Quote or Paraphrase? Keep Source Words Clear

Use an exact short quote when the source's wording matters; use an attributed paraphrase when its idea fits your explanation better in your own words. In either case, make it clear what comes from the source and what you are adding.

Start with the question your post answers. The blogger keyword-research guide helps you choose that question; your source then has a specific job in the answer. A quotation should do more than decorate the paragraph.

Keep the Two Choices Separate

The Australian National University's quotation guidance, checked on October 8, 2026, emphasizes exact source wording, attribution and your own explanation of why a short quote belongs. Its academic citation conventions are not a universal formatting rule for every blog.

For a short quotation here, keep the selected words intact, put them in quotation marks and identify the actual source. Use your surrounding sentence to say why those words matter to your point.

A paraphrase changes the wording while retaining the relevant meaning. Cambridge Libraries' paraphrasing guidance distinguishes that from merely exchanging a few words. Keep attribution when restating someone else's idea; removing quotation marks does not make the idea your own discovery.

Work From One Real Source Sentence

The source for this example is Microsoft's capitalization style guide, read on October 8, 2026. The page displays an update date of August 26, 2024. Those are the source-reading date and publisher update date, respectively.

The two paragraphs below are original teaching drafts for a fictional blog called Workshop Notes. Its drawer-label article and editorial decision are invented; Microsoft's quoted sentence and documented advice are real.

Teaching paragraph using an exact quotation

We want the drawer instruction to stand out without changing the label's spelling. Microsoft's style guide says, “Don't use all uppercase for emphasis.” For this teaching draft, we will keep the label's usual casing and explain the action in the sentence.

The quotation preserves the selected sentence, including its contraction and period. The sentence after it supplies the teaching blog's proposed decision. Microsoft did not write or approve that drawer-label example.

Teaching paragraph using an attributed paraphrase

Microsoft's style guide advises against using capital letters throughout a word or phrase simply to make it stand out. For our teaching drawer-label draft, we will keep the label's usual casing and explain the action in the sentence.

Here the first sentence is our wording, so it has no quotation marks. It retains the narrow idea about all-capital emphasis and identifies whose advice it restates. The next sentence remains the fictional blog's choice.

For this paragraph, I would use the paraphrase: the precise source sentence is less important than applying its idea to the draft. If the post were discussing Microsoft's exact wording, the direct quotation would have a clearer purpose.

Avoid a Silent Rewrite

Suppose you change the source advice into a broader instruction against capitalizing any words, but leave quotation marks around your new sentence. That would change both the wording and the scope of the source's advice.

This source sentence concerns all-uppercase emphasis. It does not say to remove capital letters from proper names, sentence beginnings or every heading. Check the rest of the capitalization guide before drawing a broader style conclusion.

If your draft needs different wording, use an attributed paraphrase and check its meaning. In this example there is no reason to shorten or alter the direct quote. A nearby source link alone would not tell the reader that words inside quotation marks had been rewritten.

Finish a Source-Use Record

Download the filled quote-and-paraphrase record. It includes the exact short source passage, both teaching paragraphs, the chosen option, source dates and a completed explanation of what each sentence contributes.

To reuse it:

1. Save the actual source URL and enough section context to find the passage again.

2. Record the exact words separately from your own notes. Keep the source-reading date separate from any displayed publisher date.

3. Decide whether you need the wording or the idea, then write the quote or paraphrase accordingly.

4. Compare the final wording with the source. Check that a paraphrase has not strengthened, widened or reversed the meaning.

5. Add your own explanation of why this source material belongs in the answer.

Use the blog-post writing guide for the surrounding explanation, and record the source's intended job in your article brief. Finish with a paragraph whose source words, restated idea and original contribution are easy to distinguish.