2.5: Paraphrasing Step 2 - Make It Your Own- Common Paraphrasing Strategies

The next step is to look at your explanation. How similar or different is it to the original passage? If it is already very different - while still conveying the same meaning - your paraphrase might be complete! However, if the vocabulary and grammar are still quite similar, you’ll have to keep working on it. Here are six strategies (which should always be used in combination) you can use to make your paraphrase your own:

A. Use Synonyms

One effective way to quickly put a passage in your own words is to replace those words with synonyms, or words that have the same meaning. Take a look at the example paraphrase from this chapter’s introduction. Some of the synonyms have been highlighted:

Quotation

Nicole Pajer points out in "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021" that social media is "driving wedges between families and friends over differing political views, keeping us glued to our phones all day long, and causing some to develop self-esteem issues from comparing their lives to other people’s virtual ones."

Paraphrase

In "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021," Nicole Pajer suggests that social media causes us to stare at our phones 24/7, argue with our loved ones over politics, and even have problems with self-confidence because we compare ourselves to others’ online selves.

Notice that one key phrase - social media - hasn’t been changed. That’s OK! When paraphrasing, you want to make sure the core meaning of the passage stays the same. This sometimes means keeping key words.

PRACTICE 1: Identifying Key Words and Synonyms
Highlight the synonyms you see in the quotation and paraphrase below. Underline the key word that has not changed.

Quotation

According to Don Anair, the research director of the UCS Clean Transportation Program, "There are opportunities for ride-hailing to be part of a low-carbon transportation future, with some concerted effort among ride-hailing companies, policymakers, and consumers alike."

Paraphrase

Don Anair, the research director of the UCS Clean Transportation Program, suggests that ride-hailing could produce fewer emissions in the years ahead if governmental organizations, companies like Uber and Lyft, and customers all work together.

B. Change Word Forms

We’ve talked about using synonyms to convey the author’s meaning. If the author’s word choice is key to the passage’s meaning, though - or if you’re having trouble finding an appropriate synonym - you might change the form of the word instead. Remember that each word in English has its own part of speech; it might be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or another kind of word like a conjunction or article. Don’t worry about those other kinds; we’ll just focus on the main four here.

Take a look at these examples of word families:

1. beauty
   beauty (n.) - His speech showed beauty.
   beautiful (adj.) - His speech was beautiful.
   beautifully (adv.) - He spoke beautifully.
   Notice how the three sentences above convey the same meaning while using different forms of the word beauty.

2. run
   run (n.) - We often see the track team go on a run around our neighborhood. run (v.) - We often see the track team run around our neighborhood.
   running (adj.) - We often see the running track team around our neighborhood.

Again, notice how these three sentences mean the same thing while using different forms of the word run.

PRACTICE 1: Identifying Word Forms
Highlight the different word forms you see in the quotation and paraphrase below:

Quotation

"It’s easy to imagine an alternate future where advanced machine capabilities are used to empower more of us, rather than control most of us," Tufekcki writes.

Paraphrase

Tufekci suggests that it’s not difficult to dream of a different future in which people use sophisticated machines to help humanity, with these machines empowering us instead of controlling us.

PRACTICE 2: Paraphrasing with Word Forms
Change the highlighted words to a different word form (for example, noun \(\rightarrow\) verb) to make a sentence with the same meaning.

1. Alex enjoys photographing their friends and family.
2. They find written assignments really challenging.
3. Cristina Hunger has taught her dog to communicate clearly.
4. Her book, How Stella Learned to Talk, is fascinating.

C. Modify Verbs

Another straightforward way to change a passage is to change the form of its verbs. For instance, you can change the tense (for example, past simple to present perfect or present simple to present continuous) or add a modal such as "can" or "might."

Again, see our example from Strategy 1. In addition to most of these words being synonyms, their verb forms are different:

Quotation

Nicole Pajer points out in "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021" that social media is "driving wedges between families and friends over differing political views, keeping us glued to our phones all day long, and causing some to develop self-esteem issues from comparing their lives to other people’s virtual ones."

Paraphrase

In "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021," Nicole Pajer suggests that social media causes us to stare at our phones \(24 / 7\), argue with our loved ones over politics, and even have problems with self-confidence because we compare ourselves to others’ online selves.

PRACTICE 1: Paraphrasing with Verb Forms

Highlight the changed verb forms you see in the quotation and paraphrase below.

Quotation

"The best way to avoid destructive conflict in the future is to continue the advance of our social ideals, which has already greatly reduced violence" (Kurzweil 28).

Paraphrase

Ray Kurzweil suggests that the ideal way of avoiding destructive conflict is continuing to make societal progress, which is already greatly reducing violence.

PRACTICE 2: Paraphrasing with Synonyms

Rewrite the paraphrase in Practice 1 using synonyms to make it even more different from the original passage.

D. Move Sentence Parts

Another paraphrasing strategy is to move parts of a sentence. You might rearrange a list of items or swap the order of clauses. Note the different placement of the highlighted phrases in the example below:

Quotation

According to Don Anair, the research director of the UCS Clean Transportation Program, "There are opportunities for ride-hailing to be part of a low-carbon transportation future, with some concerted effort among ride-hailing companies, policymakers, and consumers alike."

Paraphrase

Don Anair, the research director of the UCS Clean Transportation Program, suggests that ride-hailing could produce fewer emissions in the years ahead if governmental organizations, companies like Uber and Lyft, and customers all work together.

PRACTICE 1: Moving Sentence Parts

Highlight the rearranged elements you see in the quotation and paraphrase below.

Quotation

Emma Marris argues that "The climate change crisis is not going to be solved by personal sacrifice. It will be solved by electing the right people, passing the right laws, drafting the right regulations, signing the right treaties - and respecting those treaties already signed, particularly with indigenous nations."

Paraphrase

According to Emma Marris, we aren’t going to be able to fix climate change with individual changes. Rather, governmental organizations will be able to solve it by making and acknowledging official agreements (especially with indigenous nations), creating strong laws and regulations, and bringing in good elected officials.

E. Use Negative Forms/Opposites

Another way you can change a passage is by using words with the opposite meaning in order to make negative phrases positive and vice versa. Just make sure to keep the meaning the same; this can be tricky!

Note the use of negatives and opposites in the example below:

Quotation

Nicole Pajer points out in "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021" that social media is "driving wedges between families and friends over differing political views, keeping us glued to our phones all day long, and causing some to develop self-esteem issues from comparing their lives to other people’s virtual ones."

Paraphrase

In "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021," Nicole Pajer suggests that social media causes us to not get along with each other because of politics, stop doing other activities, and not feel positive about ourselves because we compare ourselves to other people.

Note too that in addition to changing positive clauses to negative ones, the writer has used synonyms; a good paraphrase uses multiple strategies.

PRACTICE 1: Identifying Negative Forms

Highlight the opposite forms you see in the quotation and paraphrase below.

Quotation

"It’s easy to imagine an alternate future where advanced machine capabilities are used to empower more of us, rather than control most of us," Tufekcki writes.

Paraphrase

Tufekci suggests that it’s not difficult to dream of a different future in which people use sophisticated machines to help humanity, with these machines empowering us instead of controlling us.

PRACTICE 2: Using Negative Forms

Paraphrase the sentences below, focusing on changing the negative forms to positive ones, and the positive forms to negative ones.

1. Our professor told us that it’s not a big deal to miss class from time to time, as long as we finish all of the required work.
2. Kaisong was confident that he was well-prepared for the presentation.

F. Combine or Separate Sentences

Yet another way to improve your paraphrase is to combine shorter sentences or break apart longer ones. Note this strategy in the example below:

Quotation (1 sentence)

Nicole Pajer points out in "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021" that social media is "driving wedges between families and friends over differing political views, keeping us glued to our phones all day long, and causing some to develop self-esteem issues from comparing their lives to other people’s virtual ones."

Paraphrase (divided into 3 sentences)

In "How to Have a Healthy Relationship with Social Media in 2021," Nicole Pajer suggests that social media causes us to not get along with each other because of politics. She says it also stops us from doing other activities. Pajer also points out that when we use social media we don’t feel good about ourselves because we compare ourselves to other people.

PRACTICE 1: Combining Sentences

Combine the two sentences in the quotation below to make one longer sentence.

Emma Marris argues that "The climate change crisis is not going to be solved by personal sacrifice. It will be solved by electing the right people, passing the right laws, drafting the right regulations, signing the right treaties - and respecting those treaties already signed, particularly with indigenous nations."