The Science Behind Paraphrasing: Cognitive Benefits for Students

The deadline is looming. But you haven’t started working yet. It would quite likely be that you will feel apprehensive. Many students forget the submission date and run out of time to complete the assigned work. Students use a free paraphrasing tool online to get on with their assignments or projects in such situations.

You may have used the term ‘paraphrasing’ before. But do you know whether you did it right? To set things straight and clarify its benefits, let’s take a more detailed look at how it is defined. Paraphrasing is one of the valuable skills one deploys in academic writing when restating information or ideas originating from sources without changing their original meaning.

This article will discuss more than just the benefits of paraphrasing for students. It will also explain how to use it correctly so that you understand how and when it is appropriate to use this ability.

Top 4 Benefits of Paraphrasing for Students

The following are some of the advantages of paraphrasing for students to use in academic writing:

Avoid Plagiarism

It can be frustrating for an academic if their submitted work turns out to be plagiarized. All academic papers must be completely free from plagiarism and unique. This can be quite challenging, though, even with the efforts to prevent plagiarism.

This, therefore, calls for a need to paraphrase. When paraphrasing someone’s ideas and words, he uses them in his own words without changing the original words’ meaning. In paraphrasing, the idea or words should be reworded entirely and not just altered; content reworded slightly may still appear as plagiarism.

Improve the Quality of the Work

The quality of writing depends on many things, like the words chosen, how sentences are structured, and how long they are. Paraphrasing can help make these things better. It’s an acquired skill that improves with its exercise—paraphrasing. The more a writer seems to practice paraphrasing, the better he becomes.

The more comfortable students become with paraphrasing, the more writing skills they develop, and one of those writing skills is to write as clearly and concisely as possible. If you paraphrase yourself, you can only change it according to your own words and writing skills. Furthermore, if you feel you’re not good at both, there are things you can do. You can get help from the best assignment writer UK in this area. You can find them online.

Improve Vocabulary

Paraphrasing mainly involves finding synonyms for words. You change the words in a text to their synonyms to achieve the goal of paraphrasing. Doing this regularly can help you improve your vocabulary. Whether you paraphrase by yourself or use an online tool (we’ll talk about both methods), it can help you learn new words.

When you paraphrase manually, you look for synonyms using dictionaries and thesauruses. This helps you discover many new words that you can remember over time. Similarly, if you use an online tool, you can see how it uses different synonyms to replace the original words. You can also learn these synonyms and expand your vocabulary.

Improves Communication

Lastly, paraphrasing can help you become a better and more imaginative communicator. When you practice paraphrasing, you’re improving how you explain one idea in different ways. To do this effectively, you need to be creative. You might change the way you talk about something, using formal, informal, casual, or convincing language.

You might ask yourself: How can I adjust this information for my audience? How can I make this part of the idea more interesting? Paraphrasing challenges you to say things in new ways. It also teaches you how to present ideas in your style, whether speaking to a friend or posting it on social media.

4 Steps to Paraphrase Correctly

Paraphrasing is a big part of writing for school. It means you explain what someone else said using your own words. You do this when you need to use their ideas but not in their own words. Paraphrasing doesn’t just mean you look at what it says and simply change a few words around. You have to know what you’ve read and then say it differently. Later, we’ll talk about how to do this right in school writing.

Understand the Original Text

Before one can paraphrase a text, he needs to understand it well. Read the original carefully and note the significant ideas. Moreover, if some words or concepts make you go, ‘huh?’ then look them up. Write down the essential points.

Example:

The Internet has changed the way of communication, and now it is easier and faster to reach people around the globe.

Paraphrased text – The Internet revolutionized communication by giving it a faster and easier means of connecting people across the globe.

Use Different Words and Sentence Structures

When you paraphrase, it’s crucial to use words and sentence styles different from the original text. This shows you understand the material well and helps avoid copying. Furthermore, use different words that mean the same thing and change how the words are put together. And use different verb forms to write a new passage that says the same things as the original.

Example:

Original text – The study showed that students who came to class regularly got higher grades on tests.

Paraphrased text – Based on the research, students who attended class regularly earned better test grades.

Cite the Source

Even if you rewrite what you read, it’s important to say where you found the information. This shows respect for the person who wrote it and ensures no one thinks you copied it. Use the right way of saying where you found it, including the writer’s name when it was written and the page number, if necessary.

Example:

Original text —Smith, 2019 wrote that the Internet computationally changed the way to each other. It is much faster and more accessible to connect with people globally.

Paraphrased text: Based on Smith 2019, the internet has revolutionized communication, allowing one to speak with people worldwide within a few seconds.

Check for Accurate Paraphrasing

Once you rewrite the text, it’s essential to make sure it still says the same thing as the original. Compare what you wrote with the original and see if they match in meaning. Furthermore, make more changes if needed to ensure your version says everything accurately.

Example:

Original text: The increase in social media has made people more worried about keeping their information private and staying safe.

Paraphrased text – The rise of social media has led to increased concerns about privacy and security.

Final Thoughts

In summary, paraphrasing is a valuable skill in academic writing. Moreover, it allows students to express the information they are learning in a clearer and unique manner. Learning to use a free paraphrasing tool online can also boost students’ confidence in their writing and help them produce stronger papers.

Also Read- Activities That Can Help You to Reduce Stress of Paper Writing