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Five Effective Paraphrasing Techniques You Should Know

Table of Contents

Effective paraphrasing requires understanding the material and writing it in your own words . Students, content writers, and bloggers frequently need to incorporate ideas from several sources into their own work.

If you want to paraphrase, you have to change while retaining the original meaning. This article covers five effective paraphrasing techniques for writing better content for your website, blog, or academic paper.

What Does Paraphrasing Mean?

Paraphrasing is the process of restating someone else’s ideas or other information in your own words while preserving the meaning. A paraphrased text is sometimes shorter than the source. For effective paraphrasing, you must change the words and structure of a sentence.

However, a summary should not be confused with paraphrasing. A summary only includes key points of a text rewritten in your own words. The summarized version is usually much shorter than the source text.

Five Effective Paraphrasing Techniques

The key to effective paraphrasing is how you manage to phrase ideas creatively. You must make your sentences flow in a way that’s beneficial for the readers to grasp the concept easily.

Paraphrasing will demonstrate your ability to write sentences from a different angle after authentically experiencing the same idea from someone else.

Here are five effective paraphrasing techniques for you to consider for your next assignment.

1. Use Synonyms

One of the most common ways to make your writing sound less confusing is to take familiar words and replace them with synonyms.

If you need to change the meaning of a word, you can also replace it with a similar word. These substitutions will make your writing more interesting and fresh, not confusing.

Original Text: The students illustrated their presentation slides with stories.

Paraphrased: The students explained their presentation slides with stories.

2. Change the Word Class or Form

It is easy to spot the difference when you copy words or sentences directly from a book. We all have different writing styles, and yours will be distinct from those of the authors you’re reading.

Changing the word class or form of words is a good approach to make your text sound significantly different. You can replace the verb of a sentence with a noun from the same word family or change an adjective with a noun.

Original Text: The supervisor played a significant role in the success of the project.

Paraphrased: The supervisor played a significant role in the successful completion of this project.

3. Modify the Sentence Structure

One way to effectively paraphrase a text is to shift the sentence structure. This can help address the unclear wording of the original text and make it easier to understand.

Change the sentence structure using a verb from the second half of the sentence as your subject rather than the first half. Moving something up in the sentence or moving it towards the end of the sentence could change its meaning substantially.

Original Text: The wedding photography package price includes travel fees, taxes, and editing costs.

Paraphrased: The travel fees, taxes, and editing costs are included in the wedding photography package.

4. Change the Grammatical Structure

To paraphrase, you need to change the grammatical structure of the original sentence. One way to do this is by utilizing a different tense. When you use this technique, the statement will be in the past tense but in the active voice. This can create a lot of impacts when communicating.

Original Text: A cake is being baked by Laura

Paraphrased: Laura is baking a cake.

5. Use Different Techniques To Work Together

Improve your ability to paraphrase by using several complementary paraphrasing techniques. For example, you can use passive voice, synonyms, or different word forms to convey similar ideas.

These techniques work together to help you effectively paraphrase an original text without any risk of plagiarism. Your paraphrased text will sound like a completely new and unique idea.

Paraphrasing can be quite helpful when writing or speaking, and it is important to possess the skills required to do it effectively. With the proper technique and format, paraphrasing can help make your writing or speech more memorable and understandable .

Everyone needs a little help on occasion. But with just a few small changes, your audience’s perception of you will be enhanced, and so will your impact.

Pam is an expert grammarian with years of experience teaching English, writing and ESL Grammar courses at the university level. She is enamored with all things language and fascinated with how we use words to shape our world.

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Unit 2: Paraphrasing and Avoiding Plagiarism

2 Paraphrasing Techniques

Technique #1: tell-a-friend method.

This method involves using a new way to explain the meaning of the original sentence.

• Read the original sentence(s).
• Make sure you understand the sentence(s) completely.
• Cover the original source.
• Imagine you are talking to a friend and try explaining the information to your friend. Write down your explanation.
• Read the original source and make sure you have retained the original meaning.
• (See Technique #4 below: Using AI-based paraphrasing tools to improve your paraphrasing.)

Practice the Tell-a-Friend method using the proverbs below.

Proverb: You can’t judge a book by its cover.

Paraphrase: Things sometimes look different from what they really are.

Match the proverb with its paraphrase. (Answers located below.)

Technique #2: Chunking method

Another way to paraphrase is to break the original into smaller units, or “chunks.” This method can be useful for longer passages.

• Read the original sentence(s) and make sure you understand the sentence(s) completely.
• Divide the sentence(s) into chunks (these are often grammatical clauses). Underline each chunk, focusing on how you can divide the sentence into phrases.
• Re-write each chunk in your own words.
• Combine these rewritten chunks into one or more sentences to create a paraphrase. Think about how the ideas are related to each other; you might need to include additional words (e.g. transition phrases) as you combine the chunks.
• You may re-order the chunks to make the order of ideas different from the original, but if you do, make sure the paraphrase still makes sense.

Chunking examples:

#1 Original: “As more and more people have become increasingly used to sharing and collaborating outside the workplace via social networks, (chunk 1) they are coming to expect firms to be more open and collaborative places too (chunk 2).” From Author Unknown, “Yammering Away at the Office,” (2010), p. 1.

• 1) people have grown more accustomed to using social media platforms for collaboration and sharing ideas beyond their jobs
• 2) there are increasing expectations that companies will encourage more collaboration.

Paraphrase: Workers are expecting companies to encourage more collaboration since many people have grown accustomed to using social media platforms for collaboration and sharing ideas beyond their jobs (“Yammering away at the office,” 2010, p. 1).

#2 Original: “Psychologists have argued that digital technology is changing the way we write (chunk 1) in that students no longer need to plan essays before starting to write (chunk 2) because word processing software allows them to edit as they go along (chunk 3).” From David Derbyshire, “Social websites harm children’s brains,” (2009), p. 2.

• 1) psychologists claim that computers and software are influencing the writing process
• 2) students can skip the planning process
• 3) word processing programs help them revise throughout the writing process

Paraphrase: Because word processing programs help students revise their essays throughout the writing process and even skip the planning process altogether, psychologists claim that computers and software are influencing the writing process (Derbyshire, 2009, p. 2)

Adapted from Dollahite, N.E. & Huan, J. (2012). SourceWork: Academic Writing for Success.

Technique #3: Paraphrasing plus Summarizing method

Sometimes you will be able to identify one or two specific sentences to paraphrase. However, it is more common to use information from a longer passage, like a paragraph or two, or a section or sections of an article. To do this effectively, you must combine the skills of paraphrasing and summarizing.

• Paraphrasing: Restating an individual sentence that contains key ideas in your own words, keeping the same length and meaning.
• Summarizing: Expressing an overall idea of a longer passage in your own words, keeping the same meaning, but making it much more concise (shorten it).

Follow these steps to summarize AND paraphrase:

• Identify the original chunk(s) of text that you would like to cite in your paper.
• Read the chunk(s) several times to make sure you have accurate understanding and are able to “tell a friend” what the chunks are about.
• In the margins, identify key words, synonyms, or ideas that describe each chunk (color-coding can help identify similar ideas).
• Think about the most logical sequence of these ideas; you could number them.
• Write your summary, keeping it short (1 to 3 sentences). Set it aside.
• Re-read the ideas in the margins and your summary and rewrite any parts you feel could be improved; repeat steps 5-6 as needed.

The example below illustrates how a student used the skills of paraphrasing and summarizing below to condense a paragraph into a single sentence.

Original: “ The pandemic tested the resilience of colleges and universities as they executed online learning on a massive scale by creating online courses, adopting and adapting to unfamiliar technologies, engaging faculty en masse in remote teaching, and successfully meeting the instructional needs of students. Those experiences and lessons should not be discarded. The next phase for higher education in a post-COVID-19 world is to harness what worked well during the emergency response period and use those experiences to improve institutional practices for the benefit of both internal and external constituencies in the future.” From John Nworie, “Beyond COVID-19: What’s next for online teaching and learning in higher education,” (2021), p. 7.

• 1) valuable lessons learned
• 2) higher education institutions developed large-scale online courses
• 3) as a response to the pandemic
• 4) adapting and overcoming challenges in the process
• 5) should be applied to future education models

Paraphrase: Nworie (2021) recommends that the valuable lessons learned as higher education institutions developed large-scale online courses as a response to the pandemic, adapting and overcoming challenges in the process, should be applied to future education models (p. 7).

Proverbs matching answers: 1-d, 2-a, 3-e, 4-c, 5-b

Technique #4: Using Online Tools

AI-based paraphrasing tools can help you improve your writing. Most tools have free and premium versions, which have more features. Examples include:

The best way to use AI-based paraphrasing tools is to write your own version first and then use the tool to find alternative ways to express your paraphrase. Being able to write a paraphrase on your own will allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of AI-generated paraphrases.

Benefits of using AI-tools:

• By seeing how the tool rewrites your text, you can learn to identify where your writing could be improved. You can learn to use more effective vocabulary, or how to structure your sentences in a more effective way.
• You can expand your vocabulary and learn effective collocations.
• You can spot grammar errors you make and learn to avoid and correct them.

Follow these guidelines when using AI tools for writing paraphrases:

• Write the paraphrase on your own first. Then paste your paraphrase into the AI with a clear prompt to check its effectiveness.
• When using AI to support your writing, always review the original text to ensure the AI accurately maintained the meaning of the original passage.
• Some tools only change the words and not the overall structure. If they tool only uses synonyms, you must change the grammar yourself.
• Always check the citation format. Do not assume the tool will use the correct citation.

To learn more about how to cite your use of AI Tools see the UW Libraries’ Research Guides on Citing Generative AI.

Knowledge Check

Exercise: take the paraphrasing quiz below..

From Excelsior Online Writing Lab, Paraphrasing – Try it Out

Academic Writing I Copyright © by UW-Madison ESL Program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Techniques for Paraphrasing

When you write a paraphrase, you restate other’s ideas in your own words. That is, you write the meaning of the author’s ideas. You use some of the author’s key terms, but you use many of your own words and sentence structures. You include in-text citation, including the author’s last name and (for APA style) the year of publication.

An effective paraphrase includes more than one of the following techniques. If you use only one of these techniques when paraphrasing, you have not paraphrased effectively.  

• Change a word from one part of speech to another

Original:  Medical professor John Swanson says that global changes are influencing the spread of disease.

Paraphrase:  According to John Swanson, a professor of medicine, changes across the globe are causing diseases to spread (James, 2004).

• Use synonyms

Original:  The U.S. government declared that the AIDS crisis poses a national security threat.  The announcement followed an intelligence report that found high rates of HIV infection could lead to widespread political destabilization.

Paraphrase: The government of the United States announced that AIDS could harm the nation's security.  The government warned the population after an important governmental study concluded that political problems could result from large numbers of people infected with HIV (Snell, 2005).

• Change numbers and percentages to different forms

Original: Minority groups in the United States have been hit hardest by the epidemic.  African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 46 percent of the AIDS cases diagnosed in 1998.

Paraphrase: The AIDS epidemic has mostly affected minorities in the United States.  For example, in 1998, less than 15 percent of the total population was African, but almost half of the people diagnosed with AIDS in the United States that year were African America (Jenson, 2000).

• Change word order:  this might include changing from active to passive voice or moving modifiers to different positions.  

Original: Angier (2001) reported that malaria kills more than one million people annually, the overwhelming majority of them children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Paraphrase: Every year, more than a million people are killed by malaria, and most of the victims are children who live in sub-Saharan Africa (Angier, 2001).

    5. Use different definition structures

Original: Lyme disease is an inflammatory disease caused by a bacterium transmitted by ticks (small bloodsucking arachnids that attach themselves to larger animals). The disease is usually characterized by a rash followed by flu-like symptoms, including fever, joint pain, and headache.

Paraphrase: Lyme disease-a disease that causes swelling and redness-is caused by a bacterium carried by a small arachnid known as a tick. The ticks attach to and suck the blood of animals and humans, transferring some of the Lyme disease bacteria into their hosts and causing symptoms similar to the flu (Wald, 2005).

    6. Use different attribution signals

Original: “That’s because there are so many different ways the diseases could have arrived,” veterinarian Mark Walters declared in his recent book, Six Modern Plagues.

Paraphrase: According to Mark Walters, a veterinarian who wrote Six Modern Plagues, the disease could have arrived in numerous ways (Peterson, 2004).

   7. Change the sentence structure and use different connecting words

Original:  Although only about one-tenth of the world’s population lives there, sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit region, accounting for 72 percent of the people infected with HIV during 2000.

Paraphrase: Approximately 10 percent of the world’s population resides in sub-Saharan Africa.  However, this area of the world has the highest percentage of AIDS-related illnesses.  In fact, in 2000, almost three-fourths of the population had the HIV virus (Bunting, 2004).

Caution:  When paraphrasing, do not change key terms or proper nouns.

Original: In the northeastern United States, people are building homes on the edge of woods, where ticks that carry Lyme disease hitch rides on deer.  In addition, in Africa, hunters bring back the meat of animals that scientists think may transmit Ebola, a usually fatal disease that causes massive hemorrhaging in its victims.

Paraphrase: In the United States, residential areas are being built near wooded areas in the northeast. These areas are also the homes of ticks carrying Lyme disease.  Also, according to scientists, hunters in Africa kill animals that may carry the Ebola virus (an often fatal virus that causes massive hemorrhaging) (Yaya, 2004).

Schuemann, C., Bryd, P., & Reid, J. (2006). College Writing 4 (1st ed.). USA: Heinle/ELT. Reproduced by permission .

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What's paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing involves expressing someone else’s ideas or thoughts in your own words while maintaining the original meaning. Paraphrasing tools can help you quickly reword text by replacing certain words with synonyms or restructuring sentences. They can also make your text more concise, clear, and suitable for a specific audience. Paraphrasing is an essential skill in academic writing and professional communication.

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Paraphrase a whole text

Our paraphraser can also help with longer passages (up to 125 words per input). Upload your document or copy your text into the input field.

With one click, you can reformulate the entire text.

Find synonyms with ease

Simply click on any word to open the interactive thesaurus.

• Choose from a list of suggested synonyms
• Find the synonym with the most appropriate meaning
• Replace the word with a single click

Paraphrase in two ways

• Standard: Offers a compromise between modifying and preserving the meaning of the original text
• Fluency: Improves language and corrects grammatical mistakes.

Upload different types of documents

Upload any Microsoft Word document, Google Doc, or PDF into the paraphrasing tool.

Download or copy your results

After you’re done, you can easily download or copy your text to use somewhere else.

Powered by AI

The paraphrasing tool uses natural language processing to rewrite any text you give it. This way, you can paraphrase any text within seconds.

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1. put your text into the paraphraser, 2. select your method of paraphrasing, 3. select the quantity of synonyms you want, 4. edit your text where needed, who can use this paraphrasing tool.

Paraphrasing tools can help students to understand texts and improve the quality of their writing. 

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Writers who need to rewrite content, such as adapting an article for a different context or writing content for a different audience.

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Frequently asked questions

The act of putting someone else’s ideas or words into your own words is called paraphrasing, rephrasing, or rewording. Even though they are often used interchangeably, the terms can mean slightly different things:

Paraphrasing   is restating someone else’s ideas or words in your own words while retaining their meaning. Paraphrasing changes sentence structure, word choice, and sentence length to convey the same meaning.

Rephrasing   may involve more substantial changes to the original text, including changing the order of sentences or the overall structure of the text.

Rewording   is changing individual words in a text without changing its meaning or structure, often using synonyms.

It can. One of the two methods of paraphrasing is called “Fluency.” This will improve the language and fix grammatical errors in the text you’re paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing and using a paraphrasing tool aren’t cheating. It’s a great tool for saving time and coming up with new ways to express yourself in writing.  However, always be sure to credit your sources.  Avoid plagiarism.  

If you don’t properly reference text paraphrased from another source, you’re plagiarising. If you use someone else’s text and paraphrase it, you need to credit the original source. You can do that by using citations. There are different styles, like APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago. Find more information about referencing sources  here.

Paraphrasing   without crediting the original author   is a   form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly referencing the source . This means including an   in-text citation   and a full reference, formatted according to your required   citation style.

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Plagiarism   means using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own.   Paraphrasing   means putting someone else’s ideas in your own words.

So when does paraphrasing count as plagiarism?

• Paraphrasing   is   plagiarism if you don’t properly credit the original author.
• Paraphrasing   is   plagiarism if your text is too close to the original wording (even if you cite the source). If you directly copy a sentence or phrase, you should   quote   it instead.
• Paraphrasing  is not   plagiarism if you put the author’s ideas completely in your own words   and   properly referencing the source .

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What Is Paraphrasing? 4 Types And Examples

Paraphrasing is a valuable writing skill that goes beyond the rewording of text. It's about capturing the essence of an idea and presenting it in a new and engaging manner. 

This writing technique helps you avoid plagiarism and create content that resonates with your audience and ranks well on search engines.

In this article, we will explore what paraphrasing is and how you can apply it to your content writing

What you will learn

• What paraphrasing is and its importance in content writing.
• How paraphrasing can help you reference someone else's ideas and research papers in your writing, using your own words.
• 4 paraphrasing techniques you can leverage.
• The difference between paraphrasing, summarizing, and rephrasing.

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is when you rewrite something in your own words while maintaining the original meaning.

It is a writing technique that requires a deep understanding of the original text. You must fully grasp the concepts and nuances to reframe them without altering the intended meaning.

Paraphrasing is commonly used in content writing to use a piece of information without committing plagiarism or when trying to make it more understandable and relatable to your audience.

Here’s an example of how we’ve used paraphrasing in the Surfer blog to define the Pareto Principle.

Here is the text from the original Wikipedia source.

The paraphrased text conveys the same point using different words and phrases. It has simplified the concept, and it mentions the original source material. You can see that this is effective paraphrasing.

Why is paraphrasing important?

Paraphrasing is important because it allows you to use existing information and avoid plagiarism, create unique content, and tailor content to resonate with your audience.

Paraphrasing can help you contextualize information that you may not have created, but that is still relevant to your readers. It can help you use external material to validate your claims and prove your point.

If you’re publishing articles on the web, know that search engines value original content and penalize websites for plagiarism or duplicating content from other sources. By paraphrasing effectively, you can reference someone else's ideas or research in your own writing and avoid plagiarism.

Beyond avoiding plagiarism, paraphrasing can also help you present information in a way that resonates with your audience. 

For instance, if you're dealing with technical content, you might paraphrase it to make it more accessible to the average reader. 

Or, you might adapt a piece to better align with your brand's voice or your audience's cultural context.

Additionally, paraphrasing can enhance your copywriting skills by promoting a deeper understanding of the text and helping you articulate thoughts in your unique voice.

This way, paraphrasing can improve the overall readability and effectiveness of your writing. 

4 types of paraphrasing

There are four types of paraphrasing techniques you can apply when you write. Here’s an overview of each type with examples and tips on how to use it.

1. Rewriting text

The rewriting approach involves restructuring the original passage without changing its meaning. You can use this approach to improve the credibility of your writing.

This type of paraphrasing can be useful when referencing a statistic or a direct quotation in your writing. 

Here’s an example of Sprout Social using the rewriting approach to paraphrase one of their study statistics.

When rewriting, you can use synonyms or alter the sentence order to convey the same idea in your own way. 

Or you can use an AI writing assistant like Surfy to do the rewriting for you. 

Simply highlight the text and ask Surfy to rewrite it.

Surfy will give you a properly rewritten sentence.

The rewritten sentence conveys the same point, using a different sentence structure and words.

2. Expand and clarify

This paraphrasing technique entails adding information to aid readers' comprehension of the main ideas you want to focus on. 

You can use this approach when the original passage requires additional explanation. 

This technique is also useful when you want to clarify how the original text fits into a specific situation or cultural context. 

For instance, you can rephrase a quote using this approach to ensure the audience understands it.

In this case, Surfy rephrased the text and added extra information to clarify the meaning of the highlighted sentence.

3. Condense and focus

The condense and focus paraphrasing technique involves cutting out the non-essential information to focus on what matters. This is the opposite of the expand and clarify approach.

Remove redundant or irrelevant details to make your writing more concise and easier to read. 

Let’s look at an example of how Surfy achieves this.

Here’s the paraphrased text using the condense and focus approach.

The paraphrased text uses shorter sentences and simpler words.

This way you highlight the essential information you wish to focus on and also improve the readability of your content.

4. Adapt your tone

Every audience is different, with unique preferences and levels of understanding. 

This paraphrasing technique allows you to present information in a way that is more accessible, engaging, and relevant to your specific audience. 

It involves restating text to match your brand voice or suit your audience. 

You can use different words or alter the level of technicality of a text to adapt your tone of voice and tailor the information to your intended audience. 

Here’s how Code Wizards uses paraphrasing to adapt the definition of coding to fit its audience of young kids. 

This paraphrased definition of coding uses simple language to explain a technical concept to a group of young, non-technical people.

You can achieve such results with Surfy by asking it to simplify a concept or a sentence.

And here are the results.

What is the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing?

Paraphrasing involves rewriting someone else's ideas in your own words, while summarizing entails condensing the essential points of someone else's work.

The paraphrased content has the same meaning and is close to the same length as the original text. 

Summarizing, on the other hand, involves extracting the main points of a text and presenting them in a brief, concise manner. 

A summary is significantly shorter than the original text, often omitting specific details and examples. 

Here’s an example of a summary that sums up a whole Harry Potter book in a few sentences.

Summarizing is useful when you need to give an overview of a topic, or when you want to highlight the main points of a lengthy article, report, or study. 

Paraphrasing is useful when you want to retell something in your own words.

Paraphrasing and summarizing are writing techniques that differ in their purpose and level of detail. 

Both paraphrasing and summarizing require a deep understanding of the original text to ensure that the essence is accurately conveyed.

What is the difference between paraphrasing and rephrasing?

Paraphrasing involves taking a piece of text and rewriting it in your own words while rephrasing relies on tweaking words and structure to improve readability. 

Paraphrasing and rephrasing are writing techniques that differ in their level of complexity. 

Paraphrasing is not just about changing a few words here and there; it's about reworking the text while retaining the original meaning and context. 

Rephrasing, on the other hand, is often a simpler process. It involves making smaller changes to a text to improve clarity, readability, or style.

For instance, when rephrasing, you can change the wording of sentences and the sentence structure.

Let’s put this into practice with the help of Surfy.

We will use Surfy to rephrase and paraphrase the same sentence.

As you can see, when rephrasing, Surfy has relied on synonyms, like replacing “well-crafted” with “well-orchestrated” and “analogy” with "principle.” The main idea remains the same.

The paraphrased version goes a step beyond using different words and phrases. It expresses the same sentence in a completely different voice. 

As you can see, paraphrasing is a more complex technique than rephrasing.

Key takeaways

• Paraphrasing is a technique used to restate text in a different way using your own words, while maintaining the original meaning of the text.
• Effective paraphrasing improves readability, avoids plagiarism, and reduces the overuse of quotes in content writing.
• It involves identifying the central ideas, using synonyms, rewording, and changing sentence structures.
• There are four main paraphrasing techniques: rewriting text, expanding and clarifying, condensing and focusing, and adapting your tone.
• Summarizing condenses an original text to its main ideas, whereas paraphrasing restates the text without losing its intended meaning.
• Rephrasing and paraphrasing differ in their level of complexity. 

Paraphrasing is a writing technique that helps you ensure originality in your content, engage the audience, and comply with writing best practices. 

Effective paraphrasing requires a deep understanding of the source material in order to be able to rewrite it in your own words, while preserving the original meaning. 

There are four paraphrasing techniques you can use when paraphrasing. By learning these techniques, you can improve your copywriting skills and the effectiveness of your content. 

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Top Five Paraphrasing Techniques (video included)

When it comes to Writing Task 1 and 2, paraphrasing is an essential skill for every one of your introductions. Many students incorrectly copy the question into their writing, and as such, they get a lower score. 

Are you worried about paraphrasing? Read below for our top paraphrasing techniques and make paraphrasing an essential part of your study routine.

1. Use Synonyms

The most common technique, and maybe most important, is to find synonyms for keywords in the question. For this technique, take note of the important nouns and verbs in the question, and see in which synonyms might be appropriate to replace them. 

Example: The diagram below shows the process by which bricks are manufactured for the building industry.

Paraphrased Example: The diagram illustrates the way bricks are made for the building industry.

In the example above, you’ll notice that we found synonyms for three of the words to help us paraphrase the question.

2. Use a Different Word Form

Another way to paraphrase is to change the form of the words used in the question. It’s helpful to be aware of how word families work in English in order to do so. A common way to do this is to change the nouns to verbs, verbs to nouns, adjectives to nouns, etc.

Example: The line graph below shows the consumption of four kinds of meat in a European country from 1979 to 2004.

Paraphrased Example: The line graph below shows how one European country consumed four kinds of meat from 1979 to 2004.

Here you can see we changed the noun, consumption to its verb form, consumed .

3. Change from the Active to the Passive

Often, we can simply change the grammar structures in the question. Changing active voice to passive is a great way to help paraphrase a question.

Example: The real estate developers invested over $40 million USD into the development of a new senior living community.

Paraphrased Example: $40 million USD was invested in the development of a new senior living community.

Above you see we changed invested to was invested helping us paraphrase by changing the active to the passive.

4. Change the word order

For all this talk about synonyms, changing the word form, or changing grammatical structures, sometimes it’s easy enough to simply change where the words stand in a sentence.

Paraphrased Example: The line graph below shows how four different kinds of meat were consumed over a 25-year period in one European Country.

As you can see, I not only changed the word order, which had a dramatic effect on how the question is read, but I also changed the main verb from active to passive. This leads to our next top tip below.

5. Use a combination of techniques

Typically relying on one technique to paraphrase in your writing is doable, but it can be stressful and not very effective. To get the best results, try using at least two or three different techniques. Using synonyms combined with changing the grammar or word order can have a dramatic effect on your paraphrasing skills.

Writing skills

• Apostrophes
• Linking words
• Cautious language
• Paraphrasing, summarising and techniques
• Developing arguments
• Writing paragraphs

Paraphrasing and summarising

Writing at university involves integrating ideas from other authors into your own writing.

Paraphrasing and summarising allows you to acknowledge these authors by expressing the information in your own words. Effective paraphrasing also demonstrates your understanding of the information.

How to paraphrase

To paraphrase, you need to:

• change the structure of the sentence
• change the words in the sentence

Changing the structure of a sentence

• Read the original text a number of times and make sure you understand the main ideas.
• Write down the main ideas from memory.
• Check what you have written against the original text – make sure you have retained the original ideas and that your version is different.

Changing the words

It can be easy to spot when someone has copied directly from a textbook. We all have different styles of writing and yours will be different to the authors you are reading.

• Once you understand the main ideas of the original text look for specialised words – these words may be retained in the paraphrased version, as they are key to the meaning of the sentence.
• Look for words or phrases that can be changed.
• Use a thesaurus or dictionary to find substitutes.

Paraphrase Rephrasing or restating information from another source in your own words without changing the meaning. Maybe shorter than the original passage.

Summary A summary includes only the main ideas of someone else’s writing, restated in your own words. Much shorter than the original text.

Always acknowledge the original author when using a paraphrase or summary.

For more information see  Citing APA style. 

See examples of paraphrasing and summarising below:

Original text

In recent years a body of research has revealed another, more nuanced benefit of workplace diversity: nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter. Working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance.

(from – Rock, D. & Grant, H. (2016). Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review

A bad paraphrase

In the last few years, a collection of research has shown another, more nuanced advantage of workplace diversity: diverse teams are simply better . Working with people who are unlike you may encourage your brain to lose its old ways of thinking and improve its performance.

Note this paraphrase has only replaced some words with synonyms and has kept the structure almost identical to the original sentence.

A good paraphrase

Recent research has revealed that working in diverse teams can stimulate your creativity and efficiency, advocating the benefits of workplace diversity (Rock & Grant, 2016).

Note: This paraphrase shows a change in sentence structure and words

Striving to increase workplace diversity is not an empty slogan — it is a good business decision. A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean.

In a global analysis of 2,400 companies conducted by Credit Suisse, organizations with at least one female board member yielded higher return on equity and higher net income growth than those that did not have any women on the board.

In recent years a body of research has revealed another, more nuanced benefit of workplace diversity: nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter. Working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance. Let’s dig into why diverse teams are smarter.

The benefits of workplace diversity has been illustrated in recent studies like the McKinsey report and the Credit Suisse analysis. These studies indicate that diversity in management resulted in higher profits for companies (Rock & Grant, 2016).

Word thesaurus

You are probably already familiar with spellchecker and grammar checker in Microsoft Word. Another beneficial tool is the thesaurus, which can aid your writing to find the best word to meet your needs.

Using the thesaurus, you can look up synonyms (different words with the same meaning) and antonyms (words with the opposite meaning).

The following screencast demonstrates how to use the thesaurus function in Word.

Paraphrasing techniques

Steps to effective paraphrasing and summarising:

• Read your text/paragraph and ensure that you understand it.
• Write down your ideas without looking at the original.
• Use synonyms or change the word order of your sentence.
• Compare with the original to see whether you are conveying the same meaning.
• Record the source details so you can easily cite it later.

3 key techniques for paraphrasing

Change vocabulary by using synonyms

• asserts – claims, argues, maintains
• twentieth century – 1900s
• illustrates – explains, emphasises, clarifies

Change word class

• analyse – analysis, analysing
• create – creating, creation
• assume – assumption, assuming, assumed

Change the sentence structure

• …the best explanation for the British location of the industrial revolution is found by studying demand factors.
• A focus on demand may help explain the UK origin of the industrial revolution.

Additional resources

The University of Auckland provides further resources on paraphrasing and summarising as part of the online learning module  Referen©ite.

Further paraphrasing tips from Queensland University of Technology.

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Toolsaday's Ultimate Paraphrasing Tool: The Ideal Writing Companion

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Discover Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool, your go-to resource for all your text rephrasing demands. Our innovative AI-powered software is tailored to revolutionize your writing process, helping you generate fresh, engaging, and SEO-friendly content that truly stands out. With a user-friendly interface and unparalleled performance, Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool is the perfect partner for writers, students, professionals, and anyone striving to improve their content quality and SEO rankings.

Achieve Remarkable Text Revisions with Our State-of-the-Art Paraphrasing Solution

Toolsaday brings you the Ultimate Paraphrasing Tool, designed to help writers, students, professionals, and content creators from all walks of life produce uniquely articulated, engaging, and effective content in a matter of minutes. Our advanced language processing algorithm ensures a seamless and natural rephrasing experience, allowing you to transform your original text into a captivating and polished piece without losing its essence or context. Say goodbye to plagiarism concerns, repetitive content, and awkward phrasing—Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool is here to elevate your writing game to new heights.

Advanced AI Technology

Our Paraphrasing Tool is built on cutting-edge AI technology that employs natural language processing algorithms to analyze your text and deliver paraphrased content that is both coherent and contextually accurate. This ensures that your rephrased text maintains its original meaning while adopting a fresh and engaging tone.

High-Quality, Plagiarism-Free Content

Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool understands the importance of originality in today's digital age. With our sophisticated algorithms, we guarantee plagiarism-free results that help you avoid copyright issues and maintain the credibility of your work.

Unlimited Paraphrasing

Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool is built to cater to all your paraphrasing needs without any limitations. Enjoy the freedom of unlimited paraphrasing without any restrictions on the number of words or the frequency of use.

Why Choose Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool?

In a world where content is king, Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool is the ultimate weapon in your writing arsenal. Whether you're a student looking to rephrase a research paper, a content creator working on blog posts, or a professional seeking to revamp your reports, our AI-powered Paraphrasing Tool can help you create fresh, engaging, and original content that stands out from the crowd.

Unlock the full potential of your writing with Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool – the ultimate AI-powered solution for all your text transformation needs. Give it a try today and experience the difference for yourself!

Fast and Efficient

Our Paraphrasing Tool is designed to deliver top-notch results in a matter of seconds. Simply input your text, hit the "Paraphrase" button, and watch as our AI engine works its magic, providing you with a completely rephrased version of your content in no time.

User-Friendly Interface

We believe that powerful tools should be easy to use. Our Paraphrasing Tool features a clean, intuitive interface that makes it a breeze for users of all skill levels to navigate and operate.

Multi-Lingual Support

With our AI-driven Paraphrasing Tool, language is no barrier. We offer support for multiple languages, allowing you to rephrase your content in your desired language with ease.

Supported Languages:

30 Modes of Paraphrasing

Toolsaday's Paraphrasing Tool goes above and beyond to cater to the diverse needs of our users. We understand that different writing styles and purposes require unique approaches to paraphrasing. That's why we've developed 30 distinct modes of paraphrasing, ensuring that you can find the perfect fit for your specific requirements. Explore our versatile selection and discover the mode that aligns with your content goals:

Changes the text while keeping its original meaning.

Corrects language mistakes and makes it easier to understand.

Rewrites text to sound more confident.

Use of colloquial language, contractions, and informal vocabulary, creating a relaxed and friendly atmosphere in the writing.

Rewrites text in an easily understood way, making it suitable for most people.

Rewrites text in a way that is more smart and expert.

Provides the most creative and expressive rephrasing of the source material.

Effectively and succinctly expresses the meaning of a text.

Adds more details and information to further explain the text.

Rewrites text using a tone and style more appropriate for academic writing.

Adventurous

Writing style that evokes excitement, thrill, and a sense of adventure, using vivid descriptions and a fast pace.

The angry tone is characterized by strong, forceful language used to express feelings of frustration, annoyance, or outrage.

Evokes feelings and emotions in the reader through the use of language, description, and storytelling elements.

Frightening

Evokes fear, suspense, and horror through the use of dark imagery, tense language, and unsettling descriptions.

Style of writing that uses wit, irony, and humor to entertain or amuse the reader.

Motivates and encourages the reader, using positive language, emotional appeals, and examples of success to evoke feelings of hope and inspiration.

The Mysterious tone creates an atmosphere of uncertainty and intrigue by using cryptic language, suspenseful events, and a sense of enigma.

The Nostalgic tone is a writing style characterized by a longing for or reminiscence of the past, often evoking feelings of sadness, fondness, or wistfulness.

Use of calm, serene, and tranquil language that conveys a sense of tranquility and stillness.

Personal tone refers to a writing style that is informal, conversational, and reflective of the author's own thoughts and feelings, often used in memoirs, personal essays, and blog posts.

Use of courteous, polite language and a considerate attitude towards the subject and the reader.

A romantic tone is characterized by expressions of affection, sentimentality, and a focus on emotions and personal relationships, often evoking feelings of love, passion, and intimacy.

Mood or emotion conveyed through writing that evokes feelings of melancholy, sorrow, or grief.

A serious tone is characterized by a sober, straightforward, and dignified manner, typically used in writing or speech to convey a weighty or important subject matter.

Use of dream-like or absurd elements, often used to create a sense of disorientation or to challenge the reader's sense of reality.

Suspenseful

Style of writing that creates a feeling of uncertainty and tension, keeping the reader on edge and wondering what will happen next.

Conciseness and succinctness, using only the necessary words to convey information clearly and efficiently.

Clarity, brevity, and precision in language usage, avoiding unnecessary words or details to effectively convey a message in the most straightforward manner.

To-the-point

To-the-point tone is characterized by concise, straightforward language that gets straight to the point, without any fluff or extraneous information.

Toolsaday is an incredibly powerful AI-based tool that can help you create marketing content of the highest quality and utmost appeal, allowing you to maximize your success in the competitive world of digital marketing.

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Paraphrasing Techniques : Enhancing Pedagogy for Educators

In the realm of pedagogy, the concept of paraphrasing typically conjures thoughts of its utility in students’ academic endeavors.

However, what often remains less explored is the profound potential of paraphrasing techniques for educators themselves.

This can be achieved through the judicious application of paraphrasing techniques facilitated by modern paraphrasing tools.

So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Ways Teachers Can Improve Pedagogy By Utilizing Paraphrasing Methods

What is paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing is expressing a text or a passage in a new way while retaining the meaning of the original text. Essentially, it means changing words, shuffling sentence structure, and use of alternate voices. It is considered one of the best practices for teaching and overall, in the world of writing.

Improved Communication With Students

This is a sad one but not any teacher’s fault I believe. A teacher believes their way of teaching is the best as it’s easier to understand and explain to them. The students may think otherwise.

Growing up, I remember the kids rooting hard against the teacher who failed to explain tricky concepts to us. I feel ashamed now but I was just a kid and those were different times. Present time allows teachers to get help from any online paraphrasing tool  to help them prepare lectures.

Just look at how the tool effortlessly explains the same thing but in a less jargon way. It can make those tenacious teachers finally realize the flaws in their methods by introducing new and easier ways of elaborating tough concepts.

Increased Class Engagement

The best teachers, in my opinion, are those who are actively engaging  their classrooms and not just reading paragraphs from a book for the sake of it. Those teachers have my respect. It’s one thing to paraphrase your lectures for teaching but another when you ask your students to do it.

The greatest learning experiences involve active participation from all the students and it’s the teacher’s job to make everyone participate. Paraphrasing enables students to break out of their typical thinking molds and look at the problem more critically, something even the best textbooks can fail to emulate.

Designing Outlines

When planning the lectures, teachers can create outlines that are much easier to give lectures from. Typically, the teachers prepare the lecture and then write down the key points to make it easier to connect point to point during the lecture.

It would be nice if the outline had clarity and was easy to read. Don’t want to be a deer in headlights when giving lectures. Don’t want to give students another reason to make fun of teachers.

To avoid this, the teachers can use paraphrasing techniques to craft outlines that are silky smooth to read off of and give lectures from.

By Handing Out Paraphrasing Assignments To Students

This may seem like a cop-out point but let me explain. If the teachers are going to be handing out paraphrasing assignments, then you can assume they already know their answers.

Meaning they worked on the assignments and in turn improved their work. They have new ideas for explaining the same topics and it gives them an edge in teaching. The same logic can be applied to students. Paraphrasing exercises open up their minds to the possibility of critical thinking skills  and vocabulary improvement.

Students learning new things and improving in their academics is in fact, the direct result of teachers improving their work.

The problem with old-generation teachers (I’m resisting the urge to say, boomers) is that respectfully, they don’t adapt. They don’t want to adapt. They feel they know everything which is true to a certain extent.

I also believe that they should always be highly regarded but how far can you stretch that sentiment without a teacher’s willingness to improve their work? At least, the new-gen teachers are far more willing to take the bold step of improving their work.

Paraphrasing techniques used in paraphrasing tools are a way of improving their work by a margin. All it requires is some willpower from the teacher’s end.

Recommended:

• How to Teach a Child to Write their Name
• How to Teach Sight Words to Struggling Readers
• 20 Classic Quick Games to Play in the Classroom

Rubina Numan

Rubina Numan, a seasoned Instructional Designer, is renowned for innovative, learner-centered experiences merging pedagogy with technology. With a BSc (IDT) from the University of Huddersfield , she holds over a decade of experience collaborating with diverse educational realms.

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