Paraphrasing: The Skill No Ones Been Really Taught

As time has gone and I've worked with regular students and Cite Right students, I've realized there is a major skill that many people do not realize they have not perfected: paraphrasing. When you open up the APA manual to the section about paraphrasing, all you'll see is a small paragraph--it may be the smallest part in the entire manual. Until I looked through the Chicago Style manual, I had not seen an example of paraphrasing that broke down what is and what isn't paraphrasing. Because the main purpose of Cite Right is to discuss ways to cite correctly and to not commit plagiarism, the topic of paraphrasing is something that is discussed at length. During these discussions, I've found that most of these students do not entirely know what constitutes paraphrasing. Now, this isn't that surprising since these particular students are in the program for plagiarism; however, as I've become more aware of this problem, I've transferred this towards normal Writing Center sessions. In the past few weeks, I have asked multiple students about paraphrasing. If a sentence is cited without quotes, I'll ask them if it's paraphrased. Most times he/she will say that it is, but as I continue on, I usually become more and more suspicious that this student does not know how to correctly paraphrase. As the conversation continues, I'll ask the student on what they believe paraphrasing constitutes and maybe how they do it. By opening up this dialogue, I've found out that a good few of my clients do not know how to paraphrase correctly. At this point, the session turns into a discussion on how to paraphrase. I even had one student come back the very next day to have me look over her paraphrasing to make sure she was doing it right. Something I've been telling students to make them feel more comfortable with the conversation is that it's a skill that no ones really been taught. Personally, I don't remember a teacher ever going over what constitutes good paraphrasing, and most of my clients don't either. Because of my work with the Cite Right program, I've become especially careful with possible plagiarism within students papers, especially unintended plagiarism. During the session I'll give examples of what constitutes good paraphrasing and then tell the client that if he/she feels unsure, to read the sentence or passage and look away and restate what they read. I'm finding now that I've begun to really focus on this, many of my clients have benefited from a conversation about paraphrasing and what constitutes plagiarism. During the discussions with the students in Cite Right, I realized that many people do not know what plagiarism is--and this is not unique among Cite Right students. This conversation within an appointment I think can be beneficial for all types of students. Because we are administering the Cite Right program, I think it is our duty to especially warn students against plagiarism and do everything in our power to help them to not even accidentally do it. Since I've found this technique to be so beneficial to so many students, I will continue to mention the skill of paraphrasing when citing and try to open up a dialogue with all students willing to discuss what they think it means and what it really is.