Paraphrasing Service vs Doing It Yourself — Which Is Better?

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What Is Paraphrasing — and Why Does It Matter?

Paraphrasing is the process of expressing someone else’s idea or argument in your own words, with proper attribution to the original source. It is a core academic writing skill — the alternative to direct quotation — and when done correctly, it demonstrates that you have genuinely understood and processed your sources rather than simply copying from them.

Paraphrasing matters for two main reasons:

• Academic integrity — proper paraphrasing with correct citations is expected at every level of UK higher education. Poor paraphrasing — where the original’s structure and wording are retained with only superficial changes — is considered mosaic plagiarism and is treated as academic misconduct.
• Turnitin similarity scores — Turnitin’s algorithms are specifically designed to identify closely paraphrased content. A high similarity score from poor paraphrasing can trigger investigation even when your intentions were entirely legitimate.

For more on how Turnitin detects paraphrasing, see our guide on can Turnitin detect paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing Yourself — Pros and Cons

Paraphrasing your own work is always the ideal starting point — and for many situations, it is entirely sufficient. Here is an honest assessment of both sides:

Advantages of Paraphrasing Yourself

• No cost — paraphrasing your own content costs nothing
• Academic skill development — doing it yourself strengthens one of the most important academic writing skills
• Maintains your voice — your writing style and academic voice remain consistent throughout
• Better understanding — the process of paraphrasing forces you to truly engage with your sources
• No turnaround time — you can make changes immediately

Disadvantages of Paraphrasing Yourself

• Time-consuming — good paraphrasing takes significantly longer than most students expect
• Difficult with complex content — technical, legal or highly specialised source material can be very difficult to paraphrase without inadvertently reproducing the original’s structure
• Easy to do poorly — without realising it, many students produce mosaic plagiarism when they think they are paraphrasing correctly
• Hard to be objective — when you have been reading the same source repeatedly, it becomes difficult to express its ideas in genuinely different language
• Risk of Turnitin flags — poor paraphrasing can produce a high similarity score even with good intentions

Using a Professional Paraphrasing Service — Pros and Cons

A professional paraphrasing service provides human editors who rewrite your content in genuinely original language while preserving your intended meaning. This is very different from an automated paraphrasing tool — more on that below.

Advantages of a Professional Paraphrasing Service

• Genuinely original output — professional human editors produce truly rewritten content, not synonym-swapped text
• Significant time saving — particularly valuable when facing a tight deadline
• Effective for complex content — professional editors can paraphrase technical, legal or specialised content that is difficult to handle yourself
• Reduces Turnitin scores reliably — genuinely rewritten content produces much lower similarity scores than poorly paraphrased content
• Peace of mind — knowing your content has been professionally handled reduces stress before submission

Disadvantages of a Professional Paraphrasing Service

• Cost — professional paraphrasing services charge for their work. At Proofers, our paraphrasing service starts from £30 per 1,000 words
• Turnaround time — you need to allow time for the service to complete the work
• You miss the learning opportunity — if developing paraphrasing skills is part of your academic development, outsourcing it means missing that practice

Side-by-Side Comparison

High similarity score and a tight deadline? Our professional paraphrasing service rewrites flagged sections into genuinely original language — fast. Combine with a follow-up plagiarism check to confirm your score before submission. Get an instant quote.

When to Use Each Option

The right choice depends on your specific situation. Here is a practical guide:

Paraphrase Yourself When…

• You have plenty of time before your deadline
• The source material is straightforward and within your subject area
• You want to develop your paraphrasing skills as part of your academic development
• Your similarity score is already low and you are making minor adjustments

Use a Professional Service When…

• Your deadline is close and you have significant paraphrasing to do
• Your Turnitin similarity score is high and you need to reduce it quickly
• The source material is highly technical, legal or specialised and difficult to paraphrase confidently
• You have already tried paraphrasing sections yourself and your similarity score remains high
• Your work contains content in a second language that you need paraphrased into natural English

What to Avoid — Automated Paraphrasing Tools

It is worth being clear about one category of “paraphrasing” that you should avoid entirely: automated paraphrasing tools, also known as spinners.

Automated paraphrasing tools replace words with synonyms and rearrange sentence structures algorithmically. The result is typically low-quality, unnatural writing that reads awkwardly and is increasingly detectable by Turnitin. More importantly, using an automated tool to disguise copied content is itself considered academic misconduct at most UK universities — it is no different in principle from manually copying and changing a few words.

A professional paraphrasing service is fundamentally different. It involves human editors with subject knowledge who genuinely rewrite your content — producing natural, high-quality writing that preserves your meaning while being entirely original. The output reads like human writing because it is human writing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is using a paraphrasing service cheating?

A professional paraphrasing service that rewrites your content in original language while preserving your meaning is not contract cheating — provided your ideas, argument and analysis remain your own. However, policies vary between institutions. Check your university’s academic integrity policy before using any third-party service. For more detail, see our guide on can my university tell if I used a proofreading service.

How much does a professional paraphrasing service cost?

At Proofers, our paraphrasing service starts from £30 per 1,000 words at the standard 72-hour turnaround rate. For documents over 5,000 words, a 5-day turnaround option is available. Use our price calculator for an exact quote based on your word count.

Will professional paraphrasing lower my Turnitin score?

Yes — professionally paraphrased content is genuinely rewritten by human editors, producing original language that is much less likely to trigger Turnitin’s similarity detection than closely paraphrased content. We recommend running a follow-up plagiarism check after paraphrasing to confirm your score has come down before submission.

How long does professional paraphrasing take?

At Proofers, our standard turnaround for paraphrasing is 72 hours for documents under 5,000 words, and 5 days for longer documents. Contact us directly if you have an urgent deadline and we will do our best to accommodate you.

What is the difference between paraphrasing and copy editing?

Paraphrasing rewrites content to produce genuinely original language — typically used when you need to reduce a similarity score or express borrowed ideas in your own words. Copy editing improves the clarity, flow and structure of your existing writing without substantially rewriting it. Our guide on proofreading vs copy editing explains the difference in more detail.

Submit your document today and our UK-based editors will rewrite your content into genuinely original language — with a full money-back guarantee.