You will often write content on various topics, and your professor may send some of them back, requiring you to rewrite. After paraphrasing, the essay should look and sound different while conveying the ideas of the original piece. And how do you do that while you put your best in writing the original essay? Here are five steps to follow.
First, you need to understand the ideas communicated through the essay. This is only possible if you can read the whole text several times objectively. Identify the shortcomings of the paper and plan to improve. Understanding is key if you will write anything better than you previously presented to the professor. Also, during the reading phase, it would be better to try understanding the logical sequence of ideas in the essay and see how to improve it.
Every essay has several talking points. You will need to note these down since the paraphrased paper should still communicate the same ideas. You can only write a good essay if you understand the talking points. Again, research does not have to be a monotonous sequence of words. Thus, you can try adding some fun in the paraphrased essay.
After reading, understanding, and taking note of the key talking points, keep the old essay away and write the ideas you understood. The key thing here is that you do not copy from the old copy, resulting in duplication of errors. In this step, you should strive to depict originality while maintaining the ideas of the original essay. A point to note is that synonyms are useful in paraphrasing but may lead to fluffy content, and thus, care should be taken.
Compare the new draft with the original essay and strip down any similarities. It is recommended that the paraphrased paper has fewer sentences using the same sequence of words as in the old one. You can opt to make the comparison manually or choose one from the variety of online comparison tools available. In essence, you should not lift four or five words from the source essay and place t as-is in the paraphrased paper.
The last and final step in paraphrasing your essay is to ensure that all grammar and syntactical errors are removed. This you do by proofreading the whole piece and editing where necessary. You do not want to send the supervisor a copy filled with grammatical mistakes and poorly structured sentences. Where possible, you should utilize online proofreading tools or as your friend to check your work before submitting it.
H2: Useful Paraphrasing Tips
