How to Paraphrase Literary Texts

To paraphrase a poemmeans to use your own words in expressing the author’s ideas or message.Here, you should keep the meaning of the source—the main ideas from the literary text must comethrough, but never the same wording. Thus, you paraphrase to rewrite the ideas or thoughts butwithout copying the same wording.

When to Paraphrase

You may be asking, “When do I need to paraphrase?” There are several reasons to do so. One, youmay want to emphasize on the idea of the literary text. Second, you may also want to express thosethoughts in a fewwords to point to your source.

How to Paraphrase Literary Texts

There are simple tips to follow on how to paraphrase a poem or a literary text. Those are whatyou will learn in the following section.

Read the source several times, and understand it

Read the poem, story or literary text several times. Do not stop, but keep reading repeatedly untilyou have reached the point of understanding its meaning. You should also understand the meaningand its relevance to the point you want to focus on in your paper.

While you can restate the words in your own, but it won’t help in any way until you havethoroughly understand the passage, poem or story. Thus, you should be able to read andunderstand it well before you rewrite or paraphrase the text in your words.

Take down notes

While reading, you should be able to write keywords or key phrases to give you a hint on what toinclude in your version. By writing them down, you will be able to have a picture in your mind whatthe author is trying to convey in his piece. This is the same reason you should understand the entirepassage or story before rewriting.

Avoid looking at the poem, passage or story while rewriting

Keep the passage, poem or story away while you are summarizing to avoid looking at it whenworking. By doing so, you don’t just paraphrase what you need, but you also save so much time bykeeping your focus out of distraction that looking at the literary texts could cause.

Just imagine that you are paraphrasing it for a loved one who wants to understand the poem orstory. In the process, you will be able to express its meanings in your own words without any hassle.Just remember, you do not have to rewrite the entire story or literary texts.

Begin paraphrasing

Start rewriting it in your own words. Just summarize the material or source—that can help youemphasize or focus on your point.

Compare your version with that of the source

When done, you should check and compare your version with the original source to find out if youhave rewritten it accurately in the manner that contains all the relevant details and messages thatthe author has pointed out in his work. Did you miss anything else? Do you have to remove somesections in your version?

You can answer these questions by reading and comparing the original poem or story with yourversion. And if you missed details, you can add them, or remove some if you think some of yoursentences in your version are irrelevant in expressing your points.

Use direct quotations when needed

You may use direct quotations from the passage or lines from the poem, if you think that these areessentials to keep so that you can express the point correctly.

Give credit to the original author

Even if you are rewriting, you should still be able to mention or give credit to the source of yourpaper. Paraphrasing is simply condensing the original version’s meaning without copying it.

That being said, your paraphrased version’s ideas or meanings should be what are stated by theauthor in his work, and so you should still cite the original author of the literary texts to avoidplagiarism.

Just remember to summarize it!

Unless you are asked to paraphrase the literary texts literally, you should not rewrite the entirepassage, but just summarize it to make your point clear. You don’t have to come up with the samelength of that of the original source. It is not the way to rewrite properly. Remember that you arejust trying to make a point in your paper using the idea of the author to emphasize on it that you aretrying to convey to your readers.

Proofread and edit your paper

Before getting too excited submitting your paper, you should proofread and edit it a couple of timesto detect any misspelling or wrong grammar in your paper. You may get the help of your friend oryour loved one in checking for any incorrect grammar, spelling and punctuation, or get the help ofan editing service online.

Other important tips

You can change the structure of the literary texts, naturally making a couple of changes inthe word.

You can break up long sentences into short ones, helping you come out with a morereadable and understandable version that your readers will easily comprehend.

You can also combine short sentences. Try to expand or explain some key terms for clarity. Shorten or simplify some words for the better understanding of your readers. Eliminate and then change some words in your version. Remember to leave shared language the same.

There you have the most effective tips to follow if you want to paraphrase literary texts and comeup with excellent results. Remember, however, you may have to go through your paper a couple oftimes to check for clarity, conciseness and accuracy of the meaning or message of the originalauthor, as well as to check if it really has put emphasis in the point you are making in your paper.

Use a paraphrase service

If you think your paraphrasing skills are insufficient to come up with a stellar output, you may alsowant to consider hiring an expert in paraphrasing online. Study your options and choose the bestservice.

Refer to these tips or get help from a paraphrase online service today!