Discover the Best Ways on How to Paraphrase Literary Texts Discover the Best Ways on How to Paraphrase Litera

How to Paraphrase Literary Texts
To paraphrase a poem means 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 come
through, but never the same wording. Thus, you paraphrase to rewrite the ideas or thoughts but
without 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, you
may want to emphasize on the idea of the literary text. Second, you may also want to express those
thoughts in a few words 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 what
you 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 until
you have reached the point of understanding its meaning. You should also understand the meaning
and 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 have
thoroughly understand the passage, poem or story. Thus, you should be able to read and
understand 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 to
include in your version. By writing them down, you will be able to have a picture in your mind what
the author is trying to convey in his piece. This is the same reason you should understand the entire
passage 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 when
working. By doing so, you don’t just paraphrase what you need, but you also save so much time by
keeping your focus out of distraction that looking at the literary texts could cause.