Teaching Students How to Paraphrase and Avoid Plagiarism

Have you ever been reading one of your students' research papers when you hit a sentence and immediately think, "There is no way you wrote that!"? Sometimes, our students know they copied something. Other times, they truly don't realize they've done anything wrong. Think about how easy research is for our students now. They can type a question into Google, see an answer right at the top of the search results, and copy it without ever opening a website. To them, they've found the answer. To us, it's the perfect reminder that we need to explicitly teach our students how to paraphrase, use information from sources, and still make their writing sound like their own.

Before Teaching How to Paraphrase, Talk About Plagiarism

When you tell your students not to plagiarize, what do they think that actually means? Some of our students may picture copying an entire paper from the internet and turning it in with their name at the top. Of course, they know they shouldn't do that! What they may not recognize is all the smaller ways plagiarism can sneak into their writing.

This is where I like to make plagiarism really concrete. Plagiarism can be defined as simply as using another person's words or ideas as your own. That definition gives you plenty to talk about. Copying a sentence from a website is plagiarism, but taking someone's idea and presenting it as your own can be plagiarism, too.

Try pulling up a Google search in front of your students. Search for a question related to whatever you're studying and point out the information that appears right on the results page. Then ask, "Can I copy this sentence and put it in my paper?" You may be surprised by how many of your students think the answer is yes. They aren't necessarily trying to cheat. They see an answer sitting right in front of them and don't always make the connection that a person or source created that information. From here, we need to teach how to appropriately use the information they've found in their work.

Show Your Students How to Paraphrase so They Understand How to "Use Their Own Words"

"Now take what you've found and put it in your own words." We've all said it. The problem is that our students don't necessarily know what we're asking them to do! A student may copy a sentence, swap out three words for synonyms, rearrange another phrase, and proudly tell you they paraphrased it.

You need to explicitly show your students how to paraphrase one small piece of information at a time. Put a short passage on the board and read it together. Before anyone starts rewriting, ask, "What did we actually learn from this?" Talk about the important idea until your students can explain it without relying on the wording in front of them.

Then comes the part that can make a huge difference - taking the original away. Cover it, minimize the tab, or turn the paper over. Now ask your students to explain what they learned to a partner. If they can say, "Basically, this is telling us that..." without looking at the source, they're beginning to process the information instead of copying its sentence structure.

Once they can explain the idea, have them write it. Afterward, bring the original source back and compare the two. Ask your students, "Did we keep the meaning accurate? Did we accidentally use the same phrases? Does our sentence sound like something we would actually write?" With this practice, "use your own words" has become a process your students can follow rather than a direction they're expected to just understand.

Help Your Students Spot a Paraphrase That Is Still Too Close

Sometimes, though, a paraphrase sounds too much like the original source material. This is where things can get a little tricky. Your students may now understand that they shouldn't copy an entire sentence, but they may think that changing a handful of words fixes the problem. We need to show them that paraphrasing is about more than finding synonyms.

Let's say your students are researching ancient Rome. Imagine their source says that Roman roads allowed soldiers to travel quickly throughout the empire. One of your students writes, "Roman roads helped soldiers move quickly across the empire." They changed "allowed" to "helped" and "travel" to "move". In their mind, it's mission accomplished!

Instead of immediately telling them it's wrong, ask, "Okay, forget about the sentence for a second. What did you learn?" Maybe your student says, "Rome had all these roads, so the army could get where it needed to go faster." There it is. That's your student's understanding of the information, and now you have something to work with.

You can then help your student turn that explanation into writing that fits the paper. You're showing them that paraphrasing starts with understanding the information, not hunting for different words. That's an important shift, and it gives your students a strategy they can use with the next source rather than simply fixing this one sentence for them.

Make Sure Your Student's Voice is Still in Their Writing

One of my favorite things to address during our paraphrasing and plagiarism discussion is writing voice. Remind your students that most of their paper should be made of their own ideas, words, and voice. Have your students reread their paper and consider if they are actually in their writing.

I love that question because your students usually know when something doesn't sound like them. You know it, too! If your student who normally writes straightforward sentences suddenly gives you a paragraph packed with sophisticated vocabulary and complicated sentence structures, that's a good reason to stop and talk about where the information came from.

Make this part of the editing process. Have your students choose a paragraph and read it back to themselves. Ask your students, "Could you explain everything you wrote here without looking at your paper?" If they can't explain what a sentence means, that's a clue that they need to go back to the source, understand the information, and try writing it again.

Learning how to paraphrase isn't about making borrowed information difficult for us to recognize. We want our students to understand what they're researching well enough to communicate that information themselves. Their finished papers should reflect their understanding and still sound like them.

Teach Your Students That Paraphrasing Doesn't Mean You Skip the Citation

Here comes another one your students can easily misunderstand, "But I put it in my own words!" Yes, you did. That's exactly what we wanted you to do. The words may be yours, while the information still came from someone else. Learning how to paraphrase doesn't mean learning how to make a source disappear.

Your students can absolutely include ideas and quotations from other people. When they paraphrase another person's words or ideas or use a direct quote, however, they still need to give that person credit. I always explain that giving credit helps them as writers avoid plagiarism and helps readers find the source later. 

Try giving your students two questions to ask themselves: "Whose words are these?" and "Whose idea is this?" After paraphrasing, they may be able to answer, "These are my words." Great! Now ask the second question. If they learned that information from someone else's work, they still need to give credit to the source.

Talk About Google Before Your Students Start Researching

This conversation has become especially important because of how our students search for information. When we were learning to write research papers, we usually had to open a book, an article, an encyclopedia, or an actual website to get the information we needed. Our students can sometimes see what may be an answer without clicking anything.

Put yourself in their shoes for a second. Your teacher asks a question. You Google it. A nice little answer appears right at the top. Why wouldn't you write it down? If no one has ever explained where those words came from, copying them may not feel like copying.

That's why I wouldn't wait until you catch plagiarism to have this conversation. Show your students a search results page before they begin researching. Point to the information they can see and ask, "Who wrote this?" Then follow with, "If Google shows it to us, does that make it ours?" You're helping students understand that Google is helping them find information. It isn't giving them ownership of the words they find.

From there, bring them back to the process you've already practiced. Find the source. Read the information to figure out what it means. Move away from the original wording, and explain the idea yourself. Write it in your own words. Then give credit where credit is due.

Don't Forget to Talk About AI and Student Writing

Now, we have one more research-writing conversation to add to the mix: AI. Just like that answer sitting at the top of a Google search, AI can make it incredibly easy for your students to get polished writing almost instantly. Your student can type in a prompt, ask for a paragraph, and receive something that looks ready to paste into an assignment. That convenience is exactly why we need to talk about it before your students begin writing.

Be clear about what is and isn't allowed for your assignment. If your students aren't allowed to use AI to generate their writing, tell them that directly and explain why. The goal of a research paper isn't simply to turn in five paragraphs that contain correct information. And it isn't about completing all the research and then giving the sources to AI to write their paper either. You want to see whether your students can research a topic, understand what they've learned, organize their thinking, and communicate it in their own words.

This connects right back to the question you've already taught your students to ask, which is "Am I in this paper?" If AI did the thinking, organizing, and writing, your student's voice isn't really there. The specific rules around AI may look different from classroom to classroom, but your students shouldn't have to guess what your expectations are.

Reinforce How to Paraphrase and Avoid Plagiarism with Doodle Notes

Once you've introduced these ideas, your students will need something they can return to. That's where my Avoiding Plagiarism in Social Studies Doodle Notes can help reinforce the conversations you're already having in class.

My Doodle Notes reinforce how your students' papers should contain their own ideas, words, and voices while also teaching them to give credit when they use someone else's work. They also introduce your students to citations and Works Cited or Bibliography pages, along with the idea that citation styles can differ depending on the subject. 

Most importantly, you're helping your students understand why all of this matters. You don't want your students spending an entire research project worrying they might accidentally plagiarize. You want them to feel confident reading a source, figuring out what it means, and deciding how to use that information appropriately.

If you want a full resource that lays all this information in one central place, grab my Avoiding Plagiarism in Social Studies Doodle Notes today to get started. This can become a meaningful reference for how to avoid plagiarism that your students can turn back to again and again.

If you love using the doodle notes to help your students work through important concepts like this one, be sure to explore my full collection of Doodle Notes in my store. You'll find note pages covering a variety of Social Studies topics like the 13 Colonies, African Kingdoms, the American Revolution, and All About Maps, to name a few! 

Save for Later

Teaching how to paraphrase is much easier when your students get plenty of practice before a big research assignment comes their way. Save this post so you can come back to the modeling, student questions, and examples the next time you're getting ready to teach research writing.