Every essay, term paper, lab report, book review, or any other piece of academic writing has various purposes and demands. The purposes are always different, but the demands are pretty much the same. One of them is to paraphrase the words and findings of other students, writers, scientists, researchers, and other people. Not all people understand why is paraphrasing important.
Let’s start by checking its definition. What is paraphrasing, and what purposes it serves? Paraphrasing is an essential process when the author of a definite piece of writing or study reworks the words of other experts whose words and findings he/she uses in his/her project. This is no direct citation. You retell the citation in your own words, substituting the part of the original phrase.
Why is paraphrasing important, and why do you need to use it? No writer or researcher has the right to use the words of others as if they are his or her own. If you disclose a definite topic and use the findings of other experts, you need to use either a direct citation or paraphrase it. Otherwise, you plagiarize your own work. Thus, its relevance is lost entirely. No one will accept it because you have stolen the work of someone else.
How to Avoid Plagiarism?
What is paraphrasing? We have just revealed its essence and purpose. Now, we need to focus on another vital point. How can an ordinary student avoid plagiarism? One of the possible solutions has been offered.
You can paraphrase the citation. Another solution is to use a direct citation. When you do that, you ought to be very cautious. There are various academic writing formats. You must follow their guidelines to insert the desired citation according to the official rules. Otherwise, you make a mistake. There are such formats as:
- MLA;
- APA;
- AMA;
- Chicago;
- Turabian;
- Vancouver;
- Harvard;
- ASA and others.
Each format has a lot of differences. You need to know them all to be sure you follow the rules and do not mess them up with another format because there are many similarities as well. You may need to read and memorize Telecommunications Study Guide or similar guides. A lot depends on the industry you write in.
One more good solution is to use special plagiarism checkers. These are smart machines that spot any trace of non-unique content. How do they work? Check the following essentials:
- Open the checking app you have decided to use.
- Copy and paste your text into it.
- Press “start” to make things run.
- Wait for several seconds or minutes. The machine will compare your text with other ones available on the Internet.
- Check the results. Any sign of plagiarism will be somehow underlined by the machine.
When you see that you have plagiarized separate words, phrases, or entire sentences, you already realize what must be reworked. Replace the underlined words with their synonyms. At times, it makes a writer rework the structure of the entire sentence to avoid plagiarism.
You can also refuse to insert any findings of other experts. Notwithstanding, it’s a bad solution. If you cannot prove your theories with already proven facts, your project loses its scientific value.
Use Professional Aid
The importance of paraphrasing is clear to every attentive student. Yet, it may be hard to deal with plagiarism, even if you spot it. You may change words and the structure of your sentences many times but it may not work. Such issues happen sometimes. If you don’t want to spend 1-2 hours doing that, turn for help to professionals.
The Internet is full of custom writing sites. They offer a wide range of academic features, including paraphrasing and citing. Let an expert look at the matter. He or she will quickly make it 100% unique.
Final Thoughts for Our Readers
The importance of paraphrasing is enormous because it helps you to avoid plagiarism of any sort. Use the tips we have offered in our guide to make things correctly and never plagiarize anyone else. In case you still need help with this task, turn to AdvancedWriters or any other custom writing agency. Its skilled editors surely know how to avoid plagiarism and paraphrasing is a simple task for them.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
