How to paraphrase effectively
When using written English for business or educational purposes, there are times when you need to use original material from other authors and rewrite it in your own order.
Here you will be informed about paraphrasing (i.e. rewriting the text) and summarizing (focusing on the most important points and eliminating small details).
These aspects of the text are important for the following reasons:
- First, if you’re using another author’s original language unchanged, limit yourself to knowledge. With paraphrasing and summary skills, you generate original material yourself; This means that the data is better recorded.
- Second, the authors of various materials and books have a specific and preferred target audience in those materials, you just need to review everything and edit or delete some points that are not appropriate for your readers.
- Third, materials authored by other authors are protected by confidentiality law and are considered their property. If you only copy the texts of others, you can be accused of plagiarism.
Paraphrasing and summarizing are often used together, but not always. Let’s take a closer look at these useful ways of working with text.
What is Rehash?
As mentioned above, paraphrasing involves the use of synonyms and exchanges of words. It is necessary to keep the meaning of the text but to change it in such a way that the reader does not recognize the original text.
Consider some examples of correct and insufficient paraphrasing:
- Source code: The country’s political and economic crisis was circumvented through decisive steps by the President.
- Wrong paraphrase: the political and economic crisis that engulfed the whole country through the decisive decision of the president has been overcome
- Proper paraphrase: the president has orchestrated a number of successful and decisive steps that have often resulted in the improvement of important political and economic matters.
As can be seen from the second sentence, the exchange of words and the use of synonyms is not always sufficient for qualitative paraphrasing. In the last sentence of the same text, the sentence structure was changed, which led to a significant change in the original text.
What paraphrasing methods are there?
- Rework is a creative process, but keep the following key points in mind to help you achieve high-quality rework:
- It is better to leave the main idea of ββthe text as well as personal statements and affirmations in their original form.
- By changing the structure of the sentence and the order of the ideas it contains, you keep the logical connections between them. For example, if the author of the text starts with a generalization and reinforces it with an example, make that example an introduction to the generalization.
- To paraphrase the sentence, you can move the line from the beginning to the end and vice versa.
- You can actively use synonyms to replace words in the original text and don’t forget to adapt them to your specific topic and writing style.
- If necessary, the proposals can be combined and separated.
- Use direct quotations only in individual cases. Try to choose the most interesting and important sentences.
- Always try to compare the refreshed version with the source code. It is necessary not to lose meaning and not to overlook important details and elements of the original text.
- Attach your text with links in honor of the author of the original text.
If you now know these paraphrasing rules, you can write your thesis, research paper, or your short essay successfully. Paraphrasing skills will also help you with entrance exams.