Paraphrase
Restating a specific passage from a source in your own words and structure, at roughly the same length, with a citation.
A paraphrase carries one passage's content in your own sentences. It still needs a citation — the idea is borrowed even though the words are not — and most styles want a page number too, since you are pointing at a specific place.
Paraphrase rather than quote when the finding matters and the phrasing does not, which is most of the time. Quotation is for when the exact words are the evidence: a definition you will pick apart, a claim you will contest, a phrase whose ambiguity is the point.
Do it on CitationEasy
See also
SummaryA compressed account of a source's overall argument in your own words, much shorter than the original, with a citation.Direct quotationReproducing a source's exact words inside quotation marks or as a block, with a citation that includes a locator.PatchwritingRewriting a source by swapping synonyms and reordering clauses while keeping its sentence structure — a paraphrase that is not one.PlagiarismPresenting someone else's words, ideas, data, or structure as your own, whether deliberately or through careless citation.