is switching active voice to passive (or the reverse) and rebuilding the sentence around a different starting point.
3. Cite the source every time
A citation is not optional decoration. It tells your marker exactly whose idea this is, which protects you from plagiarism and gives your argument credibility. Cite immediately after the paraphrased sentence, not at the end of the paragraph.
4. Proofread the paraphrase against the original
Read your version next to the source. Check two things: that you have not accidentally kept whole phrases intact, and that you have not drifted so far that you have changed what the author actually said.
Worked example
Original: “Karl Marx has possibly impacted the twentieth-century history course above any other individual thinker.”
Paraphrased: Worsley (2002) argues that Marx has had a greater influence on the course of twentieth-century history than any other single thinker.
Reference: Worsley, P. (2002) Marx and Marxism. 2nd edn. London: Routledge.
Notice what changed: the sentence structure, the word order, and “impacted” became “influence”. What stayed the same is the actual claim, and it is now properly attributed.
Why this matters for your Turnitin score
A high similarity score is usually a paraphrasing problem, not a dishonesty problem. If you genuinely restate a source in your own words and cite it, Turnitin has nothing to flag. Students who copy a sentence and swap a few synonyms are the ones who get caught, because the sentence structure is still identical to the original.
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See also our full guide to referencing across every citation style, or read about how we edit and proofread student drafts.