The art of paraphrasing text is an essential skill that early career researchers need to master. It involves rewriting someone else’s ideas and concepts in your own words while ensuring that the original meaning is retained. In doing so, paraphrasing allows you to integrate the work of others seamlessly into your own arguments. Additionally, it lets you focus only on the most important information from various sources and allows you to leave out what’s not relevant to your study. Consequently, for the readers of your research paper, paraphrasing text not only helps to reiterate and clarify the original message but also establishes your credibility as a researcher by showing that you understand the topic.
This article offers some great paraphrasing tips and techniques that will help early career researchers improve their academic writing skills.
Top 7 tried and tested paraphrasing techniques in academic writing
Effective paraphrasing goes beyond simple word substitution. It is a skill that requires understanding the essence of the source material and presenting it in a way that is easy to understand. While this may sound easy, paraphrasing can be tricky and challenging.
Let’s take a look at some proven ways to paraphrase text.
- Understanding the original passage and gaining a deep comprehension of the ideas and concepts presented therein is perhaps the most important part of paraphrasing. This is what allows you to rephrase passages and convey them accurately in your own style. Highlighting or making a note of the specific portions that you would like to paraphrase makes the process more structured and also helps avoid plagiarism.
- Use appropriate synonyms for keywords. A thesaurus can be a handy tool to help find synonyms for important words and phrases. However, do remember that while synonyms share similar meanings, they can’t always be used interchangeably due to nuances in context. So, it is important to ensure that the choice of synonym is appropriate for the passage in which it is being used.
- Using different word forms is another important technique of paraphrasing. This requires a strong understanding of language and knowledge of how words can be used differently in English. For instance, nouns can be changed to verbs, adjectives, and verbs can be replaced with nouns, and vice versa to express the same idea in a new way. For example – Geologists discussed how molten rock found 20 km below the Earth’s surface could help save lives by improving the prediction of volcanic eruptions. This sentence can be paraphrased as follows: Geologists deliberated on the potential of studying molten rock located 20 kilometres beneath the Earth’s surface to enhance the forecast of volcanic eruptions and save lives.
- Changing the active voice to the passive voice and vice versa is a great way to rewrite and paraphrase the original sentence structure. Take, for example, this statement – “Greenhouse gases are emitted by various human activities, contributing to global warming and climate change” can be rewritten as follows: “Various human activities emit greenhouse gases, contributing to global warming and climate change.”
- Alter the length and placement of sentences by condensing long sentences into shorter ones or expanding short sentences for greater emphasis on specific points. Alternatively, rearrange information and present ideas in a different order or use connecting words like however, therefore, additionally. When doing this, the aim should be to improve reader understanding.
- Crafting definitions using your own words can be a great way to make your writing more original. Instead of using standard definitions, you can explain terms in your own words. For example, carbon credits are defined as – “… units that quantify the reduction or removal of one metric ton of carbon dioxide or its equivalent emissions, traded in market-based systems to combat climate change.” This can be paraphrased as follows – “Carbon credits are like tokens that quantify how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are reduced or removed, traded in systems aimed at fighting climate change.”
- Choose different ways to show where information comes from, which involves changing how you mention sources or quotes in your writing. This could mean using different phrases to introduce quotes or summarizing information from different sources in your own words.
By employing these proven paraphrasing techniques to convey ideas in an original and engaging way, early career, researchers can not only enhance readability while maintaining the original author’s voice but can also contribute their own unique insights to academic discourse. However, while using just one method for paraphrasing your writing might work, it may not be very effective. For better results, try using two or three different paraphrasing techniques.
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