Do you know which is the biggest enemy for Content Creators?
It is not creativity. But Plagiarism is the biggest enemy of content creators. It will hit you all around the corner and every aspect of your personal brand.
I’m not scaring you. It is the hard truth.
Okay, so what is the solution?
Yes, one simple Mantra can help you to come out of this biggest trap.
It is called PARAPHRASING.
To paraphrase is to say the same thing in another way, using your own words.
It is important to understand that keeping the original meaning is the core of paraphrasing.
I can hear you telling me that, I do it every time. This is very basic. Don’t every content writers know to paraphrase?
Yes, All the content writers either change the tense or depend on the Paraphrasing tools.
One day, Google’s algorithm can change that it can find which paraphrasing site you used in your content.
Additionally, content writers are paraphrasing it in the wrong way most of the time.
Paraphrasing is an art. Therefore, it is an important skill to conquer for content writers.
10 Paraphrasing Techniques every Content Writer Need to Know
Here is the 10 simple yet, powerful techniques to paraphrase anything in less than 10 min.
Definitely worth trying in your next content.
Despite using all the techniques, sometimes you can fall into the trap of plagiarism.
Let me give you one bonus tip to avoid plagiarism in your content.
Most content creators will resist doing it but undoubtedly, it’s a 10X powerful strategy.
Can you guess? Yes, It is the use of External Links.
Just cite the reference or the source in your post after you follow all the techniques. It can be a book you read, the site you referred to, a quote said by a person, etc.
This can solve all the problems. As a result, it also increases the credibility of your content as well.
Table of Contents
1 – Using Synonyms – Simple Paraphrasing Technique
As you all know word “synonyms” mean using different words that have the same or similar meanings.
Wondering how one simple word “Like” can be written in multiple ways. Check out below.
Like -> love -> particular liking for -> pretty keen on -> really into -> quite big fan of -> totally mad at -> passionate about -> great lover of -> strong preference of -> very much interested in
In a sentence, “Many people in my country know two languages” can be paraphrased as “Many people in my country are bilingual”.
Let’s see one more example. “It can be difficult to choose a suitable content writer from a large number of applicants”.
It can be paraphrased as “It is sometimes hard to select an appropriate content writer from many applicants”.
- adolescents -> teenagers
- fuel -> petrol
- to be good at -> as to master at
- across the street -> on the other side of the street
- little chance -> quite less probability
As I have shown, the list is quite long if you think of ways to change the words without changing the meanings.
Recommended tool: Synonyms and Antonyms of Words | Thesaurus.com
2 – Changing the order of Sentences
If the original sentence has two or more clauses, then change the order of the clauses.
Don’t get blank with the word clauses. No English Vinglish class here.
Suppose, you have “If we don’t spend quality time with children, it is difficult to develop strong bonding with them”.
“In order to develop strong bonding with your children, it is important to spend quality time with them”.
Since it is just changing the order of the sentences, it is quite effective most of the time.
3 – Change the Adjective and Noun into a small sentence
This is one of the simplest techniques. To begin with, the term adjective basically describes the noun.
She has beautiful eyes. Here, the word “beautiful” tells more about the eyes.
This can be rewritten as “She has eyes which are very beautiful”.
Another one for you. This expensive SAAS product has very useful features -> This SAAS product has very good features which is why it is very expensive.
Another example, Parenting is a challenging task -> Parenting can be a task that is very challenging these days.
Furthermore, the sentence “The hardest language to learn is German -> German is one of the most difficult languages to master -> It is thought that German is by far the most challenging language to speak.
Alternatively, you can use connecting words as below:
- Like
- Because of
- Who is
- Which is
- As a result of
- Therefore
4 – Changing the order of the words
Again, this is very easy as well. Just like changing the order of the sentences, you can change the order of the words to effectively paraphrase.
✔ Change the verb into an adverb by adding “ly”
- Accurate -> Accurately
- Beautiful-> Beautifully
- Gracious -> Graciously
- Brave -> Bravely
✔ Change words into past tense
Let me explain with an example. “In 2012, spending on mobile phones in Australia was around 20 million dollars can be paraphrased as below.
“In 2012, Australian consumers spent around 20 million dollars on mobile phones”.
We need to a find solution for this problem -> “We need to solve this problem”.
5 – Use of negative, antonyms, or opposite words
Another way to paraphrase is to use antonyms to change a negative expression into a positive expression, or a positive expression into a negative expression.
Basically, Positive words carry LESS information than negative words.
- This is cheap -> This is not expensive
- The mall is very far away -> The mall is not near
- Sandy wanted some juice but the bottle is empty -> Sandy wanted some juice but there wasn’t any in the bottle
List of Negative words to use in Paraphrasing
- No
- Not
- Neither
- Never
- No one
- Nobody
- None of
- Nothing
- Nowhere
- Don’t, Hadn’t, Can’t, Wasn’t, Couldn’t, Wouldn’t
- Hardly, Seldom
- Might not, May not
Particularly, this is a fairly basic simple technique for you to use once in a while, not all the time, but you can use it successfully.
6 – Use of phrasal verbs
Have you heard of phrasal verbs? I didn’t hear until I came across an article by Grammarly.
I wasn’t aware that these most commonly used words have a name for themselves.
One of the important skills while paraphrasing is to resist the temptation of copying or using the same words, even though how wonderful they are.
Phrasal verbs are those words with similar meanings with a combination of adverbs or prepositions like in, on, off, to etc.
Most of the time, it is a combination of more than 2 words.
Recommended to read this 80 Most Common Phrasal Verbs defined by Grammarly
- discarded – threw away
- relax – calm down
- contact – call around
- think of an idea – come up with
- depend on – count on
- concluded – ended up
- progress – get ahead
- agree – go-ahead
Make it a habit to learn every day 5 phrasal verbs. As a result, you will start using it in your content without any reference.
7 – Change the passive voice to the active voice and vice versa
This is one of the techniques every content writer should know and be good at every time. It can come only by mere practice and understanding of the concept.
Most of the time, the confusion comes to identifying whether it is a passive or active voice sentence?
If the subject is performing the action, then the sentence is in active voice.
I play football.
If the subject is simply receiving the action, then the sentence is in the passive voice.
Football is played by me.
Also, subject words can be I, He, She, They, We. Basically, the person, place, thing, or idea that is doing or being talked about.
Recommended Source: Active vs. Passive Voice: What’s The Difference? | Merriam-Webster
https://onlymyenglish.com/active-passive-voice/
8 – Magic of Transitions words while Paraphrasing
Transitional words are important because they help improve the cohesion and coherence between words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.
There are four kinds of transition words. They are as below:
Additive – To add new ideas or emphasize key ones. For example: Also, And, Furthermore, Additionally, Similarly, Thus
Adversative – Adding alternative suggestions is a must in any content. For that you can use the words like However, But, Alternatively, Instead, Rather
Casual – People like to hear the cause and effect of everything. Use words like For, Since, If, Unless, Hence, So, Then
Sequential – It is one type of transition word when you want to share multiple ideas to be listed. To name a few, Initially, Secondly, Subsequently, Previously, Eventually, Finally,
Check out my blog post on Do transition words matter for SEO? – Content Lashmi
9 – Simple to Complex sentence or vice versa
Do you know this is the most commonly used by me? I generally break down the sentences into short sentences for the reader to understand.
I use this technique by combining all other techniques.
To elaborate, long sentences can be divided into short and small sentences. Short sentences can be combined with other short sentences to form long sentences using transition words or using adjectives.
In other words, let’s take an example. The original sentence “Australia is a wonderful country, which has many beautiful natural landscapes, an interesting history, and friendly people.” can be broken down into simple and small sentences.
“Australia is a wonderful country. It has many beautiful natural landscapes which cannot be missed. Their interesting history ever and friendly people make it a glorious culture to experience for everyone”
Use BAND BREW Strategy
It is a simple strategy to use for converting simple sentences to complex sentences.
Remember the BAND BREW term for using conjunctions in your writing.
B – Because
A – Although
N – not only…But also
D – Despite
B – Besides
R – Rather than
E – Either…Or
W – Whereas or While
10 – Change the text into Quotation
Conversely, what happens if you find a particular phrase or sentence that sounds quite good in our reading passage. You cannot resist the temptation to use it.
Particularly, if you really don’t want to paraphrase. So what should you do then? Well, in this case, just put it as QUOTATION.
“A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.” – Jeff Bezos
Conclusion
To sum up, here’s a snippet of the 10 Paraphrasing techniques to remember when you start writing next time.
10 Simple Techniques For Effective Paraphrasing
Remember this quote if someone disrupts your brand name in the name of Plagiarism.
If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research.
Thank you for the time you invested in reading this article. Hope you are able to paraphrase effectively after following the techniques.
Do check out my contenenglish series of posts for becoming a better content writer.