How to Paraphrase in the
IELTS Test
1. Question Analysis
You must first understand the question to know exactly
what the examiner is looking for. One of the biggest
mistakes students make is not answering the question
properly. If you do not answer the question fully, you can’t
score higher than a Band 5.
In order to do this you must first identify the question
type, then identify the keywords in the question and
finally identify the instructions words in order to find out
what the examiner wants you to do with the question. We
will look at these skills in more detail below.
2. Planning
The students who get the highest marks plan before they
write and they often plan for up to 10 minutes. Planning
helps you organise your ideas and structure before you
write, saving you time and helping you write a clear essay.
3. Introduction
The introduction should tell the examiner what the rest of
the essay is about and also answer the question directly.
This tells the examiner that you know what you are doing
straight away and helps you write your main body
paragraphs.
4. Main Body Paragraphs
This is where you give the examiner more detail. You do
this by stating your main points and supporting these with
explanations and relevant examples.
5. Conclusion
Here you provide a summary of what you have already
said in the rest of the essay.
That’s it you’re done!
Method Number 1: Using Synonyms
Synonyms are different words that have the same
meaning. For example, ‘humans’ is a synonym of ‘people’
and ‘attractive’ is a synonym of ‘beautiful’. This method
simply replaces words with the same meaning in order 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. The
biggest mistake students make is trying to paraphrase
and the word having a similar meaning, but not the same
meaning. Similar meanings are not good enough and will
lose you marks. Let’s look at some examples of poor
paraphrasing because of using similar instead of the same
meanings.
Violent crime is on the rise among teenagers.
Violent offences are rising among young people.
This student has changed the word ‘teenagers’ for ‘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 and this will bring down 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 being judged on your ability to produce error free
sentences in the IELTS test as well as use a range of
grammar structures.
Fortunately, there are two straightforward ways we can
change the word order in most IELTS questions.
1 You can easily change the order of the clauses, if the
original sentence has more than one clause.
Question: As languages such as Spanish, Chinese and
English become more widely used, there is a fear that that
many minority languages may die out.
Paraphrased by changing word order: There is a fear that
many minority languages may die out, as languages such
as Spanish, Chinese and English become more widely
used.
We could also add some synonyms to paraphrase it even
more:
Paraphrased with changing word order AND synonyms:
There is dismay that many lesser used languages may
pass away, as languages such as Chinese, English and
Spanish become more broadly spoken.
2 You can also change the word order if there is an
adjective or noun in the question. You do this by
simply changing the adjective into a relative clause.
Question: Learning to manage money is one of the key
aspects to adult life.
Paraphrased using a relative clause: Learning to manage
money is one of the aspects to adult life that is key.
Method Number 3: Change the Form of the Word
There are many different forms of words including nouns,
verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Changing the form of a
word allows us to paraphrase effectively. Again, don’t just
change the form of the word; you also need to check that
your changes make grammatical sense. You might need to
change the words around it to make the sentence error
free.
Question: Longer life spans and improvements in the
health of older people suggest that people over the age of
sixty-five can continue to live full and active lives.
Paraphrased by changing word form: Longer life spans
and improvements in the health of older people are
suggesting that people over the age of sixty-five can
continue living full and active lives.
Method Number 4: Change from Active to Passive
The passive voice is often used in academic writing and
can therefore be used in the IELTS academic writing test.
Only verbs with an object can be turned into the passive.
Example active sentence: The property developers
invested $20 million in the development of the shopping
centre.
Example passive sentence: $20 million was invested in
the development of shopping centres.
We often use the passive voice in academic writing when
we don’t want to say it is our opinion.
Example active: People say that global warming is
caused by the burning of fossil fuels.
Example passive: Global warming is said to be caused
by the burning of fossil fuels.
How many of these methods should I use?
The four methods can be used independently or together. I
advise my students to try and change the grammar (word
order and/or word form) and use synonyms. Remember
only use the methods you feel 100% comfortable using and
that you are sure your work is error free.
Next Steps
These paraphrasing methods will only help you in the
IELTS exam if you practice using them. Find some
example writing questions and try paraphrasing them
using these methods. You can use the methods individually
and then combine them. Try all of them to see what works
for you. If you practice enough you will begin to see
patterns in the questions and common words and phrases
will become easy for you to change.
If you want to see examples of paraphrasing simply use
Google. If you Google certain keywords, lots of articles
will come up on the same topic. By comparing these you
will be able to see how different writers have expressed
the same ideas.
