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Teaching Students to Paraphrase

Ideas for scaffolding paraphrasing so that students correctly learn this valuable but difficult-to-master skill.

When discussing text in the classroom, it’s tough for students to shift from utilizing an author’s words (copying) to accepting the challenge to express that author’s idea in their own words (paraphrasing).

But teaching effective paraphrasing is necessary because the use of paraphrasing facilitates important literacy skills : It encourages repeated reading, develops note-taking habits as students track quotes and outline text details, and expands vocabulary as they consider appropriate ways to describe the original text. The skill may seem daunting to students because it takes time to find the appropriate words to reshape a sentence, but that is time well spent.

We also need to teach paraphrasing, of course, so that students develop the skill set required to avoid committing plagiarism unintentionally .

Student Tools

One way to support students is to make them aware of tools that may help when they’re paraphrasing. Think of these as training wheels—students won’t use them forever.

Academic Phrasebank : Ready-made phrases help students organize their sentences when they paraphrase. The site provides sentence starters for defining ideas, comparing and contrasting ideas, describing cause and effect, and explaining evidence to support statements.

For instance, if a student were paraphrasing vocabulary word X, they would be able to find sentence starters such as “The word X encompasses...,” “The word X is challenging to define because...,” and “The word X is intended to....”

Ashford University Writing Center : This website has a five-item quiz to review the paraphrasing process. It allows students to identify examples and non-examples of paraphrasing for a given text.

When examining non-examples, students are shown how replacing or rearranging words is akin to copying and pasting on a computer. Students see examples of effective paraphrasing, including a change of sentence structure or personal elaboration combined with limited quoted information.

Tone Analyzer : This tool allows students to enter a brief sample from a text and receive an analysis of the tone. When using this tool, students can request an assessment of whether the text illustrates anger, joy, sadness, etc. In addition to these emotions, the website includes language descriptors such as confident (used to describe texts that use active voice and/or words such as will , must , etc.) or tentative (texts with words such as seems , appears , might , etc.). This tool is useful in helping students successfully align the tone of their paraphrased material with the tone of the original text.

Student Self-Check Prompts

Students should outgrow the tools above, and teachers can encourage that growth by showing them how to monitor their own progress with paraphrasing. Students can self-check to determine how on track with paraphrasing they are by asking themselves these questions:

• Can I identify elements of the text that are most significant (and thus appropriate to preserve) when I put it in my own words?
• Can I recite elements of the text from memory in order to prepare to put it into my own words?
• How can I adjust the sentence structure to preserve the meaning of the text?

Student Cautions

Because the journey to paraphrasing may involve a few hiccups, it’s a good idea to identify potential student challenges. When paraphrasing, remind students that they should:

• Attempt to describe the text in their own words gradually, one component at a time (thanks to Doug Lemov and Maggie Johnson for this close reading strategy). For instance, they might first use their own words to describe significant phrases in the reading, and then make an effort to explain one or two key sentences, and finally attempt to paraphrase an entire paragraph.
• Monitor the similarities between the text and the paraphrase. For instance, after describing specific sentences or paragraphs, they should note how many words are shared. Instead of using the same words as the author, focus on mirroring the same main idea. The Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning at Yale offers easy-to-follow models for how to achieve this.
• Ensure that there is a sufficient number of word substitutions in the paraphrased material. (Substituting only a couple of words could constitute plagiarism.) Students should focus on changing the structure of the sentence . This may involve converting a simple sentence to a compound sentence or adding a prepositional phrase.
• Avoid adjusting special language (acronyms, figurative language, jargon, etc.). These kinds of terms are considered common knowledge, so using them in a paraphrase doesn’t constitute plagiarism. Resources such as the Purdue Online Writing Lab can help students figure out whether a particular term is common knowledge.

Teachers can push students to move beyond copying by encouraging them to see paraphrasing as the go-to reading response. When we equip students with needed resources, we make student voice the rule instead of the exception.

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Paraphrase Games and Activities You Should Know

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Paraphrase games and activities teach your students to paraphrase without putting them to sleep. This article teaches and reinforces this skill in fun and exciting ways by using activities and games.

Students must sometimes find solutions or facts from what they’ve read and not merely duplicate the source. We call this “paraphrasing.”

Why does this matter? First, we want to make sure we don’t plagiarize, so we don’t use someone else’s work and call it our own. After rephrasing and rethinking, teachers need to hear what a student says to know if they understand.

Why Play Paraphrase Games?

Teachers must often hear students synthesize and rewrite words to evaluate if they grasp it. Most people aren’t born knowing how to paraphrase. These activities and games teach and reinforce paraphrase.

Most of us aren’t born knowing how to paraphrase, though. Use these games and activities to help your students learn and practice paraphrasing.

1. Paraphrasing Races

The teacher puts the students into groups and gives each group a sentence. They have three minutes to come up with as many different ways to say the sentence as they can. Each good way of putting it is worth one point. The winner is the team with the most points.

2. Fun Question and Answer

At its core, paraphrasing means rewriting something in your own words, so have students start by doing that. Split your students into pairs and ask them questions.

Questions like “What did you do yesterday after school?” Tell me your vacation plans etc.

• Student A gives a three- or four-sentence answer to the question.
• Student B rewrites what Student A said.
• Then, each pair changes roles.

You should show the class how to do this a few times before you start.

3. Quiz, Quiz, Trade Game

This is another version of the “Talk at First” Game. Start by:

• Giving each student a piece of paper with a sentence on it.
• Have students find partners.
• Student A says her sentence, and Student B rewrites it in his or her own words.

The students then switch places. Then, they trade cards and go on to find different partners.

4. The Use of Index Cards

Ask students to take something their parent or sibling says and put it in their own words. Send them home with two index cards. On one, have them write down the original idea and on the other, how they changed it. Share the next day in class.

5. Identify Me

Make index cards with samples of academic text, like a few sentences from your science or social studies book.

Instructions

Give each group both a set of sample text cards and a set of blank index cards. Have each group choose someone to be the first judge and someone else to be the reader.

The judge picks a ready-made card and reads it out loud. Then, the judge puts it in the middle of the group so that everyone can see it.

Everyone in the group (except the reader) rewrites the text in their own words and writes it on a blank index card.

The card is then put in the reader. The reader reads each quoted card aloud, and the judge tries to guess who authored it. Give points for each right answer. Switch roles and keep playing until all of the task cards are used up.

6. Paraphrase Together

Try rewriting a short paragraph as a whole class. Use your document, camera or write it on the board to show the paragraph. You might want to give each student a copy. Make sure your pupils are aware of the distinction between paraphrasing and summarizing . Talk about the different ways to do things.

The students are to use the Four R’s to paraphrase correctly.

Reword the sentences

• Students should try to reword the sentences. Use synonyms for words and phrases whenever you can.

Rearrange the sentences

• Students should be able to change the order of the words in a sentence to make a new sentence. They can even switch the order of the ideas in a paragraph.

Realize that s ome words are unchangeable

• Students should be aware that some words and phrases cannot be changed. Words such as names, dates, titles, etc., but they can be rephrased in a different way.

Recheck for same meaning

• Make sure that the meaning of your paraphrase is the same as the original.

Paraphrase games are a great way to practice and develop your paraphrasing skills . They provide a space to reflect on and improve on your writing skills as well as work on teamwork, and creativity.

With a bit of creative thinking and originality, these games provide a lot of possibility for unforgettable moments.

Pam is an expert grammarian with years of experience teaching English, writing and ESL Grammar courses at the university level. She is enamored with all things language and fascinated with how we use words to shape our world.

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Techniques for Paraphrasing

When you write a paraphrase, you restate other’s ideas in your own words. That is, you write the meaning of the author’s ideas. You use some of the author’s key terms, but you use many of your own words and sentence structures. You include in-text citation, including the author’s last name and (for APA style) the year of publication.

An effective paraphrase includes more than one of the following techniques. If you use only one of these techniques when paraphrasing, you have not paraphrased effectively.  

• Change a word from one part of speech to another

Original:  Medical professor John Swanson says that global changes are influencing the spread of disease.

Paraphrase:  According to John Swanson, a professor of medicine, changes across the globe are causing diseases to spread (James, 2004).

• Use synonyms

Original:  The U.S. government declared that the AIDS crisis poses a national security threat.  The announcement followed an intelligence report that found high rates of HIV infection could lead to widespread political destabilization.

Paraphrase: The government of the United States announced that AIDS could harm the nation's security.  The government warned the population after an important governmental study concluded that political problems could result from large numbers of people infected with HIV (Snell, 2005).

• Change numbers and percentages to different forms

Original: Minority groups in the United States have been hit hardest by the epidemic.  African Americans, who make up 13 percent of the U.S. population, accounted for 46 percent of the AIDS cases diagnosed in 1998.

Paraphrase: The AIDS epidemic has mostly affected minorities in the United States.  For example, in 1998, less than 15 percent of the total population was African, but almost half of the people diagnosed with AIDS in the United States that year were African America (Jenson, 2000).

• Change word order:  this might include changing from active to passive voice or moving modifiers to different positions.  

Original: Angier (2001) reported that malaria kills more than one million people annually, the overwhelming majority of them children in sub-Saharan Africa.

Paraphrase: Every year, more than a million people are killed by malaria, and most of the victims are children who live in sub-Saharan Africa (Angier, 2001).

    5. Use different definition structures

Original: Lyme disease is an inflammatory disease caused by a bacterium transmitted by ticks (small bloodsucking arachnids that attach themselves to larger animals). The disease is usually characterized by a rash followed by flu-like symptoms, including fever, joint pain, and headache.

Paraphrase: Lyme disease-a disease that causes swelling and redness-is caused by a bacterium carried by a small arachnid known as a tick. The ticks attach to and suck the blood of animals and humans, transferring some of the Lyme disease bacteria into their hosts and causing symptoms similar to the flu (Wald, 2005).

    6. Use different attribution signals

Original: “That’s because there are so many different ways the diseases could have arrived,” veterinarian Mark Walters declared in his recent book, Six Modern Plagues.

Paraphrase: According to Mark Walters, a veterinarian who wrote Six Modern Plagues, the disease could have arrived in numerous ways (Peterson, 2004).

   7. Change the sentence structure and use different connecting words

Original:  Although only about one-tenth of the world’s population lives there, sub-Saharan Africa remains the hardest hit region, accounting for 72 percent of the people infected with HIV during 2000.

Paraphrase: Approximately 10 percent of the world’s population resides in sub-Saharan Africa.  However, this area of the world has the highest percentage of AIDS-related illnesses.  In fact, in 2000, almost three-fourths of the population had the HIV virus (Bunting, 2004).

Caution:  When paraphrasing, do not change key terms or proper nouns.

Original: In the northeastern United States, people are building homes on the edge of woods, where ticks that carry Lyme disease hitch rides on deer.  In addition, in Africa, hunters bring back the meat of animals that scientists think may transmit Ebola, a usually fatal disease that causes massive hemorrhaging in its victims.

Paraphrase: In the United States, residential areas are being built near wooded areas in the northeast. These areas are also the homes of ticks carrying Lyme disease.  Also, according to scientists, hunters in Africa kill animals that may carry the Ebola virus (an often fatal virus that causes massive hemorrhaging) (Yaya, 2004).

Schuemann, C., Bryd, P., & Reid, J. (2006). College Writing 4 (1st ed.). USA: Heinle/ELT. Reproduced by permission .

Paraphrasing Exercises with Answers

Paraphrasing is one of the most accessible tools in the English language that allows you to create original content from scratch. With the help of this article paraphrasing exercises with answers you will do better at paraphrasing. Anyone can do a little bit of research of their own online and comfortably talk about their findings to make new articles or produce a research report. The scale of paraphrasing is quite an importance in the life of anyone who is into writing a lot of stuff. It is an acquired Academic skill which can be perfected with the help of some practice.

If you are someone who has to write content in your day to day life regularly, then using a reword tool along with the art of paraphrasing would help you to produce better articles.

Related Article: Summarizing and Paraphrasing Examples

Many of our readers have asked us about how one can get better at paraphrasing articles. The answer to that comes from the simple saying of practice makes perfect.

ABOUT PARAPHRASING

Paraphrasing can be put into simple words by just saying that it is the procedure of rewording information. It involves researching multiple sources online, and when one puts their understanding of the subject into their own words, It is known as paraphrasing. You may want to read this article – the meaning of paraphrasing .

HOW TO GET BETTER AT PARAPHRASING

To get better at paraphrasing specific rules and regulations need to be followed while trying to create your content. Following these basic necessary steps would help you get better at paraphrasing.

• Read the text thoroughly to understand it.
• When you feel that now you have enough knowledge about the subject, try to write a paraphrase about it.
• Speak your thoughts out while writing a paraphrase to write it better.
• Repeat steps 1 to 3 if you forget any essential topics from the original passage.
• After completing your paraphrase read the source material to confirm all topics have been mentioned in your paraphrase.

Here are a few paraphrasing exercises that would help you to practice your newly acquired paraphrasing skills.

Paraphrasing Exercises

1) Condenser microphones have been a part of society for a long time now. Because of their fantastic sound quality that has been little to no innovation in the mic industry for over 30 years now. The basics of condenser mic have remained the same which allow countless many new manufacturers to create great mic for low prices. One such example of this comes from China where the patent laws are quite loose. Now anyone can buy a decent condenser mic just under the price of a pizza.

2) Albert Einstein is one of the most influential scientific figures in recent history. His theory of black holes was just confirmed a few days ago when the first picture of a black hole was photographed. It is incredible how such an influential scientific figure once had to turn down a task much more significant than him. In 1952 Einstein was offered the role of the Israeli President since he had been considered as the best Jew in the world. The ironical part about this was that Albert Einstein wasn’t even Israeli, to begin with.

1) The microphone industry has been using the same technology involved in making condensers for over 30 years. A condenser mic has an impressive sound quality and has been in the market for a long time. The procedure, as well as the mechanics involved in making a condenser mic, has remained the same allowing new businesses to produce mics with competitive pricing. China is a leading hub of microphone manufacturing because of the non-existent labor laws.

2) Scientist and influencer Albert Einstein are one of the most historic figures. Because of his theories, we now know more about space than ever. Even without having adequate resources Einstein theorized the existence of black holes which have been recently photographed by space researchers. What we don’t know about the man is that he was once offered the job of leading the nation of Israel in 1952. Even though Einstein was not Israeli, he still had positive ratings in the country as he was considered one of the best Jewish men in the world.

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This AI-powered paraphrasing tool lets you rewrite text in your own words. Use it to  paraphrase articles, essays, and other pieces of text. You can also use it to rephrase sentences and find synonyms for individual words. And the best part? It’s all 100% free!

What is paraphrasing?

Paraphrasing involves expressing someone else’s ideas or thoughts in your own words while maintaining the original meaning. Paraphrasing tools can help you quickly reword text by replacing certain words with synonyms or restructuring sentences. They can also make your text more concise, clear, and suitable for a specific audience. Paraphrasing is an essential skill in academic writing and professional communication. 

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• Fluency: Improves language and corrects grammatical mistakes

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The paraphrasing tool uses natural language processing to rewrite any text you give it. This way, you can paraphrase any text within seconds.

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Want to make sure your document is plagiarism-free? In addition to our paraphrasing tool, which will help you rephrase sentences, quotations, or paragraphs correctly, you can also use our anti-plagiarism software to make sure your document is unique and not plagiarized.

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1. put your text into the paraphraser, 2. select your method of paraphrasing, 3. select the quantity of synonyms you want, 4. edit your text where needed, who can use this paraphrasing tool.

Paraphrasing tools can help students to understand texts and improve the quality of their writing. 

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Frequently asked questions

The act of putting someone else’s ideas or words into your own words is called paraphrasing, rephrasing, or rewording. Even though they are often used interchangeably, the terms can mean slightly different things:

Paraphrasing is restating someone else’s ideas or words in your own words while retaining their meaning. Paraphrasing changes sentence structure, word choice, and sentence length to convey the same meaning.

Rephrasing may involve more substantial changes to the original text, including changing the order of sentences or the overall structure of the text.

Rewording is changing individual words in a text without changing its meaning or structure, often using synonyms.

It can. One of the two methods of paraphrasing is called “Fluency.” This will improve the language and fix grammatical errors in the text you’re paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing and using a paraphrasing tool aren’t cheating. It’s a great tool for saving time and coming up with new ways to express yourself in writing.  However, always be sure to credit your sources. Avoid plagiarism.  

If you don’t properly cite text paraphrased from another source, you’re plagiarizing. If you use someone else’s text and paraphrase it, you need to credit the original source. You can do that by using citations. There are different styles, like APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago. Find more information about citing sources here.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas in your own words.

So when does paraphrasing count as plagiarism?

• Paraphrasing is plagiarism if you don’t properly credit the original author.
• Paraphrasing is plagiarism if your text is too close to the original wording (even if you cite the source). If you directly copy a sentence or phrase, you should quote it instead.
• Paraphrasing  is not plagiarism if you put the author’s ideas completely in your own words and properly cite the source .

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Paraphrasing at B2 First: or to put it another way…

by Roy Norris in Blogs & Articles

In this article, Roy Norris looks at paraphrasing in the Cambridge B2 First exam and shows how teachers can provide practice in this important subskill.

Paraphrasing in all four papers

When students are preparing for the Cambridge B2 First exam, there is a clear case for them to learn to express the same idea in a number of different ways , or in other words, to convey the same message in more than one way using a range of words and expressions , or indeed, to put it another way, to employ a variety of lexis and structures to communicate the same meaning. Paraphrasing is a skill which is tested, of course, in the Key Word Transformation exercise in the Reading and Use of English paper, but it is also very relevant in each and every one of the other three papers.

The five sentences from eight (A-H) which constitute the answers in Part 3 of the Listening paper, the multiple-matching task, often paraphrase the words of the speakers in the five short monologues. This may also be true of the questions in the multiple-matching task of the Reading and Use of English paper, Part 7. For the Speaking paper, we are encouraged, in the Cambridge English Qualifications: B2 First Handbook for teachers, to train students ‘to paraphrase when they do not know, or cannot remember, a word’. And in the Writing paper, students should avoid repetition and use a range of structures and vocabulary.

So, given the importance of paraphrasing throughout the B2 First exam, what can we as teachers do in our classes to develop this skill in our students? Firstly, there are certain activities which are specifically suited to some of the task-types mentioned above.

In Roy’s brand new course, Ready for B2 First, you will find new listening and reading texts with updated topics and tasks which make the course more contemporary and relevant to students' lives.

Preparing for Listening Part 3

Before tackling a Part 3 Listening task, for example, students could consider at least one alternative way of expressing the general idea contained in each of the eight sentences (A-H). ‘I don’t really care what clothes I wear’, might be expressed as ‘ I don’t mind what I put on’ or ‘I pick out the first shirt I come across in my drawer - it’s just not important to me.’ This type of prediction task will help prepare students for what they might hear in the recording and, whilst they may not have time to do this for all eight sentences in the actual exam (they are given just 30 seconds to read them), it provides valuable practice in the skill of paraphrasing. Then, once they have completed the listening task and are checking their answers, students can refer to the script and compare their own predictions with what the speakers actually say.

Paraphrasing unknown or forgotten words

The game of Taboo provides useful practice for the Speaking paper, as players have to define or explain certain items of vocabulary to each other without mentioning them, thus simulating situations in which they ‘do not know, or cannot remember, a word’. The task is made more challenging, and hopefully entertaining, by providing five further words which students cannot include in their definitions. The target item bake , for example, might be written on a card and accompanied by the following five words which must not be used: cake, oven, cook, potato, bread . Taboo is commercially available, but cards can easily be made by teachers and used to revise previously seen vocabulary.

Overused words

Students are often called upon in both the Speaking and the Writing papers to discuss how important, interesting, difficult or useful something might be. It is important (!) therefore, that we ensure they have a range of adjectives at their disposal to express these very common concepts without repeating themselves.  An exercise such as the following might be useful (!); it includes synonyms for the four adjectives already mentioned, as well as a number of other common words which are often repeated by students.

Avoiding repetition

In each sentence 1 - 8 , complete the gaps with two words which have a similar meaning to the word which has been underlined.

absorbing       attractive       bothered        concerned      dull                

essential         fascinating     tricky             glad                helpful        indispensable

hard                pleased           practical        picturesque    tedious           

1 It’s important to bring warm clothes, and a good pair of boots is _________ / _________.

2 I’ve just a really interesting book; the story’s _________ / ________ and it held my attention from start to finish.

3 I found the homework difficult. Everyone else found it _________ / _________, too.

4 Thanks for the useful tips. The advice you gave me is very _________ / __________.

5 I was very happy with the party. Are you _________ / _________ you came?

6 My cousin lives in a beautiful house in a very _________ / _________ village.

7 Paul was worried about the exam, but no one else seemed _________ / _________.

8 History lessons at my school are boring, and maths is just as _________ / _________.

You could then ask students to add one of the following, or similar adjectives to each group:

challenging      crucial     delighted      handy      intriguing      monotonous       stunning       troubled

1 essential, indispensable + crucial   2 absorbing, fascinating + intriguing

3 tricky, hard + challenging              4 helpful, practical + handy  

5 glad, pleased           + delighted                6 attractive, picturesque + stunning

7 bothered, concerned            + troubled      8 dull, tedious + monotonous

An integrated approach

In addition to activities with specific papers or task-types in mind, general work on paraphrasing can be integrated into any lesson throughout an exam preparation course, using suitable texts from your coursebook. These could include reading texts, listening scripts, model writing answers, or Use of English texts. The following extracts are taken from different speakers in a Part 1 Listening:

1 It’s not like him to talk much about his plans.

2 Everyone went out of their way to help me.

3 It doesn’t matter how tall or short you are.

You could deal with this orally and, with books open at the script, ask students to underline the target sentences and express each one in a different way. Or you could prepare a written exercise beforehand, giving students alternative versions of the target sentences and asking them to find each one in the script. For example:

Find the sentences in the script which mean the following:

1 He doesn’t usually say a lot about what he’s going to do.

2 They all made a big effort to be helpful.

3 Your height isn’t important.

Student records and revision

Either way, each pair – the target sentence and its paraphrase – should be recorded in the students’ vocabulary notebooks, preferably alongside each other, rather than one above the other. This then becomes a useful tool for revision; students can cover up the target sentences and try to remember them, looking only at the paraphrases, or vice versa.

You can also very easily provide your own revision exercises. These can take the form of Key word transformations, thus providing valuable exam practice as well as showing students the direct link between what they learn in class and how it might be tested in the exam. For example:

Use between two and five words to complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence. You must use the word in capital letters.

1 He doesn’t say a lot about what he’s going to do.

It’s …………………………… talk much about his plans.

Everyone …………………………… to help me.

If you feel that your sentence pairs do not lend themselves very well to the exam format, you could create an exercise in which students simply have to ‘complete each gap with one word so that the second sentence has the same meaning as the first’.

Your …………. isn’t important.

1 not like him to

2 went out of their way

The teacher’s role

As the Handbook for teachers says: ‘ The ability to express a message in a different way shows flexibility and resource in the use of language’. It’s up to us as teachers to ensure that our students have sufficient practice in this important subskill in order both to develop their language resources and to prepare them for the B2 First exam. Or to put it another way, it’s our job to make sure our students get enough practice in paraphrasing to help build their language skills and get them ready for B2 First.

Cambridge English Qualifications: B2 First Handbook for Teachers (April 2019), Cambridge Assessment English

https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/

About the Author

Roy Norris worked for many years as a teacher and teacher trainer at IH Madrid, and also spent nearly two years as Director of Studies in Vilnius, Lithuania. He has been writing for Macmillan since 1999, and is the author of Ready for B2 First (now in its 4th edition), Straight to First and Straightforward Advanced, and co-author of Ready for Advanced.

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