What is Paraphrasing: Helpful Guide for students, Researchers, and Journalists
To accurately explain what is paraphrasing, we’ll divide this guide into three sections.
• meaning of paraphrasing,
• paraphrasing in academic writing, and
• paraphrasing tools.
Despite the fact that paraphrasing is a useful writing technique, not every student knows how to leverage it to write faster and better.
In this article, we will provide you with valuable insights about paraphrasing including how it facilitates academic writing and how students can use it.
If you engage in research writing and reporting, let’s get started.
Paraphrasing is used to present an idea in clearer wording. Basically, it helps to write unique content in a shorter sentence and time. It not only saves time but helps to improve a student’s or researcher’s writing skills as well.
There are many benefits of using paraphrasing and students can get the most out of it. If you are a writer and don’t know how to use it to your advantage then continue.
Meaning of paraphrasing
According to the Dictionary of English, paraphrase means: “a restatement of a text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form” (Merriam-Webster). It also means, “to repeat something written or spoken using different words, often in a humorous form or in a simpler and shorter form that makes the original meaning clearer” (Cambridge Dictionary).
Similarly, it means, “to express what somebody has said or written using different words, especially in order to make it easier to understand” (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary). Wikipedia defines it as. “a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words.”
Paraphrasing, therefore, is the act of restating someone’s ideas with easy-to-understand words. Paraphrasing usually makes the idea clearer and the statement shorter to comprehend. It is therefore important in journalism and research writing.
Paraphrase and plagiarism
While paraphrasing is rewording or restatement of someone’s work, plagiarism is using someone’s work without proper acknowledgment. By implication, though you reworded someone’s idea, it’s important that you properly acknowledge the source. If this is not done, you’ll be accused of academic theft, also known as plagiarism.
Quoting is reproducing someone’s exact words in your own work, usually with quotation marks or in blockquote. In this case, you did not change the words. Whether you paraphrased or quoted someone’s work, there is a need for acknowledgment.
However, paraphrasing is preferred to quoting because it allows you to understand the meaning of someone’s work. If you understood a writer’s perspective, you can accurately rephrase such a statement to accomplish the goal of your writing.
Paraphrasing also gives you authority as a writer, since it gives room for you to understand an idea. Accurately restating such ideas gives credence to your creativity as an academician, hence, an authority in the field.
Remember, when paraphrasing, you must maintain the original meaning of the source. Hence, there are wrong ways of paraphrasing and correct ways to paraphrase.
How to paraphrase
To paraphrase effectively you need to understand the different types of paraphrasing and how to use them. Four types of paraphrasing can help you learn how to paraphrase manually, except if you wish to use a paraphrasing tool. Let’s look at each of them.
Change relevant parts of speech
You can paraphrase by changing relevant parts of speech in a statement. Paraphrasing this way implies changing some prominent parts of speech.
For instance, from a noun to an adjective or from a verb to an adverb. This method is effective because it retains the meaning of the original statement.
For example; let’s paraphrase this statement.
Original statement: It is painful that the candidate of APC lost the election by a slim margin. Paraphrased: Painfully, the APC candidate marginally lost the election.
Change the structure of the statement
This type of paraphrasing requires that you change the statement’s structure completely. Let’s assume that the original statement is in passive voice, you can change it to active voice,
To effectively use this method of paraphrasing, you will need to understand the original statement. For example, look at the following statement:
Original statement: The effect of the drug was so severe that Okon died as a result.
Paraphrased: Okon died because of the severe drug effect.
Remove some clauses or phrases in the original statement
In a complex statement that has many clauses and phrases, you can reduce the number of clauses or phrases. However, you will attempt to retain the original meaning of the statement.
This type of paraphrasing makes statements clearer and more understandable to readers, especially, novices in the field. Consider the following statement.
Original: Ikoro, an ancient musical instrument, is often used in most communities to perform masquerade dancing.
Paraphrased: It is a known fact that ikoro is used during masquerade dancing in most communities.
Use synonyms to replace original words
Another way to paraphrase a statement is by replacing keywords with their synonyms. Most paraphrasing tools use this type of paraphrasing to rewrite statements.
However, this method is not an effective way to paraphrase a statement. The reason is that some synonyms may not suit the context of the statement, hence, readers may be misguided. Also, it shows that the writer does not understand the original statement or has no authority in the field.
In addition, some paraphrased statements may look awkward and clumsy to readers. In extreme cases, you may end up confusing the readers more.
An example of a synonym replacement type is given below.
Original: It is painful that the candidate of APC lost the election by a slim margin.
Paraphrased: It hurts that the APC candidate lost the election by a small margin.
Comparing this paraphrased statement with the (change parts of speech) above, you notice that there’s no creativity. Both statements are the same, the writer practically made no input. This is a lazy way to paraphrase, you should avoid using this method, except in rare cases.
Haven understood what is paraphrasing and how to paraphrase manually, let’s look at paraphrasing in academic writing.
Paraphrasing in Academic Writing
Paraphrasing is the “widely-used writing technique” that’s especially used by students to write plagiarism-free academic research and assignment.
This writing technique enables students to rewrite statements in unique, clearer wording without spending extra effort. Whenever they are required to write academic work such as an essay, thesis, research paper, and synopsis, paraphrasing helps them the best.
It helps to eliminate plagiarism when it comes to academic writing. With paraphrasing, a student will ensure that all of the academic papers are 100% unique. This is why it is preferred to leverage paraphrasing to remove plagiarism in writing.
A student can use strategic paraphrasing to restate useful information related to his/her academic papers. This will enable him/her to use his own words to include such useful information. Not only it will enable you to avoid plagiarism, but it will let you present the information in improved wording as well.
In simple words, paraphrasing is very useful when you need to write unique content in a shorter time period. It lets you write faster and better. Remember that you can do paraphrasing effectively if you use a paraphrasing tool that’s based on advanced AI algorithms.
Benefits of Paraphrasing in Academic Writing
When it comes to academic writing, there is no bound to the uses and benefits of paraphrasing. This is why this subsection will discuss how paraphrasing benefits students and make it easier to write academic papers.
Some of the benefits of paraphrasing for students, researchers, and journalists include;
Writing faster
Paraphrasing is a major writing technique that lets you write faster and complete your papers in a shorter time period. While it may usually take hours to write, paraphrasing allows you to cover a topic within a few minutes.
Whenever you are running out of time, you can make use of paraphrasing to write with super speed. Whether you are writing a long-form essay or a brief passage, paraphrasing will help you to complete your writing tasks without any hassle. As a student or journalist, an AI-powered paraphrasing tool can help you write any type of academic assignment in a matter of seconds. It will be great if you will take advantage of such tools. Although there are effective ways of manual paraphrasing, it is sometimes better to use AI paraphrasing to write faster and better.
Eliminates the chances of committing plagiarism
Nothing can be more troubling for academicians than plagiarism. All types of academic papers must be original. But is it possible to write a 100% unique academic paper on your own? Possibly, professional writers can write plagiarism-free content without any hassle, but students often fail to do this.
No matter how hard you try, there will be a chance of plagiarism in your academic writing. This is why you can make use of paraphrasing. Indeed, paraphrasing is the best way to escape plagiarism, especially if you are a student. Even better, you can use an AI-based tool such as paraphrasing.io to write unique content without breaking a sweat.
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Paraphrasing surely serves best to facilitate students in removing plagiarism. Whether it is an already written assignment, or there’s something you need to write from the scratch. You can use paraphrasing to keep out plagiarism by all means.
Improves on quality of academic work
There is no surprise to the fact that the majority of students don’t have good writing skills. They often fail to write well-structured, error-free academic papers. You would agree that each academic paper must contain readable, coherent, and engaging content.
This is why paraphrasing serves students improve their content quality. Using paraphrasing, you can easily modify your choice of words while perfecting the tone of writing. For instance, if you are habitual of writing in a casual style. You can use paraphrasing to change your diction and tone to a formal style.
You can get the best out of paraphrasing if you use an AI-powered tool for this purpose. There are many online paraphrasing tools that offer multiple rewriting modes to improve content quality as per the requirements. You just need to choose the write mode and it will automatically make your content perfect.
Clarity of message passed
You can use quotes when writing, but when it is overused, it does not show uniqueness. When writing, paraphrasing creates uniqueness and tends to differentiate your work from others.
Also, you will be able to use the wordings that best suit your audience for better understanding. Thus, creating clarity in your message delivery. With shorter sentences, your message will be easy to understand. Whoever compares the two works will always note the difference.
If you want to get the best out of paraphrasing and complete your assignments without any writing errors then you must follow these effective tips:
Collect data from multiple resources to paraphrase in a unique way
Always paraphrase on a sentence level rather than a paragraph level
Substitute unappealing parts of the sentences (words/phrases/clauses)
Restructure sentences and substitute synonyms side-by-side
Make use of an AI paraphrasing tool io to rewrite effectively
Learn from AI paraphraser about how to improve content quality
Never forget to change the organization of the paraphrased content
Modify the headings and paragraphing format to ensure uniqueness
Avoiding plagiarism
In academic writing, it is important to avoid plagiarism when using rewording. Hence, you will need to cite your source of information using relevant citation styles.
As a writer, you should not be tempted to think that the paraphrased statement is your right. Always acknowledge the source of information correctly.
For example, let’s consider the following statement:
“Church growth is simultaneously a theological conviction and an applied science which strives to combine the eternal principles of God’s Word with the best insights of contemporary social and behavioral sciences.” (Gibbs, 1995).
If you paraphrase the above passage, you can choose any of the following citation styles.
APA style: Church growth aims to bring together the timeless truths of God’s Word… (Gibbs, 1995)
MLA style: Church growth aims to bring together the timeless truths of God’s Word… (Gibbs, 232)
Chicago: Church growth aims to bring together the timeless truths of God’s Word… (Gibbs 1995)
Harvard: Church growth aims to bring together the timeless truths of God’s Word… (Gibbs, 1995)
Turabian: Church growth aims to bring together the timeless truths of God’s Word… (Gibbs 1995)
Remember, if you are writing a research paper then you need to add in-text citations along with the paraphrased statements. Else, you won’t be able to avoid plagiarism. With this knowledge in your basket, let’s look at paraphrasing tools you can use to write faster.
Paraphrasing Tools
In this section, we shall look at some paraphrasing tools that you can use to write faster. If you have a need to paraphrase a statement and desire not to use the manual method, keep reading.
It is best to use a manual method to paraphrase a statement in one’s own language, especially, for students and researchers. Manual paraphrasing helps you understand the concept and idea of the writer. It also, makes you an authority in your field as well as makes your research papers unique.
If you choose not to use the manual method of paraphrasing, you can choose any of the under-listed paraphrasing tools. However, you should note that paraphrasing tools use AI to rephrase statements, as a result:
You may not have unique content. This is because two people writing on the same material and using similar tools will arrive at the same content.
There’s a tendency that the tool used may change the original meaning of the statement. For example, this is the original statement: “In academic writing, it is important to avoid plagiarism when using paraphrase.”
After paraphrasing, we have: “In scholastic composing, it is imperative to dodge plagiarization when utilizing summarizing.”
The paraphrased statement may become more difficult to understand than the original text.
For example, consider the original statement: “In academic writing, it is important to avoid plagiarism when using paraphrase”.
Paraphrased statement: “In instructional writing, it’s far essential to keep away from plagiarism whilst the usage of rewording.”
Notwithstanding, you can always use any of these tools, because some give you the best results. Also, it enables you to write faster. Some of the tools provide optional synonyms to choose from in place of keywords in a statement.
I advise that you read through a statement and understand it thoroughly before using any of the paraphrasing tools. This will enable you to restore the correct meaning to statements that lost their meaning in the process.
Free paraphrasing tools to paraphrase online
Most of the paraphrasing tools you will see online are free, though with restrictions. The premium versions give better results, but you can achieve great results using the free version. Let’s quickly look at some free tools you can take advantage of to paraphrase online.
QuillBot uses state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence to rewrite sentences and paragraphs. It is a widely used tool among millions of people. It is a free tool to use, but some of its features require an upgrade.
When using QuillBot, you can switch modes depending on your plan. Different modes give you different rewording and meaning.
This tool is simple and easy to use by anyone, including students and professionals. It simply rewords your statement without any need for you to change modes.
However, you can point at the paraphrased words and choose synonyms you think better suit your passage. With this option, you can create a paraphrased statement that did not change the original idea.
With the plagiarism detector, you can copy and paste up to 2000 words at once for a smart spin rewording. In addition to paraphrasing, you can also use its other tools: plagiarism detector, grammar check, word to pdf, etc.
After you’ve pasted your text, you can choose any of smart spin, ultra spin, and manual word replacement.
You can also select any of the colored words, and choose your preferred synonym from the list that appeared. Similarly, you can manually change the words yourself. If you want more from the tool, you can go for the premium version.
SEOMagnifier will help you to create content to support your articles, research papers, and online content. As the name suggests, you can use this tool to create SEO-friendly articles.
The tool is quite easy to use, and it gives you the option to download the paraphrased text in text or HTML version. The tool also includes plagiarism which can help you check for plagiarism while writing your content.
Paraphraser.io is a simple tool that allows you to paraphrase any kind of statement online. It has different modes: standard, fluency, creative and smarter which you can choose from when paraphrasing.
Each of these modes helps you maintain and reword a statement in a unique way without losing the original meaning. You can also upload your file, instead of copying and pasting content into the paraphrasing tool window.
However, the free version has a text limit of 400 words. And it allows you to use only the fluency and standard modes. To use other modes and higher word count, you will have to subscribe.
Another simple and easy-to-use free tool to paraphrase online is the paraphrasing tool. This easy-to-use tool has basic paraphrase and advanced paraphrase buttons. All you need to do is to paste your text in the enter text textbox and click on the BASIC PARAPHRASE button.
This tool is free and uses natural language processing (NLP) AI software to present your paraphrased text. You can rephrase up to 10000 characters at once, and click on Copy to Clipboard to copy the rephrased text.
Paraprhasingtool.ai is an efficient tool designed to rewrite your text and make it fresh and engaging.
It has eight paraphrasing modes making it a popular choice for writers. Free Rewriter, Text Improver, Near Human, Plagiarism Remover, Creative, Academic, Quill Text and Sentence Rephraser modes allow the writers to rephrase the content like a pro.
You can paraphrase audio and image files as well. Built-in Thesaurus allows you to click on any word and select appropriate synonyms.
Paraphrasingtool.ai offers 20,000 characters in the free version with three (Free Rewriter, Text Improver, Near Human) paraphrasing modes. The premium plan allows you to paraphrase unlimited words for just $7 per month.
Other paraphrasing tools
There are yet many other online paraphrasing tools you can use easily use to rewrite articles for free. You can try out some and choose which one gives you the best result. Other paraphrasing tools you may try include:
If you are not comfortable with online tools, you can download offline tools that will help you create quality content. A known offline tool you can download for effective paraphrasing is ChimpRewriter. However, it offers only a 14-day trial for free.
To access any of the above tools, click on each link.
Conclusion
I want to believe that you found this article useful. As a student, researcher, or journalist, paraphrasing is an invaluable tool in your arsenal.
Now that you know, I will love to hear from you. Are there tools you feel I should have reviewed? Are there tools that you think are better than the others?
Whatever it may be, let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.
