help with referencing and paraphrasing?

[mountainboo]

I'm still a little confused. What is the difference between referencing and paraphrasing? I know roughly what paraphrasing is. TIA

[sophie_1003]

I think paraphrasing is where you repeat, roughly, the original quote but may change the wording slightly to suit the context. Referencing doesn't need a quote as such, but instead is where you mention an idea and then acknowledge whose idea it was in brackets. I think referencing is a more academic way of using someone elses ideas/words whereas paraphrasing is in more informal writing.

[mountainboo]

Thanks Sophie. With paraphrasing you have to change the entire piece of text into your own words to show you understand the concept of the original piece, and then cite it. What you said about referencing, would you write the idea as the writer has written it?

[sophie_1003]

Oh I didn't realise that was what paraphrasing was! but yes, for example "This proves that children learn better when they have individual learning plans (Smith, 2009)" that would be a reference but a quote would be "This proves Smith's theory that "Children experience more effective learning when it is planned to their individual needs" (Smith, 2009, p.10)" These are examples by the way, not real life things!

[mountainboo]

Oh right, ok, thanks Sophie. It's all very confusing isn't it. I guess I'll get the hang of it x

[sophie_1003]

Yes, I find it's made worse when you come to writing the references list and having to get the author, date, title etc all in the right order! Good luck!

[abstibus]

mountainboo
If you are really serious about referencing (sometimes called 'citation' in the text), then follow these simple rules. Paraphrasing and summarising are some of the essential ways to avoid charges of plagiarism.

Read the paragraph, make sure you understand it and and make notes. .
Close the book
Rewrite using your notes, as this means you will not be influenced by the words you have read or the structure of the sentences. Changing a few words is not enough.
Take what you have written and check again to make sure that you have understood/done it correctly.Then put the author's family name, followed by a comma, followed by the year, all in brackets. You might want to include the page number.
Example (Smith, 2009, p 342)

In your referencong/biblography list at the end, you need the following 6 pieces of basic information for a book:
Author's family name
Author's initial(s)
Year (in brackets),
Title of the book (underlined or in italics)
Place of publication
Publisher

You should be able to find this information on the page behind the title page (not the cover) of a book.
This is the Harvard system. Does this help?
If you want, I can give you some website addresses to help you.

[abstibus]

Sorry for typo - should be 'referencing', not 'referencong'.