When paraphrasing, which element should always be included to avoid plagiarism?

• A. An exact copy in quotes.
• B. A citation to the original source.
• C. A long list of synonyms.
• D. No citation is necessary if you paraphrase.

Answer: (B)

Paraphrasing means restating someone else’s ideas in your own words, but the original source still deserves credit. To avoid plagiarism, you must include a citation to the original source whenever you paraphrase. The citation shows where the ideas came from and gives proper credit even though the wording has changed. If you were to copy exact words, you would use quotation marks and still cite the source, but that wouldn’t be paraphrasing. Merely swapping in synonyms or rephrasing without citing does not acknowledge the original author and isn’t enough to avoid plagiarism. So the essential element is a citation to the original source.