How to Paraphrase in the IELTS Test

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Paraphrasing is an essential IELTS skill. This post will show you how to paraphrase effectively.

Paraphrasing is simply re-writing a phrase or sentence so that it has the same meaning but with different words.
Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn before doing your IELTS test. It is most important for writing and
speaking, but will also help you in the reading and listening tests. In other words, if you know how to paraphrase, you are
more likely to get the score you need.

The mental processes required to paraphrase will also help you to fully understand the question, and this is one of the
reasons I tell my students to begin all of their answers in the writing test by paraphrasing the question.

Let’s look at an example.

Example: Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills to learn before doing your IELTS test.

Paraphrased: Before taking the IELTS test, mastering paraphrasing is one of the most crucial things to do.

As you can see, the second sentence (paraphrased sentence) uses synonyms to change some vocabulary (e.g., ‘important’ for
‘crucial’ and ‘’prior’’ to ‘before’ and changes the grammar (e.g., Paraphrasing is one of the most important skills” for
“mastering paraphrasing”). You can also change the word order.

You should use these three main methods in the IELTS test to paraphrase sentences. Ideally, you should try to use all three,
but sometimes two will only be possible.

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 for ‘people’ and ‘attractive’
is a synonym for ‘beautiful’. This method replaces words with the same meaning 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.

Violent crime is on the rise among teenagers.

Violent offences are rising among young people.

This student has changed the word ‘teenagers’ to ‘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, which will lower 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
judged on your ability to produce error-free sentences in the IELTS test and use a range of grammar structures.

Fortunately, there are two straightforward ways to change the word order in most IELTS questions.

1. 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 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.

2. 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 of adult life.

Paraphrased: Learning to manage money is a key aspect of adult life.

Method Number 3: Change the Form of the Word

There are many different forms of words, including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Changing the form of a word allows
us to paraphrase effectively. Again, don’t just change the form of the word; you also need to check that your changes make
grammatical sense. You might need to change the words around it to make the sentence error-free.

Question: Longer life spans and improvements in the health of older people suggest that people over the age of
sixty-five can continue to live full and active lives.

Paraphrased by changing word form: Longer life spans and improvements in the health of older people are
suggesting that people over the age of sixty-five can continue living full and active lives.

Method Number 4: Change from Active to Passive

The passive voice is often used in academic writing and can therefore be used in the IELTS academic writing test. Only verbs
with an object can be turned into passive.

Example active sentence: The property developers invested $20 million in the development of the shopping centre.

Example passive sentence: $20 million was invested in the development of shopping centres.

We often use the passive voice in academic writing when we don’t want to say it is our opinion.

Example active: People say that global warming is caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

Example passive: Global warming is said to be caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

How many of these methods should I use?

The four methods can be used independently or together. I advise my students to try and change the grammar (word order
and/or word form) and use synonyms. Remember only use the methods you feel 100% comfortable using and ensure your
work is error-free.

Next Steps

These paraphrasing methods will only help you in the IELTS exam if you practice using them. Find some example writing
questions and try paraphrasing them using these methods. You can use the methods individually and then combine them.
Try all of them to see what works for you. If you practice enough, you will begin to see patterns in the questions, and
common words and phrases will become easy for you to change.

If you want to see examples of paraphrasing, use Google. Many articles will appear on the same topic if you Google certain
keywords. By comparing these, you will be able to see how different writers have expressed the same ideas.
 ELTS Task 1- How to Write an Overview
Home » IELTS Blog » IELTS Task 1- How to Write an Overview

The overview is probably the most important paragraph in the whole essay. In fact, as we will see later in this post, it is very
difficult to score 7 or above without a good one.

An overview is simply a summary of the main or most important points in a graph, chart, process or map. It is normally 2-3
sentences long and should be the second paragraph you write in your essay. As we will see below, it also influences what
you write in the rest of your essay.

Learn how to write a good one, and you are much more likely to get a high score.

What does the examiner want?

An overview is one of the first things an examiner looks for because it shows them that you can identify the most important
information from the graph or chart and clearly identify overall trends and comparisons.

If we look at the official marking scheme, we can see that the word ‘overview’ is mentioned three times:

This means that to get at least a 5 for task achievement we must give some kind of overview. If we do not give any overview,
we will always get below a 5. If we select the appropriate data to include in our overview, we get a score of 6, and if it is
‘clear’ we get a 7 for this part of the exam.

If you know how to select the appropriate data and practice writing a clear overview, you will likely get the score you deserve
in this section.

What is an overview?
To understand this, we must look at the question. The question for academic task one is always the same:

Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

We, therefore, need to provide a short summary of the main features. You do this in the overview paragraph by picking out
3-4 of the most significant things you can see and writing them in general terms. By general, I mean you do not support
anything you see with data from the graph or chart, write about what you can see visually.

How do I select the correct features?

To understand this, we have to think about the different types of graphs and charts we might see. There are generally two
different kinds of charts and graphs: dynamic and static.

Dynamic charts show data over time, and static charts show data at just one point in time. This will affect the type of data we
select.

When we are looking at dynamic graphs, we should be looking out for:

 What does the data do from the start to the finish?

 Do they generally go up or down, or do they fluctuate?

 Any significant difference from the general trend?

 Overall increase/decrease?

 Peaks/lows?

When we look at static graphs, we should be looking for:

 What are the highest/lowest values?

 What are the most noticeable differences?

 Any similarities?

 Any significant exceptions?

Is there any special grammar?

You should try and make a complex sentence by making a subordinate clause. Complex sentences are sentences with more
than one clause, which help increase our marks in the grammatical range part of the marking criteria.

You can easily make a subordinate clause structure in the overview by joining two pieces of information with the words
‘while’. ‘although’, ‘with’, ‘even though’, ‘whereas’ or ‘and’. However, make sure you know the meaning of these words and
how they are correctly used in a sentence.

How does an overview fit into the rest of my essay?

The overview should be the second paragraph of a four-paragraph structure:

Paragraph 1- Paraphrase Sentence

Paragraph 2- Overview

Paragraph 3- Details

Paragraph 4- Details

I tell my students to write the overview before the details because it clarifies to the examiner that they have identified the
main features and helps them write the details paragraph. In the details paragraphs, you will take the statements you made
in the overview and support them with data.

Shouldn’t I write a conclusion?

No. Conclusions are really a summary of what you think or opinions. This is not an opinion essay, and you do not need to
write a conclusion. Save your conclusions for task 2.

Example

Below is one final example following the structure I used above. I have highlighted the overview in yellow.

Notice how I have picked out the most significant/noticeable/important features and talked about them very generally in the
overview. I have not used any data in the overview. However, I have taken the features from the overview and supported
them with data in paragraphs 3 and 4.
Source: Cambridge English IELTS Past Papers.
Next Steps
I hope you found this post useful! Please let me know in the comments section below if you have any questions.

Alternatively, always feel free to email us here: chris@ieltsadvantage.com.

You may also find my grammar guide for IELTS task 1 useful. It has lots of phrases to help you describe data.