How do I handle using paraphrasing tools?

[srebak]

I’ll come right to the point and ask this; if I were to use any free online paraphrasing tool to reword certain parts of my story, be it either my fanfiction or my attempts at an original novel, should I credit every single website that I use, like how one credits and references any material borrowed from other media? I just want to know, before I make things… awkward by taking credit but not giving any credit when it’s most certainly due

 

[CupofJoe]

For online services we use at work, the citation we use is:
The output for this paper was generated using XXX software, Version: [date and year] of XXX.

 

[pmmg]

I think you should but i suspect many wont. If its not your original self created work then its not yours. You should site.

 

[srebak]

Let me put this in a different way; I wrote down a sentence for my story but it didn’t sound quite right or was needlessly wordy. If I were to use an online paraphrasing tool to rework it, what then?

 

[Mad Swede]

No offence intended srebak, but might I suggest that you just write? Write a lot. It's the only way you're ever going learn how to write text that flows in the way you want it to. Using a paraphrasing tool isn't going to help you develop your writing.

 

[pmmg]

Are you a writer? Fix it.

You dont need a computer to do it for you.

 

[skip.knox]

First off, kudos for asking this honestly and openly. A great many people would not. So I'll ask an honest question in return.

Why do you want to use such a tool?

Sure, you did explain. You said you felt your own sentence was too wordy or otherwise not quite right. There are tools that will rewrite the sentence (or paragraph or whatever) for you. I understand all that, but my question remains, but I can ask it another way.

Why do you want to use the tool rather than do what others here are suggesting and try to rewrite it yourself?

I can think of a few possibilities. Maybe you lack confidence in your ability to rewrite and make it better. Maybe you are in a hurry to get to a finished product and this would be faster than trying over and over again. Maybe you're just lazy and don't really care if the words are yours or come from elsewhere. Maybe English is not your native language and the struggle is overwhelming. I suppose there could be other possibilities; I offer these in case they stir something in you and help you formulate a reply.

I'm genuinely curious and puzzled. It would never occur to me to use such a tool, but I have several decades of writing experience behind me, most of it predating not only AI but the Internet and some of it coming even before personal computers. Sweating it out over rewrites is just part of the necessary process for me, so when I see someone taking a different approach, I get curious about goals and motives.

 

[Diana Silver]

I wrote down a sentence for my story but it didn’t sound quite right or was needlessly wordy.

So you already have the radar to spot what you don't like about a sentence. That's absolutely great, that already sets you out as a writer, and I would say is the hardest 90%. Go and proudly use your inner critic, feel for your text and vision of your story to wrap up the last 10%: to write that sentence a bit less wordy.

I'd like to restate the question 'why would you want to use it', but a little rephrased, to: Why would you trust these tools to do it better? Maybe they fix the problem of wordiness in your example sentence, sure. But how can you be sure that they deliver a compelling alternative that flows in the rest of the theme, mood and undercurrents of your story?

If you rely on tools, you loose control, agency, over the flow of your own text. While if you muster up the time and courage to only rely on yourself, you hone your skills and your text over time will be able to keep growing endlessly better. The tools, on the long run, are going to hamstring you by cutting of your own learning curve.

 

[Rexenm]

It’s not the end of the world. But it is the beginning of a different career. There are editors, who do the job for you, and grammar isn’t an exact science. Story structure is more like pointing out flaws more than world building or anything else. Sentence structure is about a comma denoting a pause. Nothing is unique, everything is random, sceince is not magic.