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SafeAssign: Using SafeAssign to Teach Paraphrasing

 

Appropriate paraphrasing is one of the biggest challenges for students learning how to write with sources. In fact, because paraphrasing is difficult, it frequently leads to issues of inadvertent plagiarism. Many students think that paraphrasing involves simply changing a few words here and there – what we might call patchwork writing – but proper paraphrasing involves more than that. Appropriate paraphrasing means expressing the ideas independently from the original in tone, style and sentence structure. Many students also believe that if they paraphrase, they do not need to include reference to authors or page numbers, but, as we know, paraphrasing demands the same level of in-text citation that word-for-word quoting does. By capitalizing on SafeAssign’s capacity for detecting matching text, instructors can create assignments that help students develop stronger paraphrasing skills.

 

Short Assignment: Paraphrasing Exercise

In order to help students meet the challenge of effective paraphrasing, provide them with several brief excerpts of text that will be easily detected in original form from the SafeAssign’s library of databases. Ask students to paraphrase each of the brief excerpts, including appropriate author attribution and in-text citation. Have students submit the paraphrased excerpts to a Blackboard SafeAssignment that you have created for this purpose. Evaluate students based on how well they have managed to avoid SafeAssign “detection.” A properly paraphrased excerpt should be able to fly under the SafeAssign radar. At the same time, however, it is important to emphasize the need for attribution and citation regardless of how well the excerpt is paraphrased.

 

Longer Assignment: Summary or Abstract

As a more challenging assignment, have students practice effective paraphrasing with a summary of a longer document. Provide students with an article that will be detected through the SafeAssign library of databases. Ask students to read the article and write a summary that presents the main ideas of the text and includes appropriate author attribution and in-text citation. Have students submit the summary to a Blackboard SafeAssignment that you have created for this purpose. As above, a properly paraphrased summary or abstract should not be identified as a “suspected source” on a SafeAssign originality report.

 

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Also in this section:

• Incorporating SafeAssign into the Classroom
• Using SafeAssign to Teach Paraphrasing
• Using SafeAssign to Teach Direct Quoting
• Using SafeAssign to Teach Student-to-Source Ratio