Final answer:
Paraphrasing is the act of restating someone else's words or text in your own words to clarify the meaning while keeping the original perspective, and is true to the original in spirit but is articulated in one's own style.
Step-by-step explanation:
True, paraphrasing means to restate using your own words what you have heard or read.
The objective of paraphrasing is to clarify the meaning for your readers while remaining true to the original idea.
In academic writing, a paraphrase is about the same length as the original text and should be attributed to the original source.
One should maintain the perspective of the source, yet convey the ideas in one's own linguistic style.
When you paraphrase, contrary to summarizing, you do not drastically alter the length of the text.
The skill to determine when to quote directly or when to paraphrase is crucial in writing, especially to maintain your own voice in the paper.
While paraphrasing, if you need to use some of the same words from the original source, particularly technical terms or specific jargon, you can include them within quotation marks to indicate they are direct quotes.
However, the essence of paraphrasing is to articulate the original idea with your own choice of words.