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How to Paraphrase in a Paper

Guidance on How to Paraphrase in a Paper

April 28, 2017

Detailed Guidance on How to Paraphrase in a Paper Effectively

Rewriting papers can be very complicated, as it is sometimes very hard to understand what to start with. In order to become a good rewriter, one needs to be aware of different aspects of the very process. It is necessary to know how to make citations, reword sentences, structure and revise one’s piece of writing.

A lot of beginners find the rewriting procedure rather complex. However, there is nothing to worry about as you have this useful article at hand. You will not find any other article on the web containing a full set of handy rewriting tips.

This post is focused on describing the main stages of the rewriting process. Here, you will find helpful hints about how to paraphrase in a paper, organize your work, avoid copying content, and what points to pay attention to. After reading this informative article, you will understand how to avoid hidden pitfalls and make rewriting properly.

If you follow the described directions, you will be able to rewrite papers on your own without using any computer programs. Certainly, experienced writers may find these pieces of advice rather boring. Nevertheless, this article is a source of useful information for beginners in the rewriting field.

Also, after reading this article use our article rewriting service.

Table of Contents

  • The Art of Rewriting
  • How to Become Versed in Rewriting
  • Rewriting Types
  • Structural Rewriting
  • Analyzing one’s Piece of Writing
  • Sentence-Level Rewriting
  • Useful Tips to Follow

The Art of Rewriting

if you don't rewrite you shall not pass

Those who have a strong desire to learn to make rewriting, often ask “What technique to use to rewrite papers well?” Though there is no precise answer to this question, it can be firmly said that it is necessary to practice all the time.

Nonetheless, can such an answer be useful to the one who constantly produces writing pieces but still cannot succeed in rewriting? How is it possible to develop one’s rewriting skills if one cannot understand how to make a created work better? In this case, it seems that all the made attempts were vain.

However, you should not give up, as the only effective way of learning to rewrite is to train hard to develop one’s abilities. The biggest problem is that many beginners say they are ready to start rewriting but they do not know how to paraphrase a paragraph or a sentence and structure their papers. In other words, they do not know the main features of the rewriting process.

How to Become Versed in Rewriting

It is no secret that the majority of people want someone to teach them to make rewriting. However, it seems that the best way of learning to rewrite papers is getting your work criticized. It is very useful to know what a professional thinks about your paper. Note that if you submit your first paper, you have to be ready to hear a penetrating critique of your work.

You should know that your piece of writing may be full of comments and remarks on how a certain point should have been covered. You should keep in mind that several of your subsequent works may be also heavily criticized. At first, it may seem that this is the end. However, you should not get upset. Every time you receive a corrected paper, you will learn to rewrite better. Remember that there is hardly a person who can learn to rewrite on their own.

Rewriting Types

It should be stated that there are two main types of rewriting: sentence level and structural. A lot of beginners encounter great difficulties with reconstructing sentences. They often find it hard to change the sentence without changing the meaning of the text. They read their pieces of writing for a few times and try to make them sound professionally by removing or adding words. The root of the problem is that beginning rewriters start restructuring sentences before learning how to do it properly. As a result, they make a lot of mistakes.

Structural Rewriting

As to the structural rewriting, here it goes about altering the genre of your work, sequence of events, relationships between the characters, and location. In addition, when dealing with such type of rewriting, one may change the point of view which the story is told from, etc. Let us analyze the movie Snakes on a Plane to understand how the whole mechanism works.

The first thing which would be worth changing is the movie opening. It tells about a boy who was under police protection. He was a witness to a murder and bad guys started pursuing him. He was given protection by an FBI agent. Then, he was going to get at the plane. At that time, another character was introduced. It is necessary to say that the whole opening section is boring and useless.

It would be much better to begin the movie with describing the flight. It is also necessary to say a few words about the flight attendants dealing with passengers. The main thing is to mention that the snakes started stirring somewhere on the plane. Such a scene is intriguing and the viewers will not need to wait too long for the snakes to get appeared.

Removing the opening section is a common thing for rewriting. The point is that many writers make too broad introductions providing a lot of unnecessary details. Then, they have to review their pieces of writing and delete useless information.

In this case, it is rather good to find a great paraphrase sentence example to understand how to make paraphrasing in the right way.

It does not mean that creating all-embracing introductions is bad. It is sometimes the best way of telling a story. If to analyze various novels created in the nineteenth century, one can come to the conclusion that none of them has an intriguing opening. The introductory scene of the discussed movie does not provide viewers with worthy information. Watch the movie for a few minutes and you will understand the main point at once.

Infographics: How to Paraphrase in a Paper Effectively

Another structural drawback of the movie is that it is unemotional. The movie does not give viewers strong feelings. Even if there are some exciting scenes, the effect they produce is destroyed by the snakes that fill in the passenger cabin and the hero who is extremely courageous and immune to any harm. It is too boring to watch a movie where everything is perfect.

It would be effective to show that the main hero was bitten by the snakes (at least once). Thus, the movie would be more thrilling. Is it possible for him to save everyone on the plane? Is there snake venom that can save the hero from death?

A book can be analyzed in the same way. Take a book which you considered terrible and read it once again. Match the passages that are confusing, boring, or uninteresting. Think how to paraphrase something efficiently and what changes to implement to make the book captivating.

Analyzing One’s Own Piece of Writing

If your friends also want to learn to make rewriting, you can work together. You should read your own works to each other and critique them. Mark all the patterns that make you feel sleepy. At the same time, match the pieces that attract your attention. Now take one of your papers and do the same analysis on your own. As you see, it is not as easy as it seems at first.

Sometimes some awkward things happen. When writing your paper, you know exactly what you want to say and how to express your thoughts. However, when reading your work a little bit later, you understand that your text does not convey the message you initially wanted to deliver. The worst thing is to outshine yourself by removing or adding new facts when creating a certain work. As a result, your piece of writing can be changed completely.

For this reason, it is worth asking several people to read your paper. Thus, you will know exactly what sections should be redone. If your teacher says that some points of your work are poor, ask to clarify which of them need special consideration. Ask your professor to explain why particular aspects are regarded as incomplete. If you cannot cope with rewriting on your own, you may turn to experienced writers for assistance. Today, there are many online companies providing quality services. However, if you do not find such an option a good way out of the situation, do not get nervous. You will be able to solve the problem on your own. You just need to find the answer to the question “How does paraphrasing help make a perfect work?” and you will have a key to success.

Remember that people reading your papers will criticize them in different ways. You have to be prepared for it in order not to get disappointed. Every person will notice some points that make your work poor. At the same time, the majority of those reading your work may indicate that the same section of your story destroys its coherency. Your task is to fix it.

It is obvious that your work containing many remarks and comments on flaws will upset you. Nevertheless, you should keep trying. Remember that feeling yourself hopeless is a common thing for a rewriter. Doing rewriting is an exhausting process during which you may find yourself absolutely helpless.

There are some moments when writers read their own masterpieces and think, “Why could not I create anything worthy? Why are my stories dull? If I produced better works, they would be admired by a large number of people.” Perhaps it is more efficient to search the Internet for a useful rewrite guide?

Sentence-Level Rewriting

The situation is the same as with the structural rewriting. In order to be good at doing a sentence-level rewriting, you should practice a lot. However, there are some cases when you have to ask professionals for help. One may think that the created piece of writing is perfect until a qualified editor points out obvious mistakes and inconsistencies. It sometimes happens that you have rewritten your story several times and after editing, there are still so many points to correct. Note that even if you have considerable experience in writing, it does not mean you know how to construct sentences properly.

It is understandable that you may not have a trained editor who can help you with your task. Nonetheless, there are some useful hints that will help you rewrite to avoid plagiarism. For example, every writer has their own lists of words which they know can make their work redundant.

Below, there are some of such words:

  • glance
  • look
  • just
  • eyes
  • really
  • then
  • seem
  • very

It does not mean you should not use these words. The point is that you need to use them properly. For instance, when retelling dialogues, one may use the word “eyes” many times when describing the characters of a novel.

The same is with the words “eyebrows,” “nod,” “smile,” etc.

Take a look at the example presented below:

“Finally, Ted has gone.” She swiveled her eyes. There was something strange on her blouse. “Hey, dear, are you sleeping? Do I bother you? Oh, I am sorry, but it is midday. Do you often sleep at this time?” I just wanted to reply, as she started again, “Do you want to go somewhere? Have you seen James?”

Making a try to get up and answer her questions I shook my head. I went to the bathroom and closed the door. I remembered there was a bar of chocolate on my table and I did not want her to take it.

“We can go for a walk.”

My eyes showed I looked determined. I had a shower and got dressed. Then, I answered, “Yes, I was sleeping. Last night was terrible, so I did not sleep well. Do you know any new places where we could go for a walk?”

She nodded and said, “You do like travelling, don’t you?”

I agreed.

The aforementioned example is a short piece taken from the story Magic or Madness. The word “eyes” is used only twice. Additionally, there is no an excess use of such word as “agree.” You need to practice a lot to understand how to restructure sentence in order not lose its meaning. Thus, readers will not have any problems with understanding the content.

There are different methods for describing people engaged in a dialogue. For instance, you may look at these people, analyze their actions, mimics, and find the best way of portraying them. However, you should keep in mind that your description should be unique. Try to depict people in such a way that will make your story more interesting. Certainly, it can be rather complicated.

When making the sentence-level rewriting it is necessary to pay attention to repetitions that make your work full of useless information. Moreover, check whether your piece of writing contains hackneyed phrases and tautological words.

Beginners may often use the same phrases to describe a particular phenomenon and then think, “”How to change my words?” Take a look at the following example taken form Magic or Madness:

“Dan missed his brother. He was sitting in the living room and staring at his brother’s photo. Dan was very sad because he was missing his brother so much. It was his first day in the new house. He had to do a lot of wok about the house. However, he could not do anything because he was missing his brother.”

The abovementioned example clearly shows that a character misses his brother. Nevertheless, the same things can be said in different ways, i.e. by using different words. However, if you cannot rephrase sentences on your own, you can ask someone to provide you with professional sentence help. Read the following sentences:

“It was a black night. It was impossible to see something. It seemed there was no a single torch there. The darkness restricted people’s vision.”

Pay attention to one more example. It goes about a person who wants to understand how to act in a particular situation:

“What should I do in such a dark place? Should I find anyone who could show me the way? Should I start looking for a door to another room? What if the next room is also dark? May be I am indeed blind? How will I live in this world? What should I do if I leave alone? Should I move on or stay at the same place?”

Down below, there is an example of a sentence containing useless information:

Steven saw me waving to him and came closer and started talking to me.

It is much better to rewrite this sentence in the following way:

Steven came to talk to me.

You should reformulate a sentence if it contains much unnecessary information. Remember that it is always possible to make a piece of writing concise. By the way, such “useless” sentences occur when you try to rewrite your work very fast.

One more thing you should do when bringing your paper to perfection is decide whether particular word combinations or sentences are of great importance to your work. Do all paragraphs contain useful data about the subject? If removing some sections does not damage the structure and meaning of your work, you should do it. Delete all unnecessary phrases that make your piece boring.

Additionally, it is worth paying attention to the sentence structure. It is rather boring to read a work when all its sentences start with the same subject followed by the verb and object. For example:

I saw a cat. I came closer to the cat. I started playing with the cat.

It is clearly seen that all sentences begin with a personal pronoun “I.” These few sentences can be rewritten in the following way:

I saw a cat and decided to come closer to it. The cat was so funny that we started playing together.

The rewritten sentences do not sound boring. However, one can rewrite them in a different way.

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Useful Tips to Follow

As one can see, rewriting a paper is rather a complex procedure. Even if you have the list of words and phrases that should not be used to often, you still need to decide on different aspects of your work. For instance, the word “really” is definitely one of the most overused words. Nevertheless, in some cases this is the very word that can convey the exact meaning of the whole phrase.

For example, a dialogue can be rewritten in a less formal language. However, you should mind the type of writing you are dealing with. If your story is about close friends, then you can give it a touch of a conversational tone. You may use such words as “just,” “like,” and others in a way that will not hurt the content.

When doing rewriting, you should mind the grammar. Note that it may happen that the text you need to rewrite may contain a lot of mistakes. Thus, you should edit it first. However, be attentive in order not to rewrite meaning of some parts while editing.

If you add new sections to your piece of writing, make sure you do not present the same facts described in other words. Readers will not be impressed with a redundant work. Remember that repetition can be used only to magnify the effect of your story. It is rather useful to ask an experienced writer to take a look at your paper. A professional can give a good piece of advice and state whether you do everything in the right way.

When rewriting a particular text, check whether all words are used in their proper meaning. In this case, it is better to use a thesaurus, as it will be easier for you to find the right words to describe a certain phenomenon. In this way, you will be able to make your rewritten text exclusive. Note that our writers are always ready to assist you in doing paraphrasing in an essay as they are real professionals in the area.

In order to make your rewritten piece superior, remove ambiguous and archaic words. Express your thoughts clearly, so that readers can fully understand the text. In case the passive voice prevails in your work, you should change it into active. It will add coherency to your paper.

Use the punctuation marks appropriately to add weight to your piece of writing. Remember that the most efficient way of rewriting texts is changing the sentence structure by using punctuation. However, if you still cannot alter particular phrases, you should make quotations. Thus, your rewritten work will be not only interesting but also credible.

Sometimes a paraphrased sentence or a replaced word combination helps make the text clear and logical, and sometimes not. There are some cases when one cannot improve the content no matter the used techniques. In any way, you should keep working hard and you will definitely achieve your goal. Write papers and let other people read and critique them. At the same time, you should also read and analyze the works of other writers. Remember that if you learn to analyze your own pieces of writing critically, you will earn to make rewriting appropriately.

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