One of the many reasons writers need to redo their content is the lackluster performance. Bear in mind we’re not talking about revisions but rather rewriting the content.

In revisions, the writers tweak the content in order to make it perfect for its purpose.

However, in rewriting, the writers redo their content from top to bottom to ensure better performance. Whether in an academic setting or professional, article rewriting is often necessary. And that’s why it’s essential to get it right.

What is article rewriting?

Article rewriting is the revamping of existing content in a bid to make it better. This practice aims to make the content better in various ways.

The most apparent reason for article rewriting is to ensure that it conveys the topic in an improved manner.

Some article rewrites only require switching around words, using synonyms, or improving the phrases. Others will require the inclusion of keywords, phrases, terms, and newer sentences. However, significant rewrites will see content revamped from top to bottom.

This procedure is a common practice in both academic and professional settings. Many times, a writer thinks that they could have written something better.

So, in the case of SEO blogs, if a blog doesn’t perform better, a writer can always rewrite it to make it better.

In academic writing, if the essay or research paper isn’t as easy to understand, the tutor or higher-ups might directly ask for a rewrite—major or minor. However, article rewriting can be broken down into three significant aspects:

• Rewriting headlines

Headline rewrites are usually present in only professional settings or marketing articles, such as SEO blogs, etc.

These rewriting techniques involve revamping the content’s title/headline to ensure the topic stands out.

The process continues within the content, as the writer switches/face-lifts content’s body according to the headline.

• Rewriting content

Rewriting the content’s body happens in academic settings more than it does in SEO blogs, etc.

The primary reason behind that would be low assessment scores. However, content audit in SEO can also warrant a major content renovation to help it perform better.

• Rephrasing certain elements

If the content has plagiarism or duplicity, the writer must change those elements. Usually, this type of rewriting happens before it goes into approval phases.

The most common occurrence of this sort of rewriting is when a writer passes their work through plagiarism checkers.

7 tips to make content better than original

Making content better than the original can be a challenge. Still, it all depends on the integrity and quality of the original content.

Suppose the actual content that you wish to rewrite has lackluster structure grammatical errors. In that case, it won’t be a problem to redo it.

However, the real challenge is when you have to rewrite top-notch content. Then, elements such as self-plagiarism come into play, which you must avoid at all costs.

So, to make rewriting content easier for you, let’s divide the process into 7 essential tips to create content better than the original.

So, to make rewriting content easier for you, let’s divide the process into 7 essential tips to create content better than the original.

1.     Recreate the headline/headings

One of the critical aspects of good content pieces is headlines. These headlines draw the reader in, and they let you glimpse into the heart of the rest of the content in a few words. That’s’ why headlines are such a core element of good content in any setting.

SEO:

So, the first tip for you in rewriting your content is to rewrite your headlines. Think about the ways you can make them better. For instance, if an SEO article’s headline reads like this:

“How To Write Better SEO Content In Four Ways”

How do you make it better? First, let’s identify the problem with the original headline. It’s tame; it has no promise nor inspiring elements. It’s a dull headline that you find in every corner of the internet.

So, revamping the headline also needs to ensure that your reader peaks into your content. Then, it needs to have a promise of information, tips, etc. Here’s how you can rewrite that into something better:

“4 Essential Ways That Help You Write Better Content That Ranks.”

You can see the promise of four essential ways that it’ll teach you. It implies SEO naturally by providing the reader an assurance of better ranking.

Moreover, it takes command from the first word. It’s telling you how these four essentials will ‘help’ you write better content.

Academic:

The essence of academic writing is that it immediately dives into the subject. Academic writers need to impress an expert audience.

Academic writing needs to provide information to experts/academics. So, if your research paper’s headline is like this:

“How To Fix Traffic Issues In San Francisco: A Study”

This headline would have been completely fine in any academic setting a hundred years ago. However, it’s been rundown, washed up, and has become a boring type of headline.

It needs to be inspiring; it needs to have a promise. Furthermore, it doesn’t need to use on-the-nose terms like “A Study.” So, how do you make it better?

“Solving Traffic Issues In San Francisco: A Change Long Over-Due”

You can notice instead of leading with the word “how,” this headline shows with the solution. The primary benefit of this will be the reader’s keenness to find out just how this “over-due” change is going to happen.

2.     Rearrange the subheadings

One of the key benefits of using subheadings in an article is that it divides content. Nobody wants to read long content without any sort of breakage between them.

The division of key content points like this allows readers to grasp the article more comprehensively—academic or SEO.

However, subheadings aren’t compelling all the time. Not because of their nature, but because of the shortcomings of a writer, who might not format said headings properly.

So, if you’re going to rewrite your article, analyze the headers that you can improve.

For example, let’s take the aforementioned headline, “4 Essential Ways That Help You Write Better Content That Ranks,” for example. An instance of one of the first subheadings in the article would be a little something like this:

1 – Optimizing the content for search engine

This heading is OK, and there’s nothing virtually wrong with it. But, the purpose of rewriting is to make something better. Now, let’s say the three other of the “four essential ways” are as follow:

2 – Writing a good headline

3 – Ensuring readability of your content

4 – Using the right keywords

Once again, nothing wrong with these headings. They’re, in fact, essentials of creating SEO content. However, their shortcoming is the out-of-order formation.

Therefore, you should improve them and rearrange them when you rewrite them. A little something like this:

1 – Write an enticing headline

2 – Employ ideal keywords

3 – Ensure readability: Keep it simple

4 – Optimize your content according to SEO laws

By rearranging the headlines, we improved the flow and made the initially important the top aspect of content creation. Then, we reworded each line into something better—ensuring better flow and fluency.

That’s how you should approach rewriting your subheadings. So, improve their flow, make something simple if possible, use a better synonym and linearly arrange them.

3.    Rewrite the main body

This section requires thorough attention, as it needs to be the most gripping. We learned that rearranging subheaders can do the trick.

However, the content within them needs to be better flowing and better than the original as well.

So, let’s break down the rewriting process into two major aspects:

• Content tone & flow

The first thing you need to focus on is improving the content’s tone. If the middle of your content isn’t flowing smoothly, then it needs attention.

So, let’s say you’re trying to make a point about the readability of your content—as per one of the subheadings.

Here’s an example of a neglected content tone:

“Readability is important. Make your content readable; it’s better for SEO.”

A native speaker will roll their eyes reading that. It’s a little too on-the-nose and robotic. That’s something you would get if you ask Google translate to speak. You need your content to sound natural in the head of your reader.

So, how do we improve it? Let’s try to make it sound natural and fluent:

“Make your content readable, since easy-to-read content is better for SEO.”

The same context, but it flows much better. Instead of uneven breaking of the significant point, the importance of readability flows it in within a sentence, only using a comma.

It may not be ideal or the best sentence you’ve ever heard. However, that’s not the point. You’re not writing a novella; you’re writing something a native reader on the internet needs to comprehend.

• Informative value

Your content needs to feature high informative value. While it depends on the academic or SEO nature of your writing, you need to ensure the delivery of your content. So, how do you improve this?

Let’s take this sentence for example:

“A majority of content marketers used blog posts for online strategies.”

How much majority? When did they use it? While the sentence is trying to be informative, it’s giving nothing to back it up. Let’s wind back and try again:

“In 2020, more than 89% of marketers used blog posts for better online marketing.”

Rewriting this one sentence included everything at once, informative value, cited source, a natural flow, and better content tone.

This is what your priority should be, ensuring your readers grasp—without the struggle of finding anything out.

While the first sentence left the importance of blog posts dangling, the rewritten sentence improved and provided key information.

4.    Redefine your conclusion

The conclusion of your article needs to be definite and shouldn’t leave anything up to the reader’s interpretation.

It should join everything together and bring it full circle. So, if your intro has raised any questions, the conclusion should be where they need to settle.

So, if the conclusion is something like this:

“That’s how you write a good blog post. Keeping these four elements in mine, make your SEO blog stand out.”

Then it’s going to do no good since it’s basically repeating itself. You don’t need a moral-of-the-story type ending. You just need to make it full-circle. So, how will rewriting redefine a conclusion like this? Let’s try:

“These four elements are essential for helping a blog stand out in SERP ranks.
So, use these four tips to write an engaging blog post.”

Once again, the idea of rewriting the conclusion stemmed from the necessity of flowing it better. That’s what we tried, and upon rewriting it, we did make it better than the original.

Instead of the dangling subject, it leads with the topic’s essence. Then, it concludes the post with the headline’s issue— to write a blog that ranks.

5.    Remove plagiarism

You need to avoid plagiarism, and that’s one of the significant reasons writers need to rewrite. So, if you check for plagiarism in your content and you find a percentage of plagiarism, you need to get rid of it immediately.

So, if your original content happens to have some sort of plagiarism, then take it and rewrite it to avoid plagiarism. How do you do that? Let’s say this sentence is plagiarized:

“This SEO technique is good, and it will help you write better content.”

Phrases like that are common in the SEO world, and accidental plagiarism can happen. However, a few tweaks can help us avoid plagiarism in this sentence. So, let’s take the subject of this topic and rewrite it in our own words:

“This is a viable SEO technique, and it will ensure that your content becomes better.”

The content’s subject is the same, but a few words changed. A little tweak with the delivery ensured the content passed a plagiarism checker test.

6.    Improve the content tone

Improving the content tone is one good reason for an article rewrite to happen. Sometimes, the content itself can be flawless, with nothing seemingly wrong with it. However, the content tone might be a bit too difficult or too simple.

In Academic writing, the content tone needs to be advanced, professional, and somewhat creative.

The content tone needs to be simple, easily readable, and devoid of any intricate words or jargon in SEO writing.

So, when you rewrite existing content to change content tones, make sure you study and understand the various ways of delivery, including fluent, simple, advanced, or creative.

 This will help you know just what you need to improve your content’s tone.

7.    Cite your sources

Source citation might be one of the major problems with your initial content. It can be a cause of plagiarism and also misinformation.

 So, you need to cite your sources correctly. Let’s say you’re talking about San Francisco’s traffic in an article, such as this:

“The average traffic congestion in the city was around 70% two years ago.”

That sounds good in a conversation, but in an academic article, research paper, or SEO blog, you need to cite the information’s source. In an SEO article, it would be as simple as this:

“The average congestion of traffic in the city was 69% in 2019.”

It’s hyperlinked, and the reader will have to click the backlink to verify the legitimacy of your information. Now, in an academic or research paper, you’d do the same. However, you’ll add this at the bottom:

“TomTom Traffic Index. (2020). Third section: hourly congestion level.
— https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/traffic-index/san-francisco-traffic”

Voila! You’re done, and you’ve officially made your original article better in various ways.

Why is rewriting important?

Article rewrites happen all the time, in both professional and academic settings. In order to make content stand out, you need to make sure it’s covered on all ends. That’s something even the best pieces of content can miss sometimes.

Hence, they need rewrites—even if the rewrites aren’t whole. So, whether chunks or bits, rewrites can help with two major problems. Including:

• Rewriting helps deliver topics better

Even if a subject is compelling, there’s no guarantee that it will be outstanding in delivery. So, if you think you might have missed out on something, rewriting that content can be imperative. Not only to improve its performance but to ensure your idea gets across properly.

• Avoids plagiarism

As mentioned previously, content can feature plagiarism, accidentally or not. It’s an unethical practice and will bring down your article’s overall performance, academic or professional.

That’s when rewriting an essay is most convenient, as it can help you eliminate plagiarism from an article.

What is the role of artificial intelligence in rewriting?

Artificial intelligence helps writers every day—in many ways. From the word processors we use to plagiarism checkers & paraphrasers, the presence of AI makes life easier for writers everywhere. Here’s a typical example:

Even in a common program like MS Word, you can see the AI’s assistance marked in red. Now, let’s see how AI helps us paraphrase better.

Using a paraphrasing tool, we vastly improved the content tone—with the help of AI. Marked in red, you can see the changed content tone. While in green, you can see the additional AI-based tools you can use.

How should we rewrite texts?

One of the main purposes of rewriting is to make the content better than the original. So, if your content isn’t improving in quality after a rewrite, then you’re not doing it correctly. That’s why it’s important to focus on making it better than the original.

As mentioned before, improving the content tone, delivery, and flow of content need to be an essential in rewriting.

So, you have to prioritize such changes in content tone. Let’s say you need to make a simple piece of content advanced. Here’s how to do it:

• Simple:

“Writing a good article needs to be done with precision.
So, you have to make sure you have gathered your sources before you sit down to write.”

This isn’t a bad sentence by any stretch. It flows well and delivers the subject to the reader properly. However, this kind of content tone won’t precisely bode well in academic or advanced requirements. So, let’s improve it:

• Advanced/Formal:

“Precision is the most important factor when writing a good article.
One needs to ensure garnering all the resources before the commence formulating the final piece.”

You can see the content is much more formal than before—ideal for academic settings or dissertations.

How we should NOT rewrite texts?

Just as it’s crucial to understand how to rewrite, it’s also important to understand how NOT to rewrite texts. If original content is top-notch, you cannot do much to improve it. So, let’s say you’re rewriting something like this:

“You need to formulate a good article based on your sources.
That way, you will ensure the unique nature of your writing.”

Now, let’s rewrite it into something less acceptable:

“Formulate a good article with the sources that you have gathered.
To ensure the unique nature of your writing, employ this tactic.”

We have successfully butchered the sentence that was once flowing freely. That’s something you must avoid.

Moreover, suppose you take a sentence like that from the internet and rewrite it in a similar fashion. In that case, it will be considered patchwork—a severe form of plagiarism.

What texts usually require rewriting?

All types of written work require rewriting every now and then. In SEO articles, you might have to do some revisions if the original content had something amiss.

While rewrites in SEO articles tend to happen when the original piece doesn’t perform as well as expected.

In Academic settings, rewrites usually occur in case of lousy wording, phrases, or a failure of proper content delivery.

This causes a cascade of disappointment and disapproval from tutors. So, writing an academic essay depends on that.

However, the most common reason for rewriting in any setting is plagiarism. If any content has some sort of plagiarism, it needs removal—accidental or otherwise.

Which tool does it in an absolutely legitimate way?

Using a tool can help you ensure better content when rewritten. However, picking the right tool is essential. So, let’s use InstaText Text rewriter and see what we get:

You can see that we picked an “Advanced” tone for paraphrased content. Not only did it improve the content’s delivery, but it also improved it into a formal/advanced manner.

Conclusion

Article rewriting is a remarkable technique to help make the content better. So, your priority needs to be making it better than the original. And, using these techniques, you can ensure just that.

“InstaText doesn’t have a multitude of functions, and that’s the beauty of it. It only does what it claims to do, and that’s to help you write like a native speaker. And it does that in the best possible way.

The beauty of this tool is also that it doesn’t replace a human editor, although I can say it’s over 95% accurate. It doesn’t rob you of the joy of coming up with ideas and putting them into words. It just helps you write more confidently, easily, and quickly.”

— Elham P. Mohammadi, Freelance Journalist, Writer, and Editor

“InstaText is an excellent app that helps writing to be done rapidly to a high standard, while maintaining pace and momentum at the first draft and beyond.”

— Paul Jenkins, Film Director

“I switched from another software that did not help me write more like a native English speaker – it merely corrected typos, grammar, and punctuation. InstaText, on the other hand, makes your text engaging to read, coherent, and professional-looking.

Further, I feel that paragraphs corrected by InstaText look akin to what I see in top marketing and social psychology journals. It is a huge help for an academic writer because rather than focusing on making the text appealing, you can simply focus on what you want to say and build a logically unfolding narration.”

— Dr. Michał Folwarczny, Researcher