APA Style (7th ed.)
Paraphrasing refers to presenting another author’s work in your own words. A good paraphrase is both accurate and unique: your words in a paraphrase should stay true to the original meaning of a text without repeating anyone else's words. For example, a paraphrase will often explain paragraphs or sections of writing in several sentences rather than an individual word or sentence. The citation to paraphrased text must provide the author's last name and the year of publication, and “page or paragraph number ... when it would help readers locate the relevant passage within a long and complex work” (American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 269).
The paraphrased text should be significantly different from the original; simply rearranging words or changing a couple of words is not sufficient to qualify as paraphrasing. That kind of writing is referred to as "patchwriting" and isn't paraphrasing; for more information on how to avoid plagiarizing words and ideas while paraphrasing, please see the Avoid Plagiarism Guide by the American Psychological Association.
For more information on paraphrasing, including practice exercises, please see Summarizing and Paraphrasing in the Writing Centre's Quoting, Summarizing, and Paraphrasing guide. For an example of how to cite a long paraphrase (e.g., multiple sentences), please visit Paraphrasing on the APA Style website). For additional practice exercises, please visit Paraphrasing and Citation Activities, also from the APA Style website.
Reference
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
