Conventional Paraphrasing Methods Never Get Old
Paraphrasing or rephrasing is a writing technique that has been around for decades. It refers to restating text in a totally new way while preserving its original meaning or idea. Paraphrasing is widely used by people belonging to different writing fields to enhance their content clarity, uniqueness, and fluency.
There are several methods or techniques used to rephrase content effectively. However, in this blog post, we will be covering some of the most conventional methods along with proper examples.
Most Common Methods of Paraphrasing Content
Below we have described the widely known and used methods of paraphrasing content in an improved way.
Alert: For effective paraphrasing, it is recommended to employ all the below-mentioned methods at once.
1. Synonymizing:
This conventional paraphrasing method refers to changing words and phrases in the source or original text with their more appropriate synonyms. Just as simple as that!
However, it is crucial to ensure that, the new words & phrases you are using also have the same original ones. Otherwise, the main idea of the source text will get damaged, leading to inaccurate paraphrasing.
To explain better how you can synonymize content, take a look at the example below.
Original text:
B2B e-commerce is on the rise. There are some variations in estimates from different market research firms, but all agree it’s in the trillions of dollars.
Synonymized version:
BB2 e-commerce is growing. While various market research organizations have slightly different figures, they all agree that the total is in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
As you can see, in the second version, we have tried replacing maximum words and phrases with their contextually appropriate synonyms. You can do the same as well for paraphrasing.
2. Changing Sentence Voice
From a grammar perspective, there are two types of sentences; Active voice and Passive voice. In active voice, the subject performs the action; whereas in passive voice, the subject receives the action from the verb.
When it comes to paraphrasing content, is considered a good method to alter the voice of the source text.
For example, if it is active, change it into passive and vice versa. To do so, you just need to change the order of words like bringing the object of the sentence at the start if you want to write in passive voice. On the other hand, for active voice, just write the subject at the beginning of a sentence.
For a better understanding, let us also explain this one with an example.
Active voice sentence:
The scientists discovered a new medicine for treating cancer.
Passive version:
A new medicine for treating cancer was discovered by the scientists.
As you can see, to change the sentence voice into passive, we brought the object (a new medicine at the start).
However, depending on your writing skills or content complexity, some of you may struggle to change sentence voice effectively. For them, an online active to passive voice converter can be a handy solution. It will automatically change given sentences from active voice to passive and vice versa.
3. Removing Repetitive or Unnecessary Words
After reading the heading, you will have an idea of what we will be discussing. Removing repetitive or unnecessary is also a common paraphrasing method.
To employ this method, you have to carefully go through the original content to find and eliminate the most repetitive or extra words and phrases. Doing so will prove beneficial in enhancing content readability, and conciseness.
Text with extra words:
She said she absolutely, positively would not go under any circumstances, not even for a million bucks.
The above sentence contains a few unnecessary words like “Absolutely,” ‘Positively,” and “Not even for a million bucks (also referring to refusal).”
Paraphrased version:
She said she would not go under any circumstances.
In the sentence above, we have eliminated all the unnecessary words and phrases to create a crispy and concise version.
Useful Tip: Apart from eliminating extra or overused words, you can also consider replacing them with alternative synonyms.
4. Breaking & Joining Sentences
Finally, you can also paraphrase content by breaking lengthy sentences into shorter ones and combining too-short sentences into lengthy ones. However, solely relying on this method is not an effective approach, instead, it is recommended to use it in combination with others discussed above.
To demonstrate how you can use this method, check out the example below.
Lengthy sentence:
Content marketing is an effective tactic used by businesses all over the world with the intention to attract or retain a specific audience by creating and sharing relevant and valuable content regularly. (One-sentence)
Shorter version:
Content marketing is an effective tactic used by businesses all over the world. The intention is to attract or retain a specific audience by creating and sharing relevant and valuable content regularly. (Two-sentence)
As the example clearly tells, we divided one lengthy sentence into two parts. You can also do the same but do not forget to apply synonymizing or other methods while breaking or joining sentences.
Wrapping Up
Paraphrasing content can be an excellent way to improve existing text quality in terms of readability, clarity, and uniqueness. It is highly beneficial for students, teachers, writers, marketers, etc. In this blog post, we have discussed the most conventional paraphrasing methods along with proper detail, hope you will them helpful.
