2023-03-14 07:29:01
Paraphrasing is an essential IELTS skill. This post will show you how to paraphrase effectively.
Paraphrasing is simply re-writing a phrase or sentence so that it has the same meaning but with different words. Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn before doing your IELTS test. It is most important for writing and speaking, but will also help you in the reading and listening tests. In other words, if you know how to paraphrase, you are more likely to get the score you need.
The mental processes required to paraphrase will also help you to fully understand the question, and this is one of the reasons I tell my students to begin all of their answers in the writing test by paraphrasing the question.
Let’s look at an example.
Example: Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn before doing your IELTS test.
Paraphrased: Before taking the IELTS test, mastering paraphrasing is one of the most crucial things to do.
As you can see, the second sentence (paraphrased sentence) uses synonyms to change some vocabulary (e.g., ‘important’ for ‘crucial’ and ‘’prior’’ to ‘before’ and changes the grammar (e.g., Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills” for “mastering paraphrasing”). You can also change the word order.
You should use these three main methods in the IELTS test to paraphrase sentences. Ideally, you should try to use all three, but sometimes two will only be possible.
We will now look at each method in detail and also have a look at the passive.
Method Number 1: Using Synonyms
Synonyms are different words that have the same meaning. For example, ‘humans’ is a synonym for ‘people’ and ‘attractive’ is a synonym for ‘beautiful’. This method replaces words with the same meaning to produce a new sentence.
For example:
My car needs petrol.
My vehicle requires fuel.
As you can see, I have replaced 3 out of four words with synonyms to produce a new sentence with the same meaning as the first one. You will notice that I didn’t replace all of the words, but you should try to replace most of them.
This is the most common method that students use, and it can be used effectively, but you should be careful.
Violent crime is on the rise among teenagers.
Violent offences are rising among young people.
This student has changed the word ‘teenagers’ to ‘young people’. They are similar words, and teenagers are, of course, young people; however, children and young adults, aged between 18-30, could also be described as young people. A more term would be ‘adolescents’ or ‘young people between the ages of 13-19.’ A better way to paraphrase this sentence would therefore be:
Violent offences are rising among adolescents.
You should, therefore, only use words you are 100% sure about. Don’t change a word unless you are 100% sure that it is a direct synonym. Otherwise, you are likely to make mistakes, which will lower your score.
Let’s look at another good example:
Global warming is mostly caused by emissions from internal combustion engines.
Climate change is mainly caused by the release of fumes from motor vehicles.
Method Number 2: Change the Word Order
Changing the word order also allows us to effectively paraphrase a sentence, but again, we have to be careful. Don’t change the word order without thinking about how this affects the grammar of the sentence. By changing the word order, you may have to add a word, subtract a word or change the form of the word.
The 100% rule applies again; don’t change it if you are not 100% sure it is grammatically correct. Remember that you are judged on your ability to produce error-free sentences in the IELTS test and use a range of grammar structures.
Fortunately, there are two straightforward ways to change the word order in most IELTS questions.
You can easily change the order of the clauses if the original sentence has more than one clause.
12 viewsBehruz, 04:29
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