How to Paraphrase - Everything You Need To Know

The ability to paraphrase is essential in all forms of communication.

This method allows you to restate a text in one's own words without changing its meaning.

In addition to helping you avoid plagiarism, proper paraphrasing also improves the clarity and readability of your writing.

However, this technique goes far beyond simple word choice adjustments.

So, what exactly does "paraphrasing" mean, and what does it involve?

In this article, we’ll provide all the answers on how to paraphrase, enabling you to master this powerful writing technique for good.

Let’s begin!

What Is Paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is a writing technique often used when you want to put someone else's thoughts or ideas into your own words, while keeping the same meaning.

People often use paraphrasing to:

✔️ avoid plagiarism, 

✔️ make the complicated language easier to understand, or 

✔️ explain the ideas of someone else in a way that is easier to understand.

However, people often get paraphrasing and summarizing mixed up. And even though both of these are often used as writing techniques, they mean different things at their core.

Differences Between Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Both paraphrasing and summarizing are ways to say the same thing in your own words, but their scope and purpose are different.

We already mentioned that paraphrasing is actually rewriting a section of text or a single phrase so that it sounds different but retains the same meaning as the original.

On the other hand, summarizing means reducing the original text to its most important parts. 

It gives a shorter text version, highlighting the most important ideas and leaving out details that are less important.

Examples of Paraphrasing and Summarizing

Original text: 

"The book tells the story of a young girl who has swept away to a magical world where she meets new friends and battles an evil witch to save the kingdom."

Paraphrased text: 

“In the book, the protagonist, a young girl, is whisked away to a fantastical world where she makes new friends and fights an evil witch to save the kingdom.”

Summary: 

"The book follows a girl and her story of making friendships and saving the kingdom from an evil witch in a magical world."

Benefits of Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing can be beneficial in multiple ways, including:

👍 Avoiding plagiarism — Allows you to borrow ideas without copying words.

👍 Clarifying information — Simplifies complex ideas and information.

👍 Improving writing skills — Helps you write and express your thoughts.

👍 Demonstrating comprehension — Displays your ability to understand and explain the original text.

👍 Enhancing critical thinking — Allows you to quickly and accurately sort useful information from useless data.

👍 Simplifying language — Can simplify complex language by using simpler words and sentence structures.

When you paraphrase, you show that you understand the original material and that you can apply what you've learned to your own writing.

Now that you know what it is and the benefits it can provide, let's look at 6 strategies on how to paraphrase.

6 Proven Strategies on How to Paraphrase To Cover It All

Here we listed the top 6 tried-and-true paraphrasing techniques and their pros and cons to help you complete the task more efficiently.

1. Rewrite For Better Context

Modifying pre-existing text to increase its clarity, readability, or overall effectiveness is what rewriting methods are all about. It includes the following actions:

✒️ Switching out the current language for more precise synonyms.

✒️ Modifying the original wording order.

✒️ Transforming a previously passive sentence into an active voice.

Rewriting Pros

✔️ It improves the readability of your content.

✔️ Helps explain confusing or complex information.

✔️ Assist in adapting the text to various audiences, purposes, and mediums.

✔️ Rearranging paragraphs or sentences improves text flow and coherence.

Rewriting Cons

⛔ Longer texts take longer to rewrite.

⛔ Poor rewriting can change the meaning of the text.

⛔ Careless rewriting can cause tone, style, and voice inconsistencies.

⛔ The author's voice can sometimes be lost in the process.

Also, there are various paid and free rewriting tools that can help you simplify this process.

2. Expand Sentences To Get The Most Out of It

An easy way to boost your writing's readability and cohesion is simply using longer sentences.

Moreover, you can enhance the efficiency of your writing and make your sentences more exciting and engaging. 

You can start by following these simple instructions:

✒️ Ensure to include the adjectives - they'll give your writing more atmosphere and depth.

✒️ Increase the energy and interest of what you write by using vivid verbs.

✒️ To keep your writing fresh and exciting, try using a variety of sentence structures.

Expanding Pros

✔️ Expanding sentences can improve readability.

✔️ Detail and variety in your writing can keep readers engaged and interested.

✔️ Examples and supporting evidence can persuade readers and strengthen your arguments.

✔️ Expanding sentences makes writing more cohesive.

Expanding Cons

⛔ Expansive sentences can be hard to read and understand.

⛔ Overusing details and examples can make your writing unfocused.

⛔ Can cause repetition and redundancy, making your writing dull.

⛔ Takes work and concentration, so it might not be appropriate for all types of writing.

3. Summarize To Extract Essential Points

A summary is a condensed version of a longer text or discussion that only includes the most important points. 

To summarize means providing a concise overview of the most important information while leaving out irrelevant data.

These are the most important things to remember when summarizing:

✒️ Actively taking in information by reading or listening.

✒️ Extracting the central concepts and supporting evidence.

✒️ Shortening lengthy passages into more manageable chunks.

Summarizing Pros

✔️ Summarizing helps you quickly grasp a text's main points.

✔️ Improves retention by focusing on key points.

✔️ By simplifying complex concepts, you can better grasp them.

✔️ Allows you to express difficult concepts in a simple manner.

Summarizing Cons

⛔ May omit essential details or nuances.

⛔ Tend to be biased or create misinterpreted content.

⛔ Can be difficult, especially with complex or technical information.

⛔ Not ideal for detailed content or discussions.

Find the best summarizing tools in this article.

4. Set the Appropriate Tone To Evoke the Right Emotion

The right tone can do wonders for your writing's ability to move readers. 

The style of a content is its overall mood, as expressed through the author's choice of words and phrases. 

Therefore, the writer's choice of tone greatly influences the reader's reaction and the piece's overall impact.

Creating the right atmosphere in your writing is essential to conveying your message and impacting your readers. 

To set the appropriate tone follow the next steps:

✒️ Consider your audience, purpose, and desired emotion.

✒️ Use sensory language, strong verbs, and vivid imagery to evoke an emotion.

✒️ Keep the tone consistent and avoid offensive language.

Changing Tone Pros

✔️ Can evoke the reader's desired emotional response.

✔️ A good tone can keep the reader engaged.

✔️ Can improve clarity by conveying the intended message to the reader.

✔️ The right tone can convey competence and authority.

Changing Tone Cons

⛔ Setting the right tone can be difficult, especially for sensitive or complex topics.

⛔ Your readership may easily misinterpret the tone you were going for.

⛔ Personal biases or interpretations may affect the writing's tone and accuracy.

⛔ Perhaps it won't be to everyone's taste.

5. Translate For Wide Audiences

Broad audience translation involves converting the meaning of text or speech from one language to another. 

Part of this is making sure the translation is easy to understand for a wide variety of target audiences.

Facilitating communication across language and cultural divides is one of the main goals of professional translation.

When translating for wide audiences, make sure to:

✒️ Consider the audience, purpose, and cultural context of the translation.

✒️ Translating words requires translating meaning, tone, and style.

✒️ Avoid unfamiliar idioms and cultural references.

Check out the linked articles if you're curious about learning more about improving your Italian or German communication skills.

Translation Pros

✔️ Translating content can help non-native speakers understand it.

✔️ Can improve communication by bridging cultural and linguistic gaps.

✔️ You can increase the content's global reach and influence.

✔️ Promotes cross-cultural understanding and exchange.

Translation Cons

⛔ Translation errors can cause miscommunication or cultural insensitivity.

⛔ Translating original content's tone and nuance can cause confusion.

⛔ It can be difficult especially for longer or more complex pieces.

⛔ Requires awareness of source-target language cultural differences.

To find out the best AI translation software, check out this article.

6. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Grammar, punctuation, spelling, syntax, and formatting errors can all be easily fixed by performing a thorough proofreading.

It's a crucial stage in writing that can make or break the quality of your final product in terms of presentation, professionalism, and accuracy.

You can increase the impact and efficiency of your writing by giving it a thorough proofread to make sure it is clear, concise, and error-free.

Effective proofreading involves: 

✒️ Line-by-line review or using software to find and correct errors.

✒️ Reading the content without fatigue. 

✒️ Reading aloud to find awkward phrases and syntax errors.

Proofreading Pros

✔️ Helps write clear, accurate, and error-free content.

✔️ Shows professionalism and attention to detail, which boost credibility.

✔️ Corrects grammar, syntax, and punctuation errors to improve readability.

✔️ Helps writing achieve its goal by making it clear, concise, and persuasive.

Proofreading Cons

⛔ It is time-consuming, especially for longer writing.

⛔ May miss some errors, particularly content that needs more editing or revision.

⛔ Depends on the proofreader.

⛔ The proofreader can easily make mistakes if tired or distracted.

Let’s Recap

In the world of digital advertising, quality content is king.

You can ensure your content is at the top of the game by combining all the above paraphrasing methods.

And, once you learn how to paraphrase, you'll see improved results in reader engagement, website traffic, and credibility as an authority in your field.

However, no one said it would be easy, especially if all this work needs to be done manually.

We created the TextCortex add-on for that purpose — to help relieve stress and ease the burden of a large volume of writing.

This piece of software can cut down your writing time by a whopping 70%.

TextCortex’s Hot Features 

The TextCortex plugin provides standard rewriting capabilities, including all the paraphrasing strategies discussed in this article (rewriting, summarizing, tone, translation, and more).

However, it also comes with more advanced features that can come in handy in your everyday writing task, including the ability to:

✔️ Write up to 300 posts in a single strike with the “Long-form post” feature.

✔️ Transform a bulleted list of key points into emails using the “Bullet to email” feature.

✔️ Use “Brainstorming features” on more than 2000 platforms to overcome writer’s block.

✔️ Let AI predict desirable content output and form with “Zeno mode”.

✔️ Get any desirable content form with 60+ different AI templates.

✔️ Get results from AI writers by having a conversation with them using our “Zeno chat” feature.

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