Too often while marking assignments and dissertations, we come across sentences that on the surface appear to make sense, but on closer inspection sound clumsy or as if the vocabulary used is out of context.
In the majority of cases, a simple check of the original source reveals that the student has used the paraphrasing by thesaurus technique. This results in inaccurate representation of the original author's idea, which borders on academic dishonesty. Over-use of this technique will result in an examiner having a poor opinion of the work submitted, and in extreme cases can raise accusations of plagiarism (which we all know is a bad thing).
I like to think of paraphrasing by thesaurus as similar to watching a contortionist. It is uncomfortable and does not make a lot of sense.
I also call it 'Turnitin syndrome' because it is frequently the product of a misguided understanding of the purposes of plagiarism detection software and how it works.
tl;dr: Don't attempt to paraphrase as a way of lowering your Turnitin similarity score. That is not what paraphrasing is for, and in extreme cases it constitutes academic dishonesty.
What is paraphrasing by thesaurus?
Consider the following text from a student's assignment:
Wayne Hodgins coined the phrase “learning object”, which immediately became the language of instruction, and it has been noted that OER [Open Educational Resources] has gained momentum (Virkus, 2010).
The obvious giveaway here that paraphrasing by thesaurus has been used is the term "language of instruction", which has a very specific meaning in the context of education. The term is out of place in the sentence and the topic of the student's assignment.
This drove me to the source referenced by the student, where the original text reads:
In 1994 Wayne Hodgins coined the term “learning object,” and this term quickly entered the vernacular of educators and instructional designers.
(Incidentally, the original source was not the one cited by the student, but rather another from which the content was reproduced: OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. 2006. Expert Meeting on Open Educational Resources. Organisation for Economic co-operation and Development. Available: https://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/36224377.pdf [2022, March 21].)
You can see that the word "immediately" was changed to "quickly" (fair enough, but unnecessary), and "entered the vernacular of educators and instructional designers" became "became the language of instruction", which does not mean the same thing at all. The remainder of the citation summarises what is said elsewhere in the document.
There is no reason to have used a paraphrase where a verbatim citation (the original author's phrasing and word order) would have been just as concise, and more pertinent.
Some tips:
MOST IMPORTANTLY: Remember that a verbatim quotation is NOT plagiarism, and you will not be marked down for using verbatim quotations. Using another person's ideas (whether a verbatim quotation, paraphrase or summary) without acknowledging the source is plagiarism.
When paraphrasing, do not simply replace some words in the original sentence with synonyms. Synonyms seldom mean exactly the same thing as the original words, and you risk completely misrepresenting the original source (which is academic dishonesty). Paraphrases provide some variety as an alternative to verbatim quotations, but they should capture the original idea without compromising the meaning. Keeping the same word order and replacing a few words is not a paraphrase.
An easy (but not ideal) technique for paraphrasing is to change the word order, for example by changing the sentence from passive to active voice or vice-versa. As the tips in the guideline linked below suggest, you should ideally be writing paraphrases with the original text out of sight. This ensures that you have thoroughly understood the material that you are citing, and also helps to bring your own voice into your writing.
Some more tips for good paraphrasing