Paraphrasing tools are predominantly used to modify or ameliorate content from the original text. Although the end product from a paraphrasing tool might look improvised or different from the source literature, it is a form of plagiarism and unethical since it is not the original work of an individual.
While paraphrasing tools substantially lessen the burden of a writer while summarizing their ideas, in due course, propensity to rely on such tools will have a severe impact on the researchers’ writing skills, learning and creativity. This will ultimately impact their career growth as well.
These tools are a serious impediment to academic integrity as they encourage the researchers to conveniently copy a work and rely on a “computer generated output” rather than writing themselves.
It is imperative that the beginning of their career, researchers should attempt to write on their own to improve their writing skills without depending on the online paraphrasing tools. Initially, these tools appear to make things easier but, as indicated above, these tools will definitely diminish the researchers learning and writing and articulating skills.
In academic writing, the skill of paraphrasing is central to showing that the author has mastered what they have read, they understand, and they can apply the appropriately acknowledged evidence in order to support their arguments. It is apparent that students and researchers understand and accept that there is a standard convention for paraphrasing and for using and acknowledging sources, but there can be differences between how paraphrases are defined, described and assessed.
For researchers to effectively paraphrase, they must practice regularly and write thoughtfully. It’s important to know why and how to do paraphrase efficiently. Unless they are willing to put effort into it, they will look for shortcuts rather than put forth the effort. A simpler form of paraphrasing involves merely substituting words with synonyms found through software in word processing programs or online dictionaries. This is superficial paraphrasing, also known as ‘close paraphrasing’ or ‘patchwriting’
Lessons on paraphrasing might include;
1) Identifying the most meaningful phrases in a text and predicting the context.
2) Reading a text and summarizing its message in two sentences.
3) Each sentence should be rephrased by changing the words, sentence structures, word order, but preserving the general theme.
4) Practice paraphrasing regularly.
5) Paraphrasing: distinguishing unfair from fair.
As a simple approach, this method could increase researchers’ writing competency and prevent common writing mistakes, such as omitting attribution, taking out certain phrases without modifying them, mentioning several ideas in one paragraph without attribution (in other words, mosaic plagiarism), and others.
Another aspect we’d like to highlight is that, when students are unsure of their paraphrasing skills, they often resort to online paraphrasing tools, which end up being the biggest learning disruptors.
As a consequence, unoriginal sentences are transformed into seemingly original paragraphs, confusing plagiarism scanners. Several of them claim to be the easiest way to pass plagiarism checks.
In reality, most of these tools simply replace original words with synonyms. Oftentimes, those are nouns, adjectives, and verbs. It is true that not all tools are as effective as they can be. Many fail to choose correct verb forms or select words that are appropriate to the context.
Why are online paraphrasing tools a threat to academic integrity?
There are online paraphrasing tools that utilize computer programs to change writing so it appears differently than the original. However, using the output from an online tool can still be considered plagiarism or cheating, since it is not the work of the individual, but rather the work of a machine.
Academic integrity is threatened by these tools for they allow researchers to copy work and rely on automated output instead of writing their own. Thus, researchers are prevented from learning how to reference others’ ideas and thoughts as well as acknowledging the original sources.
It remains true that any work that involves the use of source texts and materials without acknowledgment will not be considered “original work” when it is taken from another author’s work, processed through an online paraphrasing tool and then submitted as such. An example of plagiarism would be a researcher submitting work generated using an online tool without acknowledging it, and an example of self-plagiarism would be an academic rewriting their work to publish in another place.
Each scenario could be considered a case of enabling plagiarism, which occurs when an individual actively seeks to use a readily available Internet-based source.Recent research shows that many researchers relying on online paraphrasing tools to comply with the requirement for originality in submissions run the risk of sacrificing quality and not achieving the learning outcomes because they cannot fully comprehend the information they gathered. Moreover, the validity of the outputs is at risk from the perspective of academic integrity.
In a nutshell, paraphrasing is not bad if it’s done properly. However, if you copy-paste someone’s work without much modification, it may cause many harms. It is possible to commit plagiarism with this type of paraphrasing. Paraphrasing content that is too close to the original idea, with phrases or whole sentences that are identical to the original idea, may cause this error. You might also encounter it if you fail to appropriately credit the source of the paraphrase. If the information generated by paraphrasing tool not done effectively, It is possible to degrade the quality of a piece of work by repeatedly spinning the same information.
Online paraphrasing tools are not always accurate because they work by substituting words with synonyms. At times, these synonyms don’t work or make sense in an appropriate manner. In addition, the generator does not always consider grammatical mistakes. Even if the reader understands this fact, it removes taste from the content.
First, these tools are not always accurate when rephrasing your texts. You have to remember that these tools are programmed to rephrase your text and there are cases when they produce paraphrased contents with gibberish meaning. You may be able to dodge plagiarism-free content but it does not guarantee high quality and impressive work.
Also, the results of these tools are not proofread. So, it may result to few errors in word usage, grammar and few spelling glitches. Therefore, make sure that you review your paraphrased work after using the tool. Proofread everything and ensure that it does only contain the message that you wanted to convey to your readers but also are following the proper grammatical rules, spelling and word structure.
In addition, these tools do not encourage writers to come up with fresh ideas to write about as they only refer to articles that are already published and use these paraphrasing tools to make it look and sound new. While we may appreciate the benefits of these tools, we cannot deny that they also rob the writers of originality and creativity.
Paraphrasing tools are generally considered cheating since they do not credit the original author and don’t provide the original content. In this case, you are cheating because you did not write the content yourself but made it up using a computerized tool. In this article, we look at the do’s and don’ts of paraphrasing to help authors and researchers avoid plagiarism and cheating. Nevertheless, one of the don’ts is not to use online paraphrasing tools, as they are considered unprofessional and cheating.
Here are a few simple steps you can take to effectively paraphrase
You will be flagged for copying and pasting if you do not do paraphrasing well. You can determine the effectiveness of your paraphrased work based on these steps.
Don’ts – What to avoid when paraphrasing
The author is not to be ignored
In the first place, make sure that you acknowledge the source of ideas and information you have used in your content through in-text citations. A key point to note is that common knowledge does not require citation.
Use Quotation marks for Quotes
If a term or phrase is credited to a different author, include quotation marks. Quotes must be accompanied by quotation marks. Such texts will easily be identified as plagiarised by readers.
Don’t paraphrase words, but phrases
If you modify and play around with a few words of an author’s original work, you will probably be caught for plagiarism. Working on sentence structures, avoiding synonyms, and citing others’ work will increase your chances of avoiding plagiarism.
Rearranging words is not recommended
The act of rearrangement or replacement of words won’t prevent plagiarism. The majority of plagiarism detection tools and attentive readers are able to detect these tricks easily. It’s the simplest way for your work to be flagged for plagiarism if you use the same sentence structures as the original version. It is largely based on the fact that the work does not differ much from the original.
Don’t rely on paraphrasing tools
It is best to avoid using paraphrasing tools as they are mostly flawed and inaccurate. Because using a paraphrasing tool is basically cheating, readers are likely to detect plagiarism from almost any work done generated by computerized tools.
Lastly, apart from being unethical, it is also illegal to use another person’s work product for personal academic gain without their express consent or giving due credit to the original author.
