This article discusses basic steps of successful paraphrasing. To give you an opportunity to practice proofreading, we have left a few spelling, punctuation, or grammatical errors in the text. See if you can spot them! If you spot the errors correctly, you will be entitled to a 10% discount.

There are various technical terms and techniques in the world of academic writing. One such term is paraphrasing. This is something that university students and researchers are quite familiar with as it is actively used in this line of work.

Paraphrasing means rewriting the same matter differently without changing the overall meaning. The need for paraphrasing is for the readers to have an impression that the writer has understood the material well enough to formulate it in their own words.

For writers starting, paraphrasing might seem quite a difficult thing to master. However, everything can become better with practice and some good advice. Therefore, if you are getting into the world of academic writing and want to know how to paraphrase like a pro, we have a few tips that you might find helpful. Read on to know more!

1. Understand before paraphrasing

One needs to remember the reason behind paraphrasing to get better at it— to tell your readers that you have understood the original material. Therefore, the first thing to do is to understand the source material properly. Reread it a few times and try to understand the primary concepts behind the material.

If you can, try writing your version down a few times before deciding on how you would paraphrase it. Once you have come up with your version, try and compare it with the original material to see the difference.

2. Structuring is important for paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is a good way to show how well you can structure your words. When you are reading your source material, think of how you can take the matter and restructure it in a way that is different from the source but retains the original meaning. One good way is to change the voice of the sentence. Switching effortlessly between active and passive voices is an efficient way of paraphrasing.

Another way is to shift your focus to the beginning of the sentence. It is not necessary to start the sentence the same way the original material has started it. Play around with the construction of the sentences to paraphrase successfully.

3. Take help of synonyms

Changing the words is another great way of paraphrasing. When you are reading the original material, keep an eye out for the words which you can switch with other relevant words. This way, the sentence becomes different from the source, while the meaning remains the same. It is better to keep taking notes while you are going through the original work. These small notes can help you organize your thoughts later when you are putting your work together.

4. Citing is a must

Lastly, your paraphrasing won’t remain a paraphrase if you do not cite the work you have taken reference from. Then, it becomes plagiarism. Plagiarism occurs when the source material is copied, borrowed, or referred to without due credit or permission. To avoid that, all works should be cited. Citing is the process of giving credit to the author or creator of the original work, idea, information, etc. Therefore, no matter how well you paraphrase, always cite your work when it comes to academic writing. You might find the following articles helpful:

• Importance of Academic Referencing and Citing

• What is Plagiarism | How to Avoid It

• 5 Practical Ways to Avoid Plagiarism

• Citation Styles | Which Citation Style Should I Use?

5. Other important tips

To wrap it up, here are a few other tips that you might want to keep in handy for paraphrasing:

• Try breaking the original sentence into two or more sentences

• Always use a plagiarism checker to avoid any plagiarism

• Recheck the original and compare it with your work to avoid altering the meaning

• You can try and change the order of the words

So, with that, you now know how to paraphrase like a pro. Again, it may not be perfect in the first few tries, but as you keep on paraphrasing, it will come to you naturally because, as they say, only practice can get you there.

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