IELTS Writing Paraphrasing Guide

Paraphrasing helps to achieve high lexical resource band score in  IELTS Speaking and Writing module. This guide shows what paraphrasing is and how to best use it in your essays, letters, reports and cue-cards.

1. What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing is when you express a written or spoken text in a different way whilst maintaining the same meaning.

Simply put, this means that you need to rephrase a given text in your own words, without changing the overall meaning. This helps you to avoid plagiarism which is when you repeat information that someone has produced as if it is your own work.

Paraphrasing not only shows that you understand the meaning  of an IELTS topic, but also allows you to demonstrate your command of the English language.

2. Why is paraphrasing important in IELTS writing?

Paraphrasing is an essential skill if you want to score high IELTS band score and is important for each section of the exam (reading, listening and speaking), but especially  important for writing.

In IELTS writing tasks 1 and 2 you will always be given an IELTS statement which you need to paraphrase in your introduction. This is demonstrating to the examiner that you have understood the meaning of the statement, and that you have the English language skills to put the statement in your own words.

You will also need to paraphrase yourself at points in the essay to avoid repetition, for example, when you are restating the main ideas of your essay in your writing task 2 conclusion.

Test takers that simply copy the IELTS statement or repeat their ideas in the same way will likely receive a lower score in the written component of the exam.

As paraphrasing is a skill, it needs to be practised so read on for some common mistakes to avoid and tips to follow to paraphrase effectively.

3. Common paraphrasing mistakes made in IELTS writing

3.1 Over-paraphrasing

One major mistake made by candidates is that they try to change every word of a given statement. You should never change every word as you will likely lose the overall meaning of the statement. In fact, there are some words that may not have a suitable synonym and should remain the same. If you over paraphrase, your writing will sound forced and unnatural. You are also more likely to produce mistakes in your writing.

3.2. Sentence length

Test takers that paraphrase unsuccessfully often create very long and overly wordy sentences. If your sentence becomes too long, think about how you can break it up by using punctuation, starting a new sentence, or by creating a new clause. Imagine that you are the reader and read your paraphrase back to yourself to check if it is an appropriate length and flows nicely.

4. How to paraphrase effectively

4.1. Using synonyms and antonyms

A synonym is a word or phrase that has the same meaning (or a very similar meaning) to another word or phrase (like happy and cheerful).

An antonym is a word or phrase with the opposite meaning of another, for example, good and bad.

Using synonyms and antonyms is one way to create your paraphrase.

Here are some examples of synonyms:

Original:
Art is considered an essential part of all cultures around the world.

Paraphrase:
Art is considered a fundamental part for civilisations around the globe.

And some examples of antonyms:

Original:
With the development of modern society is the loss of traditional ways of life.

Paraphrase:
With the decline of modern society is the improvement of traditional ways of life.

Sometimes test takers make the mistake of trying to use synonyms for every word. This will make your paraphrase sound unnatural and forced. Take a look at this (bad) example:

Original:
Art is considered an essential part of all cultures around the world.

Paraphrase:
Craft is treated as an imperative element of entire civilisations over the globe.

Take a look at our guide on the importance of paraphrasing in IELTS writing for even more tips and examples!

4.2. Modifying the sentence structure

In addition to using synonyms/antonyms, you could also change the sentence structure in some way. This is a bit more tricky than using synonyms as it not only requires you to use your lexical (vocabulary) knowledge, but also your grammatical knowledge.

You have to make sure that your paraphrase is grammatically accurate after you make any changes.

Take a look at what we’ve done here:

Original:
As computers translate quickly and accurately, learning languages is a waste of time.

Paraphrase:
Some people now consider language learning irrelevant since computers are able to translate language so efficiently.

In this example we have changed the subject of the sentence, used a range of synonyms and added a linking device ‘since’ to create a compound sentence.

4.3. Using the active or passive voice

Changing a sentence from the active to passive or the passive to active can increase your score in Grammatical range and accuracy while you paraphrase.

Using the passive voice allows you to shift the focus from the ‘do-er’ of the sentence to the object. It also allows you to avoid overusing the first person ‘I’ which should be completely avoided in writing task 1 and kept to a minimum in task 2.

Here’s a brief overview of how to form the passive:

4.4. Changing word forms

Being able to change the form of a word is another skill you can use to paraphrase. You can change a word class in the following ways:

Here are some more examples:

5. Paraphrasing practice

5.1 Sample Paraphrasing Guide