How do I paraphrase without plagiarizing?

The worked example: one passage, four rewrites

The sample passage was written for this page. Its author, Lindqvist, and the book are invented so you can practice on them; cite real sources in your own work.

Original (Lindqvist, 2021, p. 42): “Benches are among the cheapest things a city can give its residents, yet councils often remove them because they fear benches will attract loitering. What remains is a street designed for people who walk fast and never stop. It fails older residents, parents with small children and anyone waiting for a bus. A street with nowhere to sit quietly decides who belongs on it.”

Synonym swap, which is plagiarism: “Benches are some of the least expensive things a town can offer its citizens, but councils frequently take them away because they worry benches will draw loiterers. What is left is a street built for people who walk quickly and never pause. It lets down elderly residents, parents with young kids and anyone waiting for a bus (Lindqvist, 2021).” Each sentence tracks the original clause by clause. The citation at the end doesn't fix that, because the structure is still Lindqvist's.

Reordered, which is also plagiarism: “Because they fear benches will attract loitering, councils often remove them, yet benches are among the cheapest things a city can give its residents. A street designed for people who walk fast and never stop is what remains, and it fails anyone waiting for a bus (Lindqvist, 2021).” Almost every word is the source's, and one run of 12 words is copied exactly.

Paraphrase in APA 7: “Lindqvist (2021) argues that councils who take seating off a street, usually to stop people lingering, hand it to one kind of user: the person in a hurry. Older people, carers with toddlers and bus passengers all lose out, so deciding about benches means deciding who the street serves (p. 42).”

The same idea in MLA 9: “Taking benches off a street to discourage lingering hands it to people in a hurry and shuts out older people, carers with toddlers and bus passengers, which turns seating into a decision about who the street is for (Lindqvist 42).”

Summary: “Removing benches to discourage loitering leaves streets that work badly for anyone who needs to stop (Lindqvist, 2021).”

What the good version does differently

It starts from the point, not from the first sentence. The original opens with cost; the paraphrase opens with the consequence, because that is the idea worth borrowing.

It changes the grammar, not only the vocabulary. Four sentences became two. The people who lose out moved from the object of a verb (“It fails older residents”) to the subject of a new sentence (“Older people ... all lose out”).

It is a little shorter. The line about cost is gone, which is why the paraphrase runs 48 words to the original's 64. Purdue OWL describes a paraphrase as usually shorter than the passage, condensing it slightly, and its steps end with checking your version against the original so it still carries the essential information. If cost mattered to your essay, you would keep it.

It names the author in the sentence. “Lindqvist (2021) argues” marks where the borrowed idea starts, so your own comment can follow in the next sentence, clearly yours: “That fits the high street in my case study, where the council removed six benches in a year.”

It keeps ordinary words. “Bus”, “older” and “street” appear in both versions. You don't need a synonym for every word; you need sentences you built yourself.

How to cite a paraphrase in APA and MLA

A paraphrase needs an in-text citation and an entry in your reference list, the same as a quotation. The main difference between the two styles is the page number.

APA 7. Give the author and year, either in your sentence, as in “Lindqvist (2021) argues”, or in parentheses at the end, as in “(Lindqvist, 2021)”. APA's own guidance says a page or paragraph number is not required for a paraphrase, but you may add one when it would help a reader find the passage in a long or complex work such as a book. When a paraphrase runs over several sentences, cite it on first mention; you don't need to repeat the citation while it stays clear you are still paraphrasing the same work. Start a new paragraph or switch to another source, and cite again.

MLA 9. MLA uses author and page: “(Lindqvist 42)”. You can also put the author's name in your sentence and the page alone in parentheses at the end. Purdue OWL's MLA guide says the page number belongs in the parentheses, not in the wording of your sentence.

If you met the idea in someone else's paraphrase, APA says it is best to read and cite the original. If you can't get hold of it, use a secondary-source citation.

Paraphrasing a quote, and when to keep the quotation marks

Paraphrasing a quote is the same job: the quote is simply your source text. Restate the speaker's point in your own structure, say whose point it is, and cite where you found it.

Keep the quotation instead when the exact words are your evidence: a definition you are going to test, a phrase you are about to analyze, a line whose tone is the point. Purdue OWL's steps also say to put quotation marks around any unique term or phrasing you borrow exactly. So a striking phrase can stay quoted inside an otherwise paraphrased sentence: Lindqvist (2021) calls the result a street that “quietly decides who belongs on it” (p. 42). A direct quotation needs its page number in APA as well as in MLA.

Signal phrases you can reuse: “Lindqvist argues that”, “According to Lindqvist”, “As Lindqvist points out”, “Lindqvist found that” for research findings, “Lindqvist's case is that”. Pick the verb that matches what the author does: argues, reports, describes, estimates, warns.

Paraphrasing tools, AI and the side-by-side check

A paraphrasing tool or a chatbot can reword a passage in seconds, but the result is not your paraphrase, and it still carries the author's idea, so it still needs your citation. Tools that reword sentence by sentence keep the original's order, which is the synonym-swap pattern in the example. Whether you may use one at all is up to your course, so check the syllabus and disclose it where your school asks.

However you wrote it, do this check yourself before you submit. Put the original and your version side by side and highlight every run of three or more words that matches in the same order. Each highlight gets rewritten from your notes, or goes in quotation marks with a page number. The three-word check is our rule of thumb for self-editing, not a standard any school uses. A similarity score from a plagiarism checker measures matching text, so treat it as a pointer to look closer, not a verdict.

If you draft with HidenGPT's Essay format, it cites only the sources you list and leaves a [source] placeholder where a claim has none, which shows you where a citation is missing. It can't tell you whether one of your sentences follows a source too closely. That is what the side-by-side read is for, and it stays your job.