Proper Vs. Improper Paraphrasing – How to Check Paraphrased Content for Plagiarism?

Academic writing is an essential part of the educational ecosystem these days. Students studying at undergraduate and graduate levels must submit various academic write-ups, including assignments, to secure a significant number of grade points. 

The purpose of assignments is to assess students’ research, writing, and presentation skills. However, it is observed that students face challenges when it comes to ensuring the submission of plagiarism-free assignments.

Including multiple quotations and research from just a few sources can lead to accidental plagiarism. While you can check the percentage of duplication in academic write-ups with the help of a reliable plagiarism checker, you need to eradicate it by paraphrasing content. 

However, many students fail to paraphrase properly, enduring the consequences of submitting plagiarised assignments. A question may come to your mind “what is improper paraphrasing?”. 

You need to understand the difference between proper and improper paraphrasing to get the answer to the question mentioned above. We have put together some details about the differences between both types of paraphrasing. 

Moreover, we have also discussed the reasons for which type of paraphrasing is considered plagiarism.Finally, we discussed an effective method to identify plagiarism in paraphrased content. Read on to learn more. 

What is the Difference Between Proper and Improper Paraphrasing?

Before we discuss the inclusion of plagiarism in paraphrased content, we must understand the difference between proper and improper paraphrasing. We will discuss both types in detail here. 

Further details are given below:

Proper Paraphrasing

The proper paraphrasing technique involves using your words to present someone else’s ideas published or written earlier. This technique aims to change the significant words in the content you are trying to paraphrase and change the sentence structure where needed without changing the meaning. Need to be add: Here’s a paraphrasing tool that uses NLP to paraphrase the content without making it sound robotic, this paraphrasing tool will make your work easier and helps you alot in your writing work. The working of this paraphrasing tool is a perfect example of proper paraphrasing. students can take advantage of it while paraphrasing.

Students use it to restate facts, figures, and quotations concisely while keeping the meaning unchanged. It should be noted that even after paraphrasing the content, the writer should cite the source in a recommended citation format.

Improper Paraphrasing

Improper paraphrasing is the practice that involves picking words from a random source and including them in your write-up without making significant modifications. 

For example, there would be a little change of words while the significant words and sentences would remain unchanged. 

Simply put, it is a poor form of paraphrasing, and people who lack paraphrasing skills often end up doing improper paraphrasing. This type of paraphrasing will be considered plagiarism even if the writer has cited the source. 

Which Paraphrasing Type is Considered Plagiarism?

It is pretty obvious that improper paraphrasing would lead to the inclusion of plagiarized patches because that paraphrased content will be too close to the original content. 

A major chunk of paraphrased content will appear similar to the original content, with similar words and sentence structures used in the original and paraphrased content. 

Here is an example.

Original Content

For example, if the original content is “Although PR differs from SEO, it can combine with SEO to deliver ideal results. Here is how some P.R. strategies can help you earn quality backlinks and improve your website’s SEO.” 

Improperly Paraphrased Content

The improper paraphrasing of the original content would be, “Even though the P.R. is different from SEO, its combination with SEO can deliver great results. Here you will see how several P.R. strategies can be helpful for you in earning quality backlinks and improving the SEO of the website.”

Properly Paraphrased Content

Proper paraphrasing of the content mentioned above will be “Originally, P.R. and SEO are quite different. Still, their combination can work wonders. 

Here are some P.R. tactics that assure great SEO results and valuable backlinks for the website”. 

You can clearly see how the improperly paraphrased content appears highly similar to the original content. 

Therefore, it is better to quote directly instead of improperly paraphrasing it. Otherwise, make sure you perform proper paraphrasing of the original content. 

How to identify Plagiarism in Paraphrased content?

Now that we know that improper paraphrasing is a result of a change of a few words without any change in the structure of sentences. Improper paraphrasing is likely to be considered plagiarism. 

Many times it is manually identifiable. However, for in-depth comparison to highlight similar words and sentences, you need an AI-based free plagiarism checker. Such a tool generally comes with an extensive database to provide you access to billions of sources. 

You can use it to check for plagiarism if you still doubt the paraphrased content in your assignment. You can check plagiarism online by uploading your write-up to the plagiarism detector and find out if you have done proper or improper paraphrasing and avoid any uncalled-for consequence of plagiarism.

End Words! 

Improper paraphrasing is rewriting the already published content so that the rewritten version looks too similar to the original one. Such a type of paraphrasing will be considered plagiarism. 

We have discussed proper and improper paraphrasing, given examples, and told you how to identify plagiarism in paraphrased content. Hopefully, it will be useful for you.