A paraphrase restates all the information given in the original source material.

To properly paraphrase you must alter the word order of the sentence. You cannot substitute words in the sentence with synonyms — that would be plagiarism. An example of a writer's original text with key words underlined:

"In the 1950s, many women’s prisons had nurseries in which infants could stay with their mothers from several weeks to two years, depending on the institution."

An unacceptable paraphrase is:

"In the middle of the twentieth century, most penal institutions for women had places where babies could remain with their moms from a few weeks to two years, depending upon the penal institution."

Why is this unacceptable? The student replaced the original words with synonyms and did not change the word order.

An acceptable paraphrase would be:

"According to Kelsey Kauffman, nurseries existed in many prisons for women at mid-century, and this allowed women to keep their babies with them from a few weeks to two years. Exactly how long depended upon the institution (62-63)."