It's an all or nothing thing. When Google generates the SERPs it identifies any duplicate content, and if it finds any the one with the better overall metrics ranks while the other(s) don't show up at all. Rewriting by hand you shouldn't have a problem, but with any kind of automated method you're going to want a certain amount of uniqueness. By that same rule, you can actually straight up copy & paste content and outrank the original if you have stronger metrics. You have to consider the competition in terms of other metrics to decide if and how you're going to rewrite something and try to rank it.