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How to Paraphrase? Guide (+Tips and Examples)
Writing with AI
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How to Paraphrase? Guide (+Tips and Examples)

Do you feel stuck on your assignment when you need to paraphrase? That is a common yet treatable student concern. Learn to resolve it for good in this article.
How to Paraphrase Sentences
Written by
Adam J.
Published on
Mar 14, 2025
Table of contents
When speaking on Dr. Martin Luther King’s death, Robert F. Kennedy quoted, “To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world,” making a good point on King’s ideas but misattributing the phrase to Greek poet Aeschylus.
The quote actually comes from Edith Hamilton, a Greek literature translator, likely causing Kennedy's confusion. He could have used paraphrasing to highlight how Edith Hamilton and Martin King attributed to taming savageness and what the audience can learn. But Kennedy di d not.
What is paraphrasing, then? In StudyPro, we believe it’s more than just referring to somebody’s thoughts. It’s a way to exchange and enrich the existing ideas in writing and speaking. Paraphrasing helps one to hold attention, play with ideas, and either transfer them unchanged or customize the meaning.
In this article, you will find practical techniques for never struggling with paraphrasing again (and for your academic benefit instead).
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What Is the Difference Between Paraphrasing and Rewording?

Paraphrasing and rewording differ in the scope of changes and the end goal. You cannot reword the original source while referring to it; you can only rephrase it.
Here’s why:
  • Rewording means replacing separate words or phrases with synonyms while leaving the original source structure. You cannot refer to the original source and reword it to your liking with synonyms in academic writing.
  • Instead, you can rephrase the source with a new sentence highlighting the part you need to reword.
Let’s check the example:
The original sentence: “Engagement and motivation are recurring concepts that are widely related to gamification.”
Type
Example
Explanation
Rewording
The research by L. Jaramillo-Mediavilla et al. says that engagement and motivation are repeating theories that are only widely related to gamification.
The example distorts the meaning from the original source, presenting it as if the concepts are theoretical and only widely connected to gamification.
Rephrasing
According to recent research, gamification is closely related to two concepts, recurring in several experiments: engagement and motivation (L. Jaramillo-Mediavilla et al., 2024).
The example rephrases the original, highlighting that the concepts recur in several studies.

What Is the Difference Between Paraphrasing and Rewriting?

The main difference between paraphrasing and rewording is simple. You rewrite the original if you don’t quite approve of some elements, such as technical language or extensive descriptive writing of the source. Instead, you use paraphrases if you need to customize, add to the idea, or use more clear and precise language.
  • Rewriting is replacing the whole original sentence or paragraph with your own for its complicated or confusing words, terms, and sentence structures.
  • What is a paraphrase, then? It is choosing the parts of the original that will stay, the ones you want to highlight or add to, and the ones you cut.
Here is an illustrative example of a music recommendation system.
The original phrase from the source: “In this regard, the calibrated recommendation systems have attracted attention as a means of ensuring a degree of fairness.”
Rewriting (What on Earth does the author mean?)
Rephrasing (How do I mention the author in my paper?)
Calibrated recommendation systems assign "fairness" points to measure how similar a new song is to an existing playlist. This helps determine whether the system should recommend it. Calibrated recommendation systems become popular due to the fairness system.
According to da Silva and Durão (2025), calibrated recommendation systems are gaining attention for their “fairness” criteria, which is the similarity of the new song to the existing playlist (da Silva, Durão, 2025)

Paraphrasing Vs. Quoting

The common problem is that students are often confused about what is similar about quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing.
Let’s first compare paraphrasing and quoting:
  • Quoting is preserving the excerpt from the scholarly articles as it is in your text. You can use that format when you need precision to analyze the author’s point later.
  • Instead, paraphrasing is meant to smoothly integrate the borrowed ideas into your academic writing style. When paraphrasing, you should regularly check yourself for what is plagiarism and what is not.
You can think of paraphrasing vs. quoting as building the house with acquired building materials vs hiring someone to do the work for you.
Here is an example with a famous quote:
The original phrase: “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
Types
Examples
Explanation
Quoting
As William James once said, “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”(as cited in Levesque-Bristol & Knapp, 2016, p. 71). I believe that statement to be true.
You cite James’ phrase; it is disconnected from your own voice.
Paraphrasing
William James once said to act as if what you do makes a difference, and I’ve been proving that it actually does my whole life (as cited in Levesque-Bristol & Knapp, 2016, p. 71).
You incorporate James’ phrase into your argument (for instance, in a personal essay).

Paraphrasing Vs. Summarizing

Paraphrasing and summarizing differ in the number of points you are referring to. Here’s an explanation:
  • When summarizing the author's points, you are gathering data from the whole scope of presented ideas. You list them with commas or you can rephrase a few separate ideas into one sentence.
  • When paraphrasing a quote from the original source, you usually refer to one particular idea. Summarizing is more of a critical writing where you search for uniting points, while paraphrasing helps to bring novelty to a particular idea.
As usual, let’s see one summarizing and one paraphrasing example:
The original source: “Junior university students (N = 25) were assigned the task of working on their seminar essays with the aid of ChatGPT. Most students were novices with this tool (the study was conducted in the spring of 2023). The initial attitudes towards artificial intelligence were almost equally distributed from enthusiastic to indifferent and cautious, with one student refusing to interact with the chatbot on ideological grounds.”
Types
Examples
Explanation
Summarizing
The 2023 study by Šedlbauer et al. was conducted on a volume of 25 students tasked to work on seminar essays using the Chat GPT tool, which was new for them; the attitudes varied from enthusiastic to adverse(Šedlbauer et al., 2024).
Summarizing major points from the whole section
Paraphrasing
The study conducted in the spring of 2023 shows how cautious the attitudes were in these early days of AI rising (Šedlbauer et al., 2024).
Referring to one specific point

How to Paraphrase a Sentence and a Paragraph (Easily)

While there are many available tips for paraphrasing correctly, here are a few that are your first ultimate aid on how to paraphrase a sentence and a paragraph:
  1. Ensure you understand both the original ideas from your research project and the point you want to make in your thesis statement.
  2. Check on why you need this citation for your academic paper. Does the original research paper support your thesis?
  3. If needed, identify key terms that can’t be replaced.
  4. Check whether you can find more precise language than what is presented in that scholarly writing.
  5. If you need to paraphrase a whole paragraph, ensure that the whole thing leads to one central idea. Otherwise, choose one sentence and paraphrase it.
  6. Incorporate the source’s idea into your text, using your own sentence structure and new specific language; follow formal style citing.
  7. Ensure your version differs from the original yet accurately conveys the author’s point.
  8. Use a grammar checker and citation tools to give credit to the author correctly.

How to Paraphrase Correctly (More Examples)

To learn how to paraphrase properly, you need to practice with more examples. Let’s do that and test whether you can guess why the paraphrasing is correct or not.

Source Text

Here’s a direct quote from The New York Times discussing how trends frame and influence our modern life:
“New “it” water bottles are anointed almost quarterly. Influencers urge their viewers to style themselves as coastal grandmothers, ballet dancers, indie sleazers and coquettes — looks that have little in common besides the consumption they require.”

Incorrect Paraphrasing

Let’s present a few paraphrasing options here:
  • You want to make a point on influencers’ impact
  • You want to highlight the overconsumption culture and the role of producing companies
Can you say what is wrong with the paraphrases below?
Paraphrasing #1: “According to The New York Times, influencers frequently declare new trendy water bottles, encouraging their followers to adopt various aesthetics”(Holtermann, 2025).
Paraphrasing #2: “According to The New York Times, new “it” water bottles are anointed almost quarterly and require a great level of consumption from influencers and their viewers.”(Holtermann, 2025).
Here’s what is wrong:
  • Paraphrasing #1 attributes the declaration of new trendy water bottles to influencers, which was not said in the original article.
  • Paraphrasing #2 presents “it” water bottles as the main concern for the cited paragraph, although they were only a minor illustration of the trend.

Correct Paraphrasing

Let’s now see better examples of paraphrasing and hitting our thesis goals:
Option #1. You want to make a point on influencers’ impact:
“According to The New York Times, influencers play a significant role in shaping consumer trends, as it happens with various internet aesthetics - from coastal grandmothers to coquetes.” (Holtermann, 2025).
Option #2. You want to highlight the overconsumption culture and the role of producing companies:
“According to The New York Times, frequent product releases and shifting fashion trends fuel a culture of overconsumption, as in the example of recently trendy “it” water bottles.”(Holtermann, 2025).

Sentence Rephrasing Techniques

One way to learn sentence rephrasing techniques is to use AI and reflect on its works. Another is to learn the techniques yourself.
Learn more: AI writer that will help you with rephrasing.
Here are a few such techniques for you to start with. Let’s say you want to rephrase the sentence “All cats are cute and nice fluffballs.”
Technique
How to Act
Example
Synonym replacement
Replace the original word choice with synonyms to convey the same meaning.
Every cat is an adorable and sweet little furball.
Sentence inversion
Change the word order of a sentence to emphasize different elements.
Cute and nice fluffballs, all cats are.
Passive voice to active voice conversion
Convert sentences from passive to active to make the formal tone more neutral or verse versa.
People of all ages and nationalities have agreed on one thing: cats are the cutest fluffballs of all animals.
Changing sentences
Rearrange phrases within a sentence. This way, you can change the structure without impacting the meaning.
Cats are these little creatures covered in fluff and cuteness.
Paraphrasing
Express the same idea using different words or phrasing.
Every cat is a charming, fluffy bundle of joy.
Substitution
Replace specific terms or phrases with more general or specific alternatives.
Cats distribution system” assigns cute fluffballs to many people worldwide.
Adding or removing information
Add or remove details to adjust the tone, emphasis, and clarity of your writing.
All cats are adorable and gentle companions, most adored when we need emotional support.
Using different parts of speech
Convert nouns to verbs, adjectives to adverbs, or vice versa to change the sentence's overall structure.
All cats embody cuteness and fluffiness.

Paraphrasing Examples

One more vital point to remember is that a paraphrase example formatting may slightly differ depending on the type of source you are citing. Let’s recap the examples we have used above:
Type of Source
Example
Explanation
A direct quote from the public speech.
“To tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.”
When paraphrasing these, avoid distorting the speaker's intention and message. Also, be cautious when referring to political and public figures to not overstep their reputation interests.
Academic journals and scholarly publications.
“Engagement and motivation are recurring concepts that are widely related to gamification.”
Scholarly papers require accurate in-text and end-text citations by specific citation manuals.
Press and media.
“Influencers urge their viewers to style themselves as coastal grandmothers, ballet dancers, indie sleazers and coquettes — looks that have little in common besides the consumption they require.”
Rephrasing online and printed sources requires careful fact-checking. You may need evidence based research and media credibility check

How to Cite a Paraphrase (Formatting Tips)

To cite a paraphrase according to academic writing manuals, you only need to keep three important rules strictly intact:
  • Stating the author’s name and the year of publication for the in-text citation;
  • Checking whether the page number is required and available for the in-text citation;
  • Using citing tools for end-text citations.
For example, here are a few references for how in-text citations look in the two most common manual styles:
Techniques
APA
MLA
Paraphrase
(Smith, 2020)
(Smith 2020)
Direct quote
(Smith, 2020, p. 45)
(Smith 45)

Sum Up

Essentially, rephrasing is presenting someone else’s work in your writing and in your own writing style. The main goal is to make a smooth transition to enrich your point. For effective academic writing, different paraphrasing techniques help students avoid plagiarism while implementing peer’s ideas.
To paraphrase effectively, you only need two key skills:
  • Dissecting the meaning and form from the original text
  • Changing the original academic work structure so it better fits your writing.
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Frequently asked questions

To learn how to paraphrase for academic purposes, keep clear focus on its major points for your better understanding. Rephrase it using your own words and sentence structure. Most importantly, try keeping the original meaning intact and citing the source properly.
Here’s an example of a paraphrase:
Original: “New “it” water bottles are anointed almost quarterly.” (Holtermann, 2025).
Rephrase: “In their new article, The New York Times write about the overconsumption problem, referring to trending “it” bottles as the example.” (Holtermann, 2025).
Here are 4 ways of paraphrasing a text:
  • Replace words with synonyms.
  • Inverse the original sentence structure.
  • Switch passive voice to active or verse versa.
  • Add new elements to complement complex ideas from the source with your own points.
Sources:
  • Kennedy, R. F. (n.d.). On the Death of Martin Luther King. The history place - great speeches collection: Robert F. Kennedy speech - on the death of Martin Luther King. https://www.historyplace.com/speeches/rfk-mlk.htm
  • Jaramillo-Mediavilla, L., Basantes-Andrade, A., Cabezas-González, M., & Casillas-Martín, S. (2024). Impact of gamification on motivation and academic performance: A systematic review. Education Sciences, 14(6), 639. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14060639
  • Silva, D. C., & Durão, F. A. (2022). Benchmarking fairness measures for calibrated recommendation systems on movies domain. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4195978
  • Dewey, John, 1859-1952, Action research in education, Community and school, New York : Fordham University Press
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