Paraphrasing accurately and honestly*
Paraphrases must 1) accurately summarize the author’s idea 2) be written in your own words 3) use attributive tags and/or citations to give the writer credit for his/her ideas, to give yourself credit for your research, and to tell your reader where to go for more information.
Harris, Wendell. "The Peculiar Status of the Personal Essay." College English58.1
December (1996): 934-953.
“The question of which nonfictional prose qualifies as literature has long been a vexed one. The principal that there are no objective criteria for determining what belongs in the category of literature and what does not, and that therefore the category is a highly artificial one, has received reasonably wide support in recent decades. This view seems both true and unhelpful; the difference between literature and non-literature remains one which everyone feels” (946)
Of course, do not take parts of a source into your paper without attributive tags and/or citations and without paraphrasing:
Some might wonder whether or not George Orwell's essays are literature. The question of which nonfictional prose qualifies as literature has long been a vexed one.However, the difference between literature and non-literature remains one which everyone feels. In this case, one might feel that the essays have literary merit but also convey important information.
1) Inaccurate paraphrase:
Wendall Harris argues that judging non-fiction is so subjective that most people find it an arbitrary literary category (946).
2) Paraphrase too close to the original:
Remember that when paraphrasing, you must significantly alter the word choices and the sentence structure of the original (can't merely substitute synonyms).
Some might wonder whether or not George Orwell's essays are literature. As Wendell Harris has noted, the issue of what essays count as literature has long been a complicated one (946). Yet the distinction between literature and non-literature remains a distinction which everyone feels (946)
3) Paraphrasing isn’t enough – you must use attributive tags and/or citations:
People have struggled with the complicated question of which essays can be classified as literature for quite a long time, but, in truth, readers can intuitively distinguish between literary and non-literary writing. In the case of George Orwell, one might feel that the essays have literary merit but also convey important information.
You must use attributive tags and/or citations for every sentence whose idea comes from a source (think of it as giving yourself credit for your research and helping your reader trust that you are a writer who has done his/her homework)
As Wendell Harris has noted, people have struggled with the complicated question of which essays can be classified as literature for quite a long time (946). Nonetheless, readers do intuitively sense a distinction between non-literary prose and literary prose. In this case, one might feel that the essays have literary merit but also convey important information.