At its simplest level, paraphrasing involves replacing original wording with synonyms. Consider this original sentence from Claudia Kalb's "Newsweek" article, "Painkiller Crackdown," "While the DEA says OxyContin is a 'valuable' drug, it is 'concerned' that many doctors who are prescribing the medications don't 'know' enough about it and are not 'conveying' the dangers to patients. . . . " If a student made only these replacements -- "useful" for "valuable," "worried" for "concerned," "know" for "understand" and "explaining" for "conveying" -- some paraphrasing would result, but much of the original would remain, resulting in partial plagiarism.
Another method of paraphrasing involves changing clauses to phrases. For example, the clause, "while the DEA says OxyContin is a valuable drug" could become a more succinct phrase, "claiming Oxycontin's value." If a student combines this approach with synonym replacement, more effective paraphrasing occurs.
Changing parts of speech may assist in paraphrasing. Consider another original sentence from Kalb's "Newsweek" article: "Last week the 'spotlight' on OxyContin 'intensified' as the Drug Enforcement Administration 'announced' a national strategy to 'combat' the painkiller's 'illegitimate' use. . . ." If a student restructured the sentence, changing parts of speech, some paraphrasing would occur: "The Drug Enforcement Administration last week 'spotlighted' OxyContin more 'intensely' and made an 'announcement' of a national strategy, which combats using the painkiller 'illegitimately.'" However, this paraphrasing lacks originality and again results in partial plagiarism.
Changing the sentence structure adds to the value of the paraphrase, reflecting the writer's interpretation of the author's thoughts. Consider this original wording from the "Newsweek" article: "OxyContin was developed to do good: relieve debilitating pain. But since the powerful drug debuted in 1996, it has become increasingly known for a dangerous side effect -- the potential for serious addiction." By beginning with a phrase and changing the structure, a writer could create the following: "First appearing in 1996, Oxycontin claimed to relieve unnecessary suffering. Today, however, experts know it can pose an 'addictive' threat (Kalb 38)." These restructured sentences also include synonym replacement ("appeared" for "debuted") and changes in parts of speech ("addictive" for "addiction"). With the Modern Language Association (MLA) in-text citation, this paraphrasing avoids any trace of plagiarism by combining multiple forms of paraphrasing.