What is the difference between a direct quotation and a paraphrase?

“A direct quotation” is a word-by-word rendering from the author’s text, it is written in quotation marks, italics may be used – a direct quotation must be distinguished from your own text and the work should not contain more than 10 % of direct quotations, it is usually recommended to use around 5 % (depending on the type of work, e.g. a review, or an explanation of an act contain more direct quotations)

A paraphrase is an interpretation of somebody else’s ideas in your own words, we usually cite them in the same way as direct quotations.  Paraphrase does not mean that you change only a few words in a given sentence, the quality of paraphrase shows your ability to understand the given topic. The paraphrase does not differ from your text in any way, but it should be clear in terms of style, where it begins and ends (e.g. separate a longer paraphrase by a paragraph, etc.).