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Paraphrasing is a useful skill in academic writing that allows academics to restate already existing statements or content without altering the original meaning.
Due to its somewhat delicate nature, most people think that utilizing this skill in academics is unfair. But in reality, it not true. There are a number of advantages of utilizing this skill, but like other good things, it also has some concomitant downsides that can’t be ignored.
In this article, we are going to discuss both the advantages and disadvantages, so that you can understand when and where you need to utilize this skill when the need arises.
Advantages of Paraphrasing in Academic Writing
Below, we have discussed some of the major advantages for students, researchers, and journalists.
Avoiding Plagiarism
It can be frustrating for academics when their submitted work comes back with plagiarism in it. It is necessary that all types of academic papers should be 100% unique and plagiarism-free, which usually becomes quite difficult. Plagiarism can occur even if extensive efforts have been taken for the prevention of the same.
This is where paraphrasing comes into play. Paraphrasing allows students to restate other person’s ideas and words into their own words without changing the original meaning. When paraphrasing, it is important to make sure that the idea or words are completely restated, and not just changed slightly. The content that is rephrased lightly can also be considered as plagiarized.
It has to be remembered that while the changes should be extensive, the meaning should remain undisturbed.
Improves Quality of Work
“Almost three-quarters of both 12th and 8th Grade students lack writing skills”
The quality of a piece of content is determined by various factors such as the choice of words, sentence structures, sentence length and the like. Paraphrasing helps in improving all these factors. Want to know how?
Let us explain with an example, below we have provided an example of poorly written sentence:
“a man of old age and facial hair of white color is walking with a problem in his leg.”
Now, we are going to restate this sentence with the help of paraphrasing.
“An old man with a white beard is limping along.”
In this example, you can clearly see that the original sentence has been rephrased in a better way without altering the original meaning.
However, when you paraphrase manually, you will only able to rephrase it according to your personal vocabulary and writing skills. And if you think you’re someone who lacks in both vocabulary and writing, then there are a number of things you can do. One is by taking help from someone who is an expert is this regard. And the other one is by leveraging online paraphrasing tools.
These tools rephrase the content by applying different algorithms in order to improve the overall quality of the input content. To show you how these tools work, we are going use a random rephrasing tool and will provide a sample piece of content to make sure how it improves its quality. The result we got from the sentence rephraser can be seen in the image attached below:
Enhance Vocabulary
Paraphrasing largely involves the process of synonymizing. The words of the text are usually changed with their synonyms so that the purpose of paraphrasing can be achieved. When this type of change is regularly practiced, it can help you improve your vocabulary.
Regardless of whether you paraphrase yourself or using an online tool (both methods will be discussed), your vocabulary can grow. If you paraphrase manually, then you will find yourself looking for suitable synonyms using thesauri and dictionaries. During this process, you will get exposed to a plethora of new terms and words, all of which you can passively memorize.
Similarly, if you use an online tool for the job, you will be able to look at the different synonyms utilized by the tool to swap the original words. You can likewise memorize these synonyms and grow your word bank.
Let us explain this with an example. We have taken a random paragraph and rephrased using an online sentence rephraser. The result we got can be seen in the image below:
Allows You to Write Faster
When you’re writing an assignment or research paper on a complex topic, then there are chances that you may end up writing incorrectly or irrelevantly due to lack of understanding. This is where paraphrasing helps. Instead of writing inaccurate information, you can simply paraphrase the statements of the source and thereafter cite it (the source).
This will result in saving a lot of your time and also save you from writing inaccurate information in your assignment or research paper.
Let us explain this with an example, We have taken a research paper from Google Scholar:
Creative Writing
This course is a comprehensive, instructor-guided course, designed to provide a detailed understanding of the nature of the related sector and your key roles within it.
If someone wanted to use the highlighted line without taking the time to understand it, they could simple rephrase it as follows:
“Many compounds in potatoes lend to their antioxidant properties, and there is growing interest in varieties with colored flesh”.
The advantage of paraphrasing the sentence (highlighted in the image above) is that, we are able to provide the same the information accurately without any risk of plagiarism.
Disadvantages of Academic Writing
Apart from advantages, paraphrasing has a downside as well. However, this downside is only applicable to online paraphrasing tools.
Out-of-context content
When paraphrasing content using a paraphrasing tool, it would be good to always review the output. Sometimes tools can also end up rephrasing the content by completely altering its original meaning. The main reason of this is the poor readability, word choice, and sentence structure of the input content which further causes the tool to not properly understand the context of the input.
For example:
We are going to provide a complex sentence whose context is a bit difficult to understand to the tool, in order to find out how it deals with it. The result we got can be seen in the attached picture below:
As you can see in the image above, the provided output is completely going out of context, although the synonyms are fine. To avoid using content that doesn’t make sense, it is always good to review the rephrased content provided by the tool.
Makes You Rely Completely on Other’s Content
One of the biggest downsides of utilizing paraphrasing is that it makes you to completely rely on someone else’s content. You don’t have your own ideas or thoughts. This stunts your own knowledge growth and academic writing skills.
That’s why it is always recommended to only utilize paraphrasing when the need arises. You should avoid adopting paraphrasing as a regular practice.
Final Words:
In conclusion, paraphrasing is an excellent skill to have in academic writing. It helps students to restate the materials they are studying in a more precise language and different way. The skill of paraphrasing can also help students to become more confident in their writing and create more compelling papers.
