What is Paraphrasing?
TL;DR: Paraphrasing is restating someone else's ideas in your own words while maintaining the original meaning. It's different from quoting (using exact words) and summarizing (condensing the main points). Good paraphrasing changes both the structure and vocabulary.
Effective paraphrasing requires understanding the original text deeply enough to express it differently. Simply swapping synonyms ("happy" → "glad") isn't true paraphrasing — it should restructure sentences and use genuinely different phrasing while preserving meaning.