Sometimes, when expressing a specific standpoint or argument through text, you need inspiration from an existing piece of writing that supports what you’re trying to say and helps you find the words you’ve been looking for. This inspiration can come from various sources, such as an article, an essay, an academic thesis, or even a quote.
But then comes the tricky part: how do you emulate what you’ve read without copying it? And what is the best way to rewrite the sentence to avoid repetition? This is when the art of masterfully rewriting sentences comes in handy.
What Does It Mean to Rewrite a Sentence & Why Do You Need This Skill?
Rewriting a sentence involves rewording, rephrasing, or somehow changing a sentence in a given text to make it your own. Sometimes, sentence rewriting serves to give new context to the information or to reframe the speaker’s tense and voice.
Whatever your particular aim might be, what matters is that you deliver an entirely new sentence that still contains the same factual information and key points as the original sentence.
Being able to rewrite sentences correctly shows that you have a good understanding of the original content of the sentence. This skill will help you convey meaningful information to your readers, craft writing that flows well, and paraphrase effectively so that your content feels original and fresh.
How to Rewrite a Sentence?
Now that we understand the importance of sentence rewriting skills, the question arises: how to rewrite a sentence? Let's explore some simple ways to do so.
Understanding the Sentences’ True Meaning
Gaining a firm understanding of the original sentence is your first crucial step in rewriting sentences. Identifying keywords and concepts, important descriptive words, and the subject and object of the sentence can help you transfer the original meaning to your new sentence.
You’ll need to establish which are the most important elements of the sentence that convey the most meaning and which elements can be altered or done away with completely. Then, consider how the ideas or meanings are linked together through connecting words and how their order can possibly be changed and rearranged.
Changing the Sentence Length
Both long and short sentences have their place and should be used in combination throughout a piece of text in order to create a rhythmic flow for the reader.
If your original sentence is very long, you might consider breaking it into two shorter sentences for a punchier rhythm and easy comprehension. If the original sentence is short, perhaps combine it with another sentence relating to the same topic to create one long statement.
We can take this sentence as an example: "She walked through the bustling city streets, her mind filled with thoughts of the upcoming meeting and the presentation she had to deliver, feeling the weight of responsibility on her shoulders."
Here’s another way to write this sentence by creating two shorter ones: "As she walked through the bustling city streets, her mind filled with thoughts of the upcoming meeting and the presentation she had to deliver. She felt the weight of responsibility on her shoulders."
Changing the Sentence Structure
Once you have identified the various parts of speech in the original sentence (the subject, the object, the verb, adverbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases, etc.), it becomes easy for you to rewrite sentences by altering the sentence’s structure.
Let's rewrite the previous example by changing the sentence structure: “Walking through the bustling city streets, her shoulders bore the weight of responsibility as her mind brimmed with thoughts of the upcoming meeting and the presentation she had to deliver.”
Notice that we’ve maintained the sentence’s original length and managed to convey the same meaning simply by rearranging the information. This technique can be useful when you want to shift the focus of the sentence from one element to another.
For instance, in the original sentence, the reader’s attention is on the woman’s mind filling with thoughts about her upcoming meeting, as this comes first. In the rewrite above, the attention is directed towards the metaphorical weight she carries on her shoulders because of this impending meeting, as this element has been brought forward in the sentence.
Finding Synonyms
Use either a thesaurus or a search engine to identify as many synonyms as you can to substitute words in your original sentence. From key parts of speech to filler words, such as descriptive words and adverbs, almost any word in your original sentence can be substituted for an appropriate synonym that will help maintain the original meaning.
However, it’s important not to overdo it with the synonyms: it can become obvious when you’re trying too hard to skirt around simple phrases, and this can unnecessarily overcomplicate your rewritten sentence.
Let’s use the same example above. By finding appropriate synonyms, here’s how you can rewrite this sentence: "She ambled through the vibrant metropolitan avenues, anxiously considering the impending meeting and the address she would have to give, feeling the burden of responsibility pressing upon her mind."
Sometimes, it’s easier to consider replacing or substituting the meaning of entire phrases instead of individual words. For example, in the above rewrite, we have replaced “her mind filled with thoughts” with “anxiously considering.” Both phrases mean the same thing in this context, but they are vastly different in wording.
Altering the Sentence’s Tense and Tone
While tense can be important to context, it can sometimes be altered, and this will help you further rewrite the sentences and transform them from their original state. However, this should be done with caution: in certain instances, changing the tense of the sense may not make sense and could render the new, rewritten sentence grammatically or punctually incorrect.
Passive vs. active tone of voice is also crucial to consider. Transforming an active sentence to a passive one, and vice versa can drastically change the wording of your sentence as well as the reader’s focus while still maintaining original meaning.
What Is the Best Way to Rewrite the Sentence?
While we have listed a variety of ways to rewrite sentences, it may be difficult to practice without guidance or feedback. In this case, the best way to rewrite sentences may be to use an automatic tool. Here are the ones we recommend:
AI paraphraser
An AI paraphraser, such as HIX.AI's paraphrasing tool, is a fast and effective way to rewrite any sentences you like.
Powered by GPT-3.5/4, this tool provides you with high-quality rewritten sentences that are different from the original text but still convey the same message. It also ensures that the output is always error-free and 100% original.
For even more functionality, it allows you to customize the rewritten sentences according to the level of creativity, target audience, and tone of voice. In addition, it supports more than 30 languages, making it suitable for a wide range of users.
It is important to note that this tool is not only limited to sentence rewriting, but it can also help paraphrase paragraphs, articles, and even essays, providing a comprehensive solution to your writing needs.
Undetectable AI rewriter
If you're looking to rewrite AI-generated sentences to make them undetectable by AI detectors, then you may need an undetectable AI rewriter for this. You can try rewriter specifically designed for this type of tasks, like HIX Bypass, Bypass AI or Undetectable AI. These are tools powered by leading-edge rewriting algorithms and replace the writing patterns AIs tend to use with the ones that sound more human and natural. They and can help you reform AI content to effectively bypass AI detectors like GPTZero, Originality.ai, Turnitin and Winston AI.
In conclusion
The above tips and tricks can help you craft original written text that communicates authentic meaning. While rewriting sentences may seem laborious and complicated at first, you’ll pick up this skill in no time, and soon, you’ll be able to do it on the go!
