July 28, 2009 Archives

Revising an assignment means looking at it carefully and making significant changes to improve it. If there's something wrong with your car's engine, you can't solve the problem with a fresh coat of paint. Revision asks you to go beyond surface changes such as spelling and punctuation, and address big-picture issues such as focus, clarity, and audience. (See "Revision vs. Editing.")

Using another author's ideas, but different words, is paraphrasing. If you paraphrase someone else's ideas, in academic writing you must still give credit to the original author, because you are using someone else's ideas.

(Whenever you are in doubt, cite your source, or ask your instructor for clarification. See direct quotation; plagiarism.)

A legitimate way of using someone else's exact words in your paper, so long as you put quotation marks around those exact words, and identify the source. (See paraphrase.)