🍀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 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.
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.👌
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.
@ieltswithmr_Sardor
