How to paraphrase

1. Paraphrasing

2. Questions
Answer the following questions in one sentence. Write down
your answers
1. How often do you exercise? (I ….)
2. What is your attitude toward smoking? (Smoking is…)
3. Why should junk food be banned in elementary schools?
(Junk food should be banned because…)
4. What are some things that cause stress? (The causes of
stress are…)
5. What are some ways to deal with stress? (To deal with
stress, people can…)
6. Why do you think it is difficult to have a healthy lifestyle in
the modern world? (It is difficult to have a healthy lifestyle
because…)

3. Paraphrase verbally
• Student A
Many people have heart problems
due to a lack of exercise.
• Student B
You believe that/you think that the
cause of heart problems is that
people don’t do enough exercise.

4. Paraphrase Verbally
1. Your partner and will take turns reading
your answers to each other
2. Paraphrase each other’s answers
Example
• Student A
Many people have heart problems due to
a lack of exercise.
• Student B
You believe that/you think that the cause
of heart problems is that people don’t do enough
exercise

6. What strategies do you use for
paraphrasing?

7. Guidelines for Paraphrasing
1. Change the structure or order of the sentence
and/or paragraph.
Many infectious diseases have disappeared
because of significant advances in medical research
in the past decade.
Many significant advances in medical research in
the past decade have make many infectious
diseases disappear.

8. Guidelines for Paraphrasing
2. Find appropriate synonyms.
Infectious diseases =
Disappeared =
Significant =
Advances =
Medical research =
Decade =
Since there have been considerable improvements in the
field of medicine in the past ten years, many communicable
diseases have ceased to exist.

9. Guidelines for Paraphrasing
3. Change active voice to passive and vice versa.
(note: this strategy is not always
possible or desirable)
Since there have been considerable improvements in the
field of medicine in the past ten years, many communicable
diseases have ceased to exist.
Since considerable improvements in the field of medicine
have been made in the past ten years, many communicable
diseases have ceased to exist.

10. Guidelines for Paraphrasing
4. Change word forms.
Since considerable improvements in the field of
medicine have been made in the past ten years,
many communicable diseases have ceased to exist.
Since medicine has improved considerably in the
past ten years, many communicable diseases have
ceased to exist.

11. Guidelines for Paraphrasing
• Now put all the strategies together:
Many infectious diseases have disappeared
because of significant advances in medical research
in the past decade.
Since medicine has improved considerably in the
past ten years, many communicable diseases have
ceased to exist.
 good paraphrase!

12. Your turn
1. The success of any company or organization depends almost
entirely on its most important resource: its workforce.
2. It is the people who make up an organization who ultimately
decide which revenue streams to pursue, how to deal with
rising costs, how to implement marketing programs and how
to monitor and sustain continued success and growth.
3. Degrees and grades are rarely a good indication of an
employee’s future success on the job.
4. One key indicator of success is the desire to learn and to
work hard.
5. Another indicator is possessing analytical skills. While it can
be advantageous to have someone who knows your product
on day one of his or her job, this does not amount for their
abilities to overcome challenges.

13. References
• Charania, R. (2015). Three key attributes of every great hire.
Retrieved from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-
business/small-business/sb-managing/human-
resources/three-key-attributes-of-every-great-
hire/article24748168/
• Gibbs, J. (2001). Tribes. A new way of learning and being
together. Center Source.
• Williams, J. (2013). Learning English for Academic Purposes.
Pearson.