What is the difference between paraphrasing and quoting?

A quotation reproduces a source's exact words in quotation marks. A paraphrase restates a specific passage in your own words and sentence structure. Both need a citation.

How much should I change when I paraphrase?

Change both the wording and the sentence structure, while keeping the meaning accurate. Swapping a few synonyms into the same structure is not enough, and it is often called patchwriting.

Do I need to cite a paraphrase?

Yes. The idea belongs to the source even when the words are yours, so cite it in the style your course requires.

How many quotations should an essay contain?

As few as you need. Most academic essays rely mainly on paraphrase and summary, and use quotations only when the exact wording matters. If quotations make up a large share of your essay, your own voice is probably missing.

Can I change a word inside a quotation?

Only with square brackets, such as [the policy] for clarity, and ellipses to show omissions. Never change the meaning, and do not alter spelling or wording without marking it.

Paraphrasing and Quoting Correctly: A Practical Guide

Most students are told to put things in their own words, and many are never shown how. The result is a familiar problem: a paragraph that is almost a source's sentences with a few words changed, followed by a worried citation and a lower mark. Used well, paraphrase and quotation are the two main ways your essay gets its evidence while keeping your own voice.

This guide explains how each works, gives you a method you can repeat, and shows what the common mistakes look like.

Three ways to use a source

Method	What it is	Use it when
Quotation	The exact words, in quotation marks	The wording is distinctive, authoritative or the thing you are analyzing
Paraphrase	One passage restated in your own words and structure	You need the detail of an idea, not the phrasing
Summary	A short overview of a larger text	You need only the main point of a long source

All three need a citation. The difference is how much of the source's language you keep. In most academic writing, paraphrase and summary carry most of the weight, and quotations are a seasoning.

When to quote

Quote when the exact wording is the point. Good reasons include:

A definition or technical term that must be exact.
A phrase so well put that a paraphrase would lose something.
A statement you are going to analyze, as in literary and legal work.
A claim by a person or organization that you are going to challenge.
Primary source material, such as a speech or a document.

If you are quoting only because you do not know how to say it differently, paraphrase instead.

How to paraphrase, step by step

A reliable method keeps you from echoing the original.

Read the passage until you understand it. If you cannot explain it aloud, you are not ready to paraphrase.
Cover the source. Put it away or turn it face down, so you are not copying.
Write the idea from memory, as if you were explaining it to a friend. Use your own structure and vocabulary.
Compare with the original. Check that the meaning is accurate and that you have not copied phrases or the order of ideas.
Mark any exact words that you kept, such as a technical term, with quotation marks.
Add the citation.

If your paraphrase follows the original's structure sentence by sentence, start again from step 2.

Weak and strong paraphrases

Original: "Students who space their study sessions over several weeks retain more information than those who study the same material in one sitting" (Smith, 2020, p. 12).

Patchwriting, too close: Students who spread their study sessions across several weeks remember more than those who study the same material in a single sitting (Smith, 2020).

It keeps the sentence structure and most of the key words, so it is still too close to the original.

Stronger paraphrase: Cramming appears to produce weaker long-term memory than spreading the same hours across several weeks (Smith, 2020).

The structure is new, the point is accurate, and the writer has also made it fit the surrounding argument.

What counts as a good paraphrase

A good paraphrase:

Has a different sentence structure from the original.
Uses your own vocabulary, except for key terms that cannot be changed.
Keeps the meaning accurate and the emphasis fair.
Is roughly as long as the original passage, or shorter.
Includes a citation.

If you have to keep the key technical terms, that is fine. "Spaced practice" is a term of art, and replacing it with something vague would make the paraphrase worse.

How to summarize

A summary condenses a whole article or chapter into a few sentences. Identify the main claim, the evidence and the conclusion, then write them in your own words. Avoid including your opinion in the summary. If you want to evaluate the source, do that in separate sentences.

Smith (2020) reviews 40 studies on study timing and concludes that spacing sessions over weeks improves retention compared with massing them, though the benefit depends on the length of the gap.

(The study is invented to show the form.)

How to quote

Short quotations

Quotations of a few lines go inside quotation marks within your sentence. In American usage, commas and periods go inside the closing quotation marks. Use a signal phrase and add the page number if the source has pages.

Smith (2020) argues that "spacing sessions across weeks improves retention" (p. 12).

Long quotations

Longer quotations are set off as a block, indented, without quotation marks. The length that triggers a block depends on your style: APA uses 40 words or more, and MLA uses more than four lines of prose. The citation follows the final punctuation. Use block quotations rarely, since a long quotation often does the writer's thinking for them.

Altering a quotation

If you need to change something inside a quotation, mark it.

Square brackets show something you added or changed: "[The policy] failed because of cost."
Ellipses show something you left out: "The policy failed ... because of cost."
"[sic]" marks an error in the original that you have kept.

Never change the meaning with these tools. If you cut a quotation so that it says the opposite of what the author meant, that is misrepresentation.

Introduce and explain every quotation

A quotation should never stand alone. Use a three-part pattern: introduce it, give it, explain it.

Introduce: Say who is speaking and why it matters.
Quote: Give the exact words, shortest passage that works.
Explain: Say what the words show and how they support your point.

Compare "dropped" and "integrated" versions. Dropped: Practice matters. "Spacing sessions across weeks improves retention" (Smith, 2020, p. 12). Integrated: Practice timing matters because, as Smith (2020) found, "spacing sessions across weeks improves retention" (p. 12), which suggests students should plan revision early.

Our guide to using sources in an essay shows how to weave sources into a paragraph.

Signal phrases

Vary the verbs you use to introduce sources, and choose ones that fit what the author does.

Neutral	Stronger claim	Cautious or critical
states, notes, reports	demonstrates, proves, establishes	suggests, claims, assumes, concedes

"Proves" implies certainty, so use it only when the evidence warrants it. "Claims" can suggest doubt, so avoid it when you do not mean to.

Keeping track as you take notes

Most accidental plagiarism begins in note-taking. Protect yourself with these habits:

Mark direct quotations clearly in your notes, with quotation marks and the page number.
Write paraphrases in a different color or section from quotations.
Record the full source details at the time.
Never paste text from a website into your draft without marking it.
Keep your notes and your draft separate.

If you later cannot tell which notes are your words and which are the source's, check the source again before using them.

Common mistakes

Patchwriting. Changing a few words and keeping the original's structure.
Missing citations on paraphrases.
Too many quotations, which hides your own thinking.
Dropped quotations with no introduction or comment.
Altering a quotation without marking it.
Misrepresenting a source by cutting out context.
Citing the wrong source, for example the one you read about, not the original.

Our guide to avoiding plagiarism covers the wider picture, including what counts as common knowledge and how to check your own work.

A quick checklist

Did I understand the passage before I paraphrased it?
Did I write it without looking at the source?
Is the structure and wording genuinely different?
Is the meaning accurate?
Did I cite it?
Is each quotation introduced, short and explained?
Is my voice leading the paragraph?

Final thoughts

Paraphrase is a test of understanding: if you can explain a source in your own words, you have learned something from it. Quote only when the wording matters, cite everything, and let your own explanation connect the evidence to your argument. Done that way, using sources makes your essay stronger and removes most of the risk that worries students.