Paraphrasing Tool

What is Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is the art of expressing the meaning of another writer but using different words to do so. The great thing about the English language is that it has a huge vocabulary bank to draw from. English speakers probably don’t even realize that they use words from German, Italian, French, Latin and other languages every day. Think about it! Kindergarten is not an English word but every parent with a 5 year old uses it a sure heck of a lot. It’s actually a German word that Americans have adopted. Just goes to show, you can learn something new every day.

So what are some other great words that English speakers use but that they probably didn’t know weren’t actually English words originally? How about the word Anonymous? It’s a Greek word. Or Loot—it’s a Hindi word. Safari is something everyone would like to go on—but it’s not an English word: it’s Arabic. People like to watch cartoons but they probably didn’t know that “cartoon” is an Italian word. Cigar is Spanish. Cookie is Dutch. Karaoke is Japanese. And—well, you get the idea.

The point is that we have a lot of words to use—and, hey, half of them were invented by Shakespeare! Okay, not literally half, but he did invent quite a few of his own. But that’s why the English language is so rich—and that’s why when it comes to paraphrasing another person’s words in English, it can really be a walk in the park!

But what if your vocabulary is not up to snuff? What if you’re not familiar with all the great words the English language offers? What if you’re not sure about synonyms? Or what if you want to paraphrase someone who is writing about synonyms and you need a synonym for “synonym”? It can be tricky!

Fortunately, we have writers who are practiced in paraphrasing and who can draw upon a deep glossary of words to get the job done. Need a synonym for synonym? How about adequation, agreement, alikeness, compatibility, conformity, correlation, correspondence, equality, equivalence, interchangeability, par, parity, or synonymy? Any of those would do!

You see, paraphrasing has everything to do with finding the right words to convey the right meaning that someone else has conveyed using different words. It’s like going into the kitchen, tasting a pie that someone has made and then taking the essence of that taste—the flavor, the crunch of the pie crust, the crisp bite of the fruit inside, the deliciousness of the filling—and creating a desert that is the same in essence but delivered in a new way.

Why Should You Paraphrase

It’s important to put other people’s thoughts and ideas into your own words because it helps you to practice the art of comprehension and expression. If you can paraphrase a page or paragraph it shows that you understand what you’ve read, that you’ve processed it, and that the meaning makes sense to you.

For example, have you ever heard the expression you don’t know something until you teach it? Well, that’s basically what paraphrasing is. You don’t know what you’ve read until you try to explain it to someone else in your own words.

Paraphrasing someone else’s words helps you to process it, which in turn means it gets buried deep down in your brain so that you can recall it later. After all, that’s the whole point of writing, isn’t it? To educate yourself? Did you think your teachers were having you write just for the heck of it? No, they want you to actually learn something, to be able to recall information, to be able to understand it and to be able to explain it to others.

Why our Paraphrasing Tool Helps

Our paraphrasing tool helps because it gets you in the right frame of mind to see how it’s done. Everyone learns better by seeing others do first. If you can see a good example of how a paraphrase works, you’ll be able to produce your own on demand. Paraphrasing is a skill like anything else, and the more you practice at it the better you’ll become.

But to be the best you have to learn from the best. And our paraphrasing tool is like an automated machine that has been programmed by the best. So our writers may be busy with other work, but they’ve worked closely with our engineers to bring this tool to life.

Go ahead and try it! See what it does. Copy and paste the text you want to paraphrase into the box and click the button to Generate Paraphrase. You’ll get an example of how you can paraphrase other texts.

Paraphrasing Examples

Original Text:

The president decided to implement the plan immediately. He later told his advisors that there was no time to waste because the seriousness of the issue was so great. Though his advisors did not question the gravity of the situation, they did wonder at the president’s lack of caution in announcing the policy without delay. It seemed rushed to them and ill-thought out.

Paraphrased Text:

The president wasted no time in making his decision to announce the new policy. However, his advisors questioned the bold move, seeing it as hasty—and they questioned whether the president had really thought through all the possible ramifications of the plan he was now putting into action.

Original Text:

In the old days, family was more structured and the idea of the nuclear family was common. The nuclear family consisted of a father and mother and multiple children. The father was the bread winner and the mother took care of the domestic sphere. The children had chores of their own, played outside, and learned skills like how to fish, how to build with wood, and how to fix things around the house.

Today, the family structure has altered significantly. It is now just as common to see a single-parent home as it is to see a home with a mom and dad. There are also mixed families with kids from different marriages coming together to live in one house when their parents remarry. There are couples who live together without marrying and without ever having children because they view kids as an inconvenience. There are homosexual parents with adopted children. Kids today are far less likely to play outdoors. Instead, they are mainly glued to their screens on iPhones or Xboxes, playing video games or watching Netflix. The parents, meanwhile, if they are both in the home, will both tend to work. Stay-at-home moms are no longer customary. The so-called nuclear family is now no longer the dominant norm.

Paraphrased Text:

The family structure of the past was oriented around a typical mother-father-children concept in which the father was the head of the household and went out into the world to earn a living to support the home. The mother was the homemaker responsible for domestic duties, such as cooking, cleaning and rearing the children. The children lived active lives outdoors and learned a variety of skills that children today fail to develop because they are too involved with their electronics and digital videos and games.

That structure changed significantly over the course of the century till today one would hardly recognize it as the basic model for what a family should look like. Today’s families are diversely structured, eclectic, and typically much smaller. Many marriages end in divorce, and some people get remarried which leads to new households consisting of children from previous marriages now coming together under one roof. Some families do not even have children anymore but instead consist of a man and a woman who want to focus entirely on themselves. Or they consist of same-sex partners who might have children that they adopt. Mothers tend to work outside the home in a sphere that used to be the male sphere but today is now open to both men and women. That usually leaves the domestic sphere up for grabs. At any rate, the family structure once known as the nuclear family no longer exists in the sense of being the “normal” family that one is most likely to encounter.

What Was Learned?

Some people like to quote the texts they are using—but quoting a text is simple, easy. It’s a shortcut that lazy writers take because they don’t want to have to think about the words they are copying and what they mean or how they could rephrase them to make them their own. They’d rather left click, highlight, right click and copy or hit the Ctrl + C on their keypad. We understand—it’s the easy way.

But professors don’t want to see their students take the easy way out. They want to see their students apply themselves and get a sense of the words they are quoting. The way to do that is to paraphrase them.

So with our nifty little tool here, we can help you see what a good paraphrase should look like. Once you see it done a few times, you’ll start to get the hang of it. Try our tool and see for yourself.

Tips

Here are some common tips to help you with your paraphrasing. The first is to read A LOT! Reading is the best cure for a low vocabulary. The more you read, the more familiar you’ll become with other words and how to use them. Read all sorts of texts. Read books, read newspaper articles, read blogs, read comic strips—read everything.

Second, make sure you consult a dictionary when you come across a word you don’t know. In fact, as you read, keep a notepad nearby so you can jot down words you don’t know and look them up later. That will help you to stay on top of your game as you develop a deep vocabulary. After all, the only way to learn and to improve is to work at it. So don’t be shy about writing down words you aren’t familiar with. That list will be your road to a fuller vocabulary.

Third, get a Thesaurus and start paying attention to words that mean the same. Use that Thesaurus when you’re stuck and are trying to find the right word. Keep these books nearby whenever you’re sitting down to read or right. They should be your go-to sources.

Follow these tips and you’ll learn quickly how to paraphrase because you’ll have a rich vocabulary to draw from.

In the meantime, give our tool a try and let it help you get the paraphrase you need.

Conclusion

Try our paraphrasing tool and quit worrying about your small vocabulary. We’ll show you how to swap out words while maintaining the original meaning of the text. It’s really as easy as one two three.

Our paraphrasing tool is meant to be a way to help you learn how to write paraphrases on your own. All you have to do to use it is drop the text into the box that you want paraphrased and then click the button. It will bring up a paraphrased version of the text you supplied. You can use that version to see how it’s done. You’ll notice how certain words are replaced with synonyms and how sentence structure is altered. You’ll also notice that the meaning and message of the two texts is inherently the same, though the way the meaning and message are communicated has changed. Well, there you have it! That’s the essence of a successful paraphrase. It’s about creating new text using new words to say something that’s already been said before. Really, all the best artists and writers are constantly paraphrasing others—we just don’t know it. There’s nothing really new under the sun. It’s all been said and done before. So take out your Thesaurus or start using our tool and make it something new!