Paraphrasing is a writing technique writers use to rewrite existing text. It allows them to alter text in different ways. They can shorten the text, expand it, make it more concise, or make robotic text sound natural. Paraphrasing is also used in a variety of writing tasks, such as writing summaries, referencing source material, and making vague text clearer. But one use of paraphrasing that’s becoming common is to make text sound natural.
Content writers have increasingly started using this technique to paraphrase long text to make them sound natural, because a lot of content that’s being published now is AI-written, but AI-generated text sounds unnaturally robotic. It has engagement and quality issues which make it unsuitable for publishing.
But how do you exactly paraphrase lengthy texts in natural language? There are several techniques to do this. Called humanizing techniques, these allow you to get rid of the robotic AI patterns in the text and make it feel human-written.
This article explains these techniques in simple language.
How to Paraphrase Long Texts to Make It Natural
Many humanizing techniques exist to paraphrase text for a natural feel. The goal of these techniques is to make AI patterns weaker or simply remove them from the content. Below, we’ve shared 5 practical methods that are easy to follow and work for everyone.
1. Replace AI-Isms
AI-isms refer to common words and phrases that AI tools use. These words and expressions are common in AI writing and are strong signals of AI detection. AI detection tools look for these words, like “landscape” and “harness” and phrases, like “in the realm of content writing…,” and mark the text as AI-written due to their presence.
But that’s not all. Apart from AI detection, these words and expressions also make the content feel odd and robotic to readers. Many people are already familiar with common AI expressions, so they are able to tell when a piece of text seems AI-written or human-written.
How to do it?
Removing AI-isms is very easy. You need to spot these words and replace them with their synonyms. But the synonyms need to be words that AI tools don’t usually use. As for phrases, identify and rewrite them to express the ideas differently altogether.
Pay attention to the synonyms you choose for replacing individual words. Many words have similar meanings but carry nuances in them. Only replace words with their most appropriate synonyms in terms of both meaning and usage context. Try to replace all robotic terms throughout the text to weaken this AI pattern as much as possible.
2. Restructure Sentences
This is a major AI pattern that makes a fair contribution to the text’s robotic nature. AI tools don’t have variation in their sentence structures. Their structuring is formulaic and mechanical. It translates to sentences that follow a similar syntax pattern throughout the text. This lack of variation or the presence of uniformity in sentence structures gives the text a mechanical feel of being AI-written, which readers are able to feel when reading the content. The same lack of variation causes AI detectors to flag this content, so this pattern is a must-remove if you want your content to sound natural at all.
How to do it?
Sentence structuring needs heavy paraphrasing. You need to tweak sentences in various ways, such as:
Changing sentence clause order
Swapping parts of speech, like making a noun into adjective
Use rhetorical questions to vary sentences
Start sentences with conjunctions words like “and and but”
These are some good ways to introduce variation in AI’s sentences without causing detection and robotic feeling in the text.
3. Vary Sentence Length
Another factor that influences writing and can make it either feel robotic or natural is the length of sentences—how long and short are most of the sentences. This is due to a factor called burstiness which measures how varying the text is. Burstiness can be low or high:
Low burstiness signals AI content: A piece of text with sentences of similar lengths is less varying so it has low levels of burstiness. AI content is low in burstiness by default because it writes balanced sentences of similar length, so it feels robotic. The sentences don’t necessarily have an average length of 15-25 words. Rather, they tend to have uniform lengths whether they’re a bit shorter or lengthier.
High burstiness signals human content: A text with sentences of different lengths has high levels of burstiness. It signals that the content is human-written.
How to do it:
Varying the text’s sentence lengths give it a natural, human-written feel that AI content lacks. You can do this similar to how you restructure sentences. Here are some methods:
Split sentences: Splitting sentences is the easiest way to increase the text’s burstiness. Find sentences that can be split into two separate sentences. It will create smaller sentences amid other sentences which increases its natural feel. However, don’t split every other sentence or all the sentences will become smaller, which will then again give them similar lengths and lead to a decrease in burstiness.
Combine sentences: The opposite of splitting sentences also works. Locate sentences that can be combined to form longer sentences. Make sure they are adequately longer than the balanced sentences.
Add content: In some cases, the content might not allow you to split or combine sentences, such as when it's thin. Or, you may just not find a good opportunity to tweak sentences without adding anything to it. This is totally fine. Just add a little content from yourself to the piece to help vary the sentences. You can add adjectives, adverbs, or more information.
Remove content: You might face situations where it's just better to remove content instead of tweaking the sentences or adding to it. This can happen when:
You try every possible way to humanize a sentence or two but they don’t budge.
The content is lengthy with a lot of AI detection/robotic patterns. Removing some of the content where it’s difficult to humanize can preserve content quality and remove AI without distorting the text.
The sentence(s) isn’t very important and is heavily contributing to the detection score.
4. Remove Introductory Phrases or Subordinate Clauses at the Start of Sentences
AI tools are fond of introductory phrases, to the point that they overdo them. For instance, ChatGPT will write a lot of sentences that begin with an introductory phrase separated by a comma, as it should be. Example:
“Before jumping to the task, make sure you have the right equipment.”
This pattern causes flags in AI detection tools especially if it’s recurring so consider removing it. Plus, introductory phrases can occur at the end of the sentences as well, which should also be avoided but not adding intro clauses at all might not always be practical.
How to do it:
Avoiding introductory phrases and subordinate clauses at the beginning requires sentence restructuring. Find sentences that are structured this way and remove the introductory phrases if possible or rewrite the sentence if needed. As for clauses, move them from the beginning to the last or separate them from the sentences using conjunctions.
5. Use Simpler Vocabulary
Simpler vocabulary means using simpler words, like “improve” instead of “enhance.” The former is much easier and simpler to understand as well as is more accessible for a broader audience. AI tools like using flowery language, which may not necessarily be complex but fancy and/or specific. Instead of just saying “make better” or “improve,” an AI chatbot is much more likely to use a bit more specific and fancier words like “refine,” “enhance,” “optimize,” etc. This writing pattern contributes to AI detection as well as robotic feeling of the text.
How do to it:
Using simple vocabulary is very simple. Just find fancy terms in AI content, think of alternative words that are simpler than them, and replace them. Just be careful not to replace every other word or it’ll start to sound awkward. You also don’t want to replace topic-specific words, such as “optimization” in “search engine optimization (SEO).”
These practical methods work on any piece of text, especially longer ones, as long as you do them properly. Be especially patient while you humanize lengthy texts because they take several editing sessions to sound natural, which can take a few hours at least.
Use a HumanizeAI.net for Natural Rewriting
AI writing likely won’t always remain the same way it is now as these tools train harder to write more naturally. Newer AI patterns might emerge in the future and change how content is humanized. That’s why relying on advanced tools that humanize AI text like HumanizeAI.net is more convenient than manual work. It keeps on updating with AI trends and writing patterns which allows it to humanize robotic content with accuracy.
HumanizeAI.net works like a paraphrasing tool. It rewrites your AI text to make it sound natural just like human-written text. Using humanizing techniques, it targets AI patterns in the content to reduce them. The text humanized via this tool passes AI detection and feels natural to read.
How do to it:
Humanizing lengthy texts via HumanizeAI.net is much faster than doing it manually. Manual humanizing of long texts is possible but is very time-consuming. HumanizeAi.net only takes a few clicks to make your text go from 100% AI detection to 10%. Here are these few clicks:
Input your text: Once you visit the tool, paste your robotic text into its input field.
Click Humanize: Click the “Humanize” button that sits at the bottom to humanize.
Copy the output text: Save the output content when displayed by clicking the copy button.
If some minor detection occurs after using the tool, we suggest removing it manually.
Conclusion
Paraphrasing can be used to rewrite text and make it sound natural if it feels robotic. This is done via various humanizing techniques, including: replacing AI-isms, restructuring sentences, varying sentence length, removing introductory sentences or clauses from the beginning of sentences, and using simpler vocabulary throughout the content. You can also use a text humanizer tool like HumanizeAI.net to make lengthy texts sound natural more quickly than manual work. Just paste your text into the tool, click “humanize,” wait a few seconds, and copy the output.
