6 Main Ways of Paraphrasing

 

🔹 Main Ways of Paraphrasing

1. Using Synonyms (Lexical Paraphrasing)

Replace words or phrases with their synonyms without changing the meaning.

• Original: Global warming is caused by excessive carbon emissions.

• Paraphrase: Global warming results from an overabundance of carbon emissions.

✅ Good: Maintains meaning and changes wording appropriately.
❌ Bad: Global warming is caused by too much carbon — (too informal and less academic).

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2. Changing the Sentence Structure (Syntactic Paraphrasing)

Alter the grammatical form of the sentence while keeping its meaning.

• Original: Scientists have discovered that pollution affects marine life.

• Paraphrase: It has been found by scientists that marine life is affected by pollution.

✅ Good: Same meaning, passive voice used correctly.
❌ Bad: Pollution is discovered by scientists to affect marine life — (awkward and unclear).

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3. Changing the Word Class (Nominalization or Verbalization)

Convert nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns, adjectives into adverbs, etc.

• Original: The government decided to reduce carbon emissions.

• Paraphrase: The government’s decision was to reduce carbon emissions.

✅ Good: Demonstrates lexical variety and grammatical change.
❌ Bad: The government do decision to reduce carbon emissions — (incorrect grammar).

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4. Using Different Sentence Patterns

Split long sentences or combine short ones to make them smoother or clearer.

• Original: The teacher encouraged the students to participate, and this increased their confidence.

• Paraphrase: Because the teacher encouraged participation, the students became more confident.

✅ Good: Logical cause-effect structure retained.
❌ Bad: The teacher made students confident and they participate — (unclear and grammatically poor).

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5. Changing the Voice (Active ↔ Passive)

Switching between active and passive voice when appropriate.

• Original: The company launched a new environmental campaign.

• Paraphrase: A new environmental campaign was launched by the company.

✅ Good: Same meaning, passive voice correctly used.
❌ Bad: The company was launching new environmental campaign — (verb tense error).

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6. Using Definition or Explanation

Instead of replacing words directly, explain their meaning in a different way.

• Original: Deforestation contributes to climate change.

• Paraphrase: The cutting down of trees plays a role in altering the Earth’s climate.

✅ Good: Rephrased naturally, meaning preserved.
❌ Bad: When trees are gone, climate changes — (too simplified and imprecise).

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🔹 Good vs. Bad Paraphrasing (Paragraph Example)

Original Paragraph:

Global warming refers to the gradual increase in Earth’s temperature due to greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, that trap heat in the atmosphere.

✅ Good Paraphrase:

Global warming is the slow rise in the planet’s temperature caused by heat-trapping gases, especially carbon dioxide, accumulating in the atmosphere.

Why it’s good:

• Uses synonyms (gradual increase → slow rise),

• Changes structure and wording,

• Preserves the original meaning.

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❌ Bad Paraphrase:

Global warming is the gradual increase in Earth’s temperature because of greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Why it’s bad:

• Only changes a few words (due to → because of),

• Copies the sentence structure,

• Too close to the original → counts as plagiarism.

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✅ Summary Table

Method	Description	Example of Change
Synonym substitution	Replace words with equivalents	excessive → overabundant
Sentence structure change	Alter grammar or syntax	active → passive
Word class change	Shift part of speech	decide → decision
Combine/split sentences	Adjust sentence length	two short → one complex
Voice change	Switch active/passive	launched → was launched
Explanation/definition	Restate idea with explanation	deforestation → cutting down trees