paraphrasing activities part 1

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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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This AI-powered paraphraser 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's 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. 

Why use this paraphrasing tool?

• Save time: Gone are the days when you had to reword sentences yourself; now you can rewrite a text or a complete text with one click.
•  Improve your writing: Your writing will always be clear and easy to understand. Automatically ensure consistent language throughout. 
• Preserve original meaning: Paraphrase without fear of losing the point of your text.
• No annoying ads: We care about the user experience, so we don’t run any ads.
• Accurate: Reliable and grammatically correct paraphrasing.
• No sign-up required: We don’t need your data for you to use our paraphrasing tool.
• Super simple to use: A simple interface even your grandma could use.
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Features of the paraphrasing tool

Rephrase individual sentences

With the Scribbr Paraphrasing Tool, you can easily reformulate individual sentences.

• Write varied headlines
• Rephrase the subject line of an email
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Paraphrase a whole text

Our paraphraser can also help with longer passages (up to 125 words per input). Upload your document or copy your text into the input field.

With one click, you can reformulate the entire text.

Find synonyms with ease

Simply click on any word to open the interactive thesaurus.

• Choose from a list of suggested synonyms
• Find the synonym with the most appropriate meaning
• Replace the word with a single click

Paraphrase in two ways

• Standard: Offers a compromise between modifying and preserving the meaning of the original text
• Fluency: Improves language and corrects grammatical mistakes.

Upload different types of documents

Upload any Microsoft Word document, Google Doc, or PDF into the paraphrasing tool.

Download or copy your results

After you’re done, you can easily download or copy your text to use somewhere else.

Powered by AI

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

Avoid accidental plagiarism

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.

Scribbr’s anti-plagiarism software enables you to:

• Detect plagiarism more accurately than other tools
• Ensure that your paraphrased text is valid
• Highlight the sources that are most similar to your text

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How does this paraphrasing tool work?

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. 

Create original lesson plans, presentations, or other educational materials.

Researchers

Explain complex concepts or ideas to a wider audience. 

Journalists

Quickly and easily rephrase text to avoid repetitive language.

Copywriters

By using a paraphrasing tool, you can quickly and easily rework existing content to create something new and unique.

Bloggers can rewrite existing content to make it their own.

Writers who need to rewrite content, such as adapting an article for a different context or writing content for a different audience.

A paraphrasing tool lets you quickly rewrite your original content for each medium, ensuring you reach the right audience on each platform.

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The Scribbr Paraphrasing Tool is the perfect assistant in a variety of contexts.

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Produce creative headings for your blog posts or PowerPoint slides.

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Paraphrase sources smoothly in your thesis or research paper.

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Craft memorable captions and content for your social media posts.

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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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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.

Best 5 Paraphrasing Exercises

Read on to see our helpful paraphrasing exercises and tips in this article to get you started.

One of the most important skills you can hone as a student or writer is to paraphrase the words of other academics and experts effectively. Since new knowledge is built upon that which is already known, it makes sense that you’d want to reference the ideas of others in your work. However, this is often easier said than done. Paraphrasing, especially if you want to do it well, can be challenging.

Fortunately, as is the case with most other skills in life, you can improve your ability to paraphrase through practice. For instance, you can improve this skill by regularly doing paraphrasing exercises. As I was an academic for a long time in my life, I thought it might be helpful to those who have little or no experience in paraphrasing if I provided a list of paraphrasing exercises. If you’re such a person, I hope that this article will get you started on your journey toward mastering the art of paraphrasing. Your academic or writing career will undoubtedly be better off for it when you do.

The Art of Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing exercises and activities to help you master the skill, 1. broaden your vocabulary, 2. create a word map, 3. paraphrase in small chunks, 4. ways to paraphrase shorter and easier sentences, 5. imagine you’re explaining the source material to someone, helpful tips, 1. avoid plagiarism, 2. summarizing is not paraphrasing, 3. changing word order is not paraphrasing.

Although paraphrasing is an essential skill when writing papers, essays, or articles, it’s one that many find challenging to master. To paraphrase the words of others, you need first to comprehend their meaning, and then you need to express this meaning in your own words. To do this effectively requires a broad and sophisticated range of vocabulary and advanced grammar skills.

As stated in the introduction, you can improve your paraphrasing skills through paraphrasing exercises. Doing this will help you construct meaningful and original paraphrased sentences and increase the speed at which you work. Especially when you’re a student, reading, and paraphrasing the words of other scholars and experts can form a big chunk of your work. Learning how to paraphrase well and at a quick pace will enhance your academic experience and will open up your schedule for other activities, such as sports or parties.

Our paraphrasing vs. summarizing guide might be helpful.

Now that you know the importance of paraphrasing, let’s dive right in and look at some exercises and activities that can help you improve. Remember, as is the case when learning any other new skill, you need to engage with these exercises regularly.

Since you cannot paraphrase appropriately without a decent range of vocabulary, it makes sense to aim to add more words to your vocabulary bank constantly. Of course, if you’re an academic, you’ll want to focus on improving your academic vocabulary in your specific field. However, since academic language has a formal tone, you can add general terms to your vocabulary bank to help you express yourself more sophisticatedly. Examples of such words, for instance, are verbs such as “theorize,” “opine,” “constitute,” and “approximate.”

There are various ways in which you can enrich your academic vocabulary. These include:

• Keeping a word journal: A great way to learn new words is to carry a little book along with you, in which you can write down words that you don’t know. You can write down the word and then look up the meaning when you have time. It can also be helpful to construct your sentence with the word once you’ve jotted down its definition.
• Highlight words in texts: Whether you’re working with a physical copy of a text or a digital version, it’s good to highlight or underline words that you don’t know. You can then either write a definition of the words in the margin or, if you’re working with a digital copy, you can add a comment. Another good tip is to write by hand – people learn better when writing something by hand than if they typed the same information.
• Read as much as you can: Although this may be obvious, the best way to improve your vocabulary is to read as many books and articles as you can fit into your schedule. Even if you don’t have the time to look up the meaning of each word that you don’t understand, just seeing the word pop up in different contexts will help you work out the meaning for yourself over time. Apart from reading, you can also listen to podcasts or watch documentaries and news channels.

If you’re battling to paraphrase an original paragraph or sentence into your own words, it can be helpful to create a word map. You can, for instance, write a few complex words or phrases down on a piece of paper. Next, draw a box around each word or phrase, and leave enough space around each so that you can draw and link other boxes. As a next step, you can draw boxes in which you write the synonym of each word. You can also write down the definition of each word if you’re unsure of its meaning.

Next, you need to clarify the relationship between these words or terms. Draw arrows between them indicating patterns, correlation, or cause and effect. You can also add boxes between the original words or phrases in which you add other words, such as verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, or adjectives. Doing so can help you further explain the terms or link them meaningfully. Once you’ve added all the information you can think of, try to create a paraphrased sentence or paragraph from your word map.

A valuable way to learn how to paraphrase when you’re a beginner is to break sentences into smaller parts. For example, instead of paraphrasing a long and complex sentence, which can become overwhelming if you’re not used to this process, you can focus on shorter phrases. Let’s take a look at an example. Here, for instance, is a long and complex sentence:

“ Many impacts are unavoidable and will hit the world’s most vulnerable populations hardest, it warns — but collective action from governments to both curb greenhouse-gas emissions and prepare communities to live with global warming could yet avert the worst outcomes. “

You may find it challenging to paraphrase this sentence as a whole. However, breaking it into smaller chunks makes the task more doable. You can break this sentence up in the following way:

• Many impacts are unavoidable
• And will hit the world’s most vulnerable populations hardest, it warns
• But collective actions from governments
• To both curb greenhouse-gas emissions
• And prepare communities to live with global warming
• Could yet avert the worst outcomes

Remember, the sentence structure of your paraphrased version can and often will look different from the source. This means that you can form two or multiple sentences if this helps you create a meaningful paraphrased version, even if the original is one sentence.

If you want to practice your paraphrasing skills, you can do so by paraphrasing a sentence in two or three different ways. You can practice finding different synonyms, grammar, and sentence structures while retaining the meaning across all versions.

If you have time, you can do this exercise with longer sentences. However, it may be good to start by paraphrasing shorter sentences. Doing so will allow you to focus on finding multiple synonyms and different ways to write the same sentence.

Here’s an example:

“ Scientists know that bees are dying from a variety of factors. “

Paraphrased version 1:

“Experts maintain that the future of bees is in danger due to multiple causes.”

Paraphrased version 2:

“There are many different reasons why bees are going extinct, according to scientists.”

A helpful way of practicing paraphrasing while reading through articles or research papers is to recite your paraphrased version of some more complex sentences. Since the first step of paraphrasing is to ensure that you’ve correctly understood the source, repeating what you’ve just read in your own words can help you grasp the meaning of the source material.

You don’t need to use formal academic language and complex terms when doing this paraphrasing exercise. Instead, the aim is to repeat what you’ve read in plain and simple terms. Also, since you don’t need to write anything down for this paraphrasing exercise, it’s something you can regularly do while you’re reading through the source material.

It’s vital that you understand what you’re reading and that all the information is not just going over your head. Doing this exercise, primarily when you find yourself drifting off or having problems grasping a sentence, will ensure that you’ve understood the section you’ve read. At the same time, you get to practice your paraphrasing skills.

Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind while paraphrasing.

Even though you’re not using direct quotes when paraphrasing but rather stating another author’s ideas in your own words, you still need to reference their work. Failing to do so amounts to plagiarism, a serious offense, whether you’re producing academic work or an article for a web page.

The format you have to use when citing the work of others varies. For instance, in academic writing, you need to provide in-text citations and a list of references at the end of your essay, article, or thesis. The precise way you’ll write your in-text citations and list of references will be determined by the formatting style, whether this is APA , Harvard , Chicago , or MLA .

Although both tools or techniques involve using your own words to describe somebody else’s text, they are different. You need to retain the original work’s meaning with both techniques while using your own words. When you’re summarizing a work , you’re selecting only the most essential points of the text and rewriting these in your own words. This means that you provide a short overview of what a text is about.

It would be best to remain far more loyal to the source material with paraphrasing. You refer to specific ideas an author has provided to incorporate these into your work. To ensure that you’re not changing the original version too much or skewing the meaning the author intended to bring across, you have to rewrite actual sentences and paragraphs. You can’t just write a summary of large chunks of text.

Although this is a “technique” employed by lazy students, you should be aware that merely swapping around the word order of an original text does not constitute paraphrasing. It’s also not good enough to merely change a sentence from passive voice to active voice or vice versa.

Using either of these as your only paraphrasing method when rewriting somebody else’s words can amount to plagiarism since you’ve not used your own words or demonstrated your understanding of the source material. In such instances, you’d be better off simply rewriting the author’s exact words and placing these in quotation marks.

To learn more, check out our guide on paraphrasing vs. plagiarism .

Bryan Collins is the owner of Become a Writer Today. He's an author from Ireland who helps writers build authority and earn a living from their creative work. He's also a former Forbes columnist and his work has appeared in publications like Lifehacker and Fast Company.

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By Judy Alden

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Paraphrasing is a skill that is often assessed in exams. Experienced teacher and assessment writer Judy Alden examines how to teach it, offering practical tips and techniques you can take straight to the classroom.

Introduction

As English Language teachers, one of our core aims is to teach our learners how to express themselves. And I’m sure, like myself, you receive a great deal of satisfaction when your learners are able to reproduce the language that you’ve taught them. But what else can we do to avoid learners simply sticking to the script? The answer is quite simple: we need to demonstrate the power of paraphrasing in the classroom.

Paraphrasing is an essential skill that helps learners develop their communicative ability beyond their existing knowledge of language. In other words, it’s an empowering skill that enables learners to keep learning new words or phrases similar to the ones they already know. This is why in this article we’re going to look at a paraphrasing technique, activities to encourages students to paraphrase, and how paraphrasing is often a skill that is assessed in exams in all the subskills.

Synonyms for all levels

Teaching synonyms is a straightforward technique that can be adapted to all levels of learners. In fact, it’s probably one of the first strategies used with lower level learners to start expanding their vocabulary. For example, when teaching the A2 word ‘ grandmother ’ the synonyms ‘ grandma, granny, gran, nanna, nan ’ can also be taught since they are the informal versions of ‘grandmother’ which native speakers would tend to use. With higher level students, you can use the same approach but with a more complex word bank of synonyms. Learners at all levels need to identify and separate which synonyms are formal ( green ) and which are informal ( blue ).

Rather than teaching students how to express something with one word, think about having them build up sets of synonyms. Then learners will know how to create their own word banks of linking words that have similar meanings so they can express themselves in a variety of ways right from the start.

Four paraphrasing activities

As every teacher knows, having a toolkit of ideas keeps things fresh in the classroom. So how can we encourage our students to use paraphrasing strategies in the classroom on an ongoing basis? One way to achieve this is to include learner-centred ice-breakers to target this skill. Here are four ice-breakers that you might want to try or adapt for your learners.

Social Butterfly (speaking)

This ice-breaker focuses on paraphrasing when answering questions at an imaginary party. Elicit a few questions from your learners and write down a list of question prompts they need to ask people (e.g. …name? …age? …hobbies? …free time? …last holiday? etc). Then tell learners that they must go and mingle. Encourage them to be ’social butterflies’ and speak to as many people as possible in the allotted time (five minutes). When they mingle, they must take turns asking and answering the questions. Let learners know that whenever someone answers a question, they must say either ‘ Pardon? ’ or ‘ Sorry? ’ to prompt their partner to rephrase what they have said.

You might want to write one or two examples up on the board. For example,

What’s your name?

My name ’s Kasia.

I’m called  Kasia.

What do you like doing in your free time?

I usually go swimming  or visit  my friends .

I like going for a swim  or hanging out  with my mates .

To create a party-like environment, you could play music while learners complete the task. While the activity is taking place, monitor and record good examples of paraphrasing, then go over them as a whole group.

Full Picture (reading & speaking)

To avoid having this jigsaw reading task become a detailed reading task, text selection is essential for this five-minute ice-breaker. Choose a brief, three-paragraph text that has a clear beginning, middle and end – a text about a sequence of events, for example, works well for this type of task. Then place learners into groups of three and give each student a different paragraph. If possible, put each paragraph on different colour card. Give the class one minute to read their paragraphs without writing down any notes. When time’s up, they must place their texts face down. For the next three minutes, each teammate has about a minute to tell their team what their paragraph said, so they can decide on the order of the paragraphs. For the final minute, ask teams to give reasons for their decisions. This will encourage learners to further paraphrase their texts before you, finally, ask teams to turn the texts over and check if they figured out the correct order.

Back to the Board (listening & speaking)

Back to the Board is an ice-breaker that can be adapted for all ages and levels and is an excellent student-centred approach to revising vocabulary by paraphrasing key words. To set this task up, you need to divide the class into two teams and place two chairs at the front of the class facing away from the whiteboard or Smartboard. You’ll also need a list of vocabulary learnt in previous sessions and a scoreboard. Nominate one person from each team to sit with their backs to the board. Once they are seated, emphasise that they mustn’t peek! Then, write one word from your list on the board. Ask the class to describe the word on the board. The first person with their backs to the board to shout out the correct word earns a point for their team. Have a new pair come up, and keep repeating the process until you complete the list of words. The team with the most points wins.

It’s always a good idea to demonstrate at least one example before nominating the first two students:

• Write the word on the whiteboard: e.g., houseboat
• Demonstrate an explanation without saying ‘house’ or ‘boat’: It’s an unusual type of home that floats. You can see this kind of home on canals or lakes.

Message Trail (writing)

A very quick writing task to encourage learners to paraphrase when they write is called Message Trail. This ice-breaker is easy to prepare – all you need are four sentences targeting vocabulary and structures previously learnt in class. Put learners into groups of four and give each person a piece of paper that has a different sentence. Tell learners they need to change one word in the message so that it still has the same meaning then pass the message to the person on their left. Keep passing and rephrasing the messages until the teams run out of ideas of how to paraphrase the sentences. Finally, have each team read out their final sentence to compare the types of paraphrases they came up with. The team with the most paraphrases that still reflects the meaning of the first sentence wins.

It’s also a good idea to do one example with the class. For example:

I rarely  have enough time to clean my room.

I hardly ever have enough time to clean my  room .

I hardly ever have enough time  to clean my bedroom .

I hardly ever  have  time  to clean my bedroom.

Only on rare occasions  do I have time to clean  my bedroom.

Only on rare occasions do I have time to  tidy up  my bedroom.

Paraphrasing for exam success

You’ll be doing your learners a great service by reinforcing how to paraphrase in the classroom, as it is a skill that is needed for exams from A2 onwards. For speaking assessments, for example, encouraging learners to paraphrase by rephrasing statements, questions or ideas, and saying them in a different way, results in higher marks.

Many listening and reading exams often have questions that test listening or reading for detailed meaning, gist, feelings, attitudes and opinions, all of which require learners to decode paraphrases. In order to achieve this, learners need to piece together the different paraphrases they hear or read in order to arrive at the correct answer. So even at the lower end of the CEFR scale, paraphrasing comes into play.

Writing exams generally award lower marks if learners simply lift vocabulary off the question paper rather than paraphrase the information provided to complete the task. For example, the new B1 Preliminary Part 1 Writing task requires learners to write an email in about 100 words using four note prompts in a situational email. Learners should always aim to rephrase the prompts and the language that appears in the email in order to receive higher marks. Importantly, they need to identify what type of information they need to write about, rephrase information in the email and add their own ideas.

For example, learners should avoid copying large segments of text that appear in the email like this:

I’m really happy we’re working on the science project together too!

Encourage them to paraphrase like this:

I’m so glad we’re going to be partners for the science project!

Hopefully, by developing your learners’ ability to paraphrase in the classroom, they’ll have the skill and confidence to perform well in exams. However, the real icing on the cake is for learners to become self-aware of the power of paraphrasing and how it can support their language learning journey.

About the author

Judy Alden originally comes from Vancouver and has over 18 years’ experience teaching in South East Asia and Europe. She combines being a freelance assessment writer with delivering teacher training workshops, while also writing ELT course books and materials for international publishers.

As an assessment writer based in the UK, she often gets asked to produce listening assessments varying between British and American English. Judy has also written young learner assessment materials for the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education. 

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Improve your paraphrasing skills

by AEUK | Jan 29, 2022 | Lessons , Referencing , Writing

  Paraphrasing  is using your own words to express someone else’s message or ideas. In a paraphrase, the ideas and meaning of the original source must be maintained; the main ideas need to be expressed, but the wording has to be your own.

Paraphrasing video.

A 10-minute video on how to paraphrase effectively using the 4-key stages of paraphrasing. This video is based on our Paraphrasing Lesson 1.

  The key skills to paraphrasing are: 

• Change in word forms
• Change in sentence structure
• Reference to the author

PDF Lesson Download

Paraphrasing lesson 1 – how to paraphrase effectively [updated 2021].

 It starts by discussing the differences between quotation, paraphrase and summary. It takes students through the basics of identifying keywords, finding synonyms and then changing the grammatical structure. There is plenty of practice, all with efficient teacher’s notes.  Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]   Example  / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

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Paraphrasing Lesson 2 – improve your paraphrasing skills  [new for 2021]

This lesson helps students to improve their paraphrasing skills. The guided learning approach includes a text analysis activity where students identify the paraphrasing strategies, five sentence-level tasks to practise the strategies and two paragraph-level exercises to build on the previous tasks..  Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]   Example  / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

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Paraphrasing Exercises

Taken from paraphrasing lesson 2 – improve your paraphrasing skills.

Task: Underline the key words you do not have to change in the following sentences.

• Reports predict that zero waste shops are on the increase.
• Many actors feel that funding for performance arts is currently too low.

For a detailed worksheet and more exercises – buy the  download Paraphrasing Lesson 2 below. 

Task: Replace the underlined words with synonyms in the following sentences.

• Every day 8 million pieces of plastic are discarded in the oceans.
• The introduction of bike lanes in many cities has been successful in reducing traffic accidents.
• Every day 8 million pieces of plastic are disposed of in the oceans.
• The introduction of bike lanes in many cities has been effective in reducing traffic accidents.

Task: Rewrite the sentences using a different word form. Use the word in brackets.

1.The sales of electric cars will increase dramatically this year . (dramatic)

___________________________________________________________________

2. The UK’s Test and Trace system failed mainly due to a lack of planning. (failure)

• There will be a dramatic increase in the sales of electric cars this year.
• The failure of the UK’s Test and Trace system was mainly due to a lack of planning.

Task 4: Change the sentence structure in the following sentences. Use the prompt given.

• Although fast food can cause a number of health issues, many people still continue to consume this type of food.

Despite________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Despite fast food causing a number of health issues, many people still continue to consume this type of food.

Task 4: Practice all four strategies (synonyms, word form, word order & sentence structure) and add a reporting verb. Use the author in brackets.

The principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use and regenerating natural systems is defined as the circular economy (Macarthur, 2020).

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Possible answer: 

Macarthur (2020) defines the circular economy as the method of eliminating waste and pollution, the continual use of resources and the restoration of physical and biological materials.

NEW! Academic Paraphrasing Lesson 2 Download

Academic paraphrasing lesson 1 download, referencing lessons.

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Referencing Guide: Harvard

 This is a basic reference guide to citing and creating a reference list or a bibliography. It shows the correct way to create in-text citations and reference lists for books, journals, online newspapers and websites.   Web page link . TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

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Referencing: harvard referencing worksheet 1 [updated 2021].

Two part worksheet that is a paragraph and reference list.  Students have to put in the correct in-text reference. The second part is a reference list exercise where students have to put the sections in the correct order. A nice lesson to introduce students to referencing and becoming aware of key referencing principles.  Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]  Example  / Webpage link / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

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Referencing: Harvard Referencing Worksheet 2 [new for 2021]

This lesson supports students in their understanding and use of Harvard referencing. It contains six worksheets: a discussion on referencing, a noticing activity, a reordering task, an error identification exercise, a sentence completion task, a gap-fill activity and a reference list task.   Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]  Example  / Webpage link / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

Two part worksheet that is a paragraph and reference list. Students have to put in the correct in-text reference. The second part is a reference list exercise where students have to put the sections in the correct order. A nice lesson to introduce students to referencing and becoming aware of key referencing principles.  Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]    Example   / Webpage link   / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

This lesson supports students in their understanding and use of APA referencing. It contains six worksheets: a discussion on referencing, a noticing activity, a reordering task, an error identification exercise, a sentence completion task, a gap-fill activity and a reference list task. Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]    Example   / Webpage link   / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

Reporting Verbs 

 Use the verbs in the box to put into the sentences in the worksheet. Each sentence has a description of the type of verb needed. Check the grammar of the verb too! Web page link . TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

      Writing a paragraph – using quotes about smoking

Students are given a worksheet with nine quotes taken from The New Scientist, BBC News, The Economist, etc… After selecting only three, they use these three quotes to write a paragraph trying to paraphrase the quotes and produce a cohesion piece of writing.  Level ** ** * [B1/B2/C1]    Example  / Webpage link  / TEACHER MEMBERSHIP  / INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP

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Exercise : Basic-level Paraphrase and Summary Writing

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Paraphrase the following sentences.

• The student requested that the professor excuses her absence, but the professor refused.
• There will be a music concert next to Vienna coffee shop. Would you like to go?
• International Center is hosting English Conversation classes. They help non-native speakers of English practice their English speaking skills.
• The office of International Students and Scholars at Purdue University is located in Schleman Hall.
• The car that was pulled over by the police officer yesterday just had an accident. That driver is not careful.

Summarize the following text from the Voice of America website:

“Many thousands of Chinese are studying at schools in the United States. And writer Liel Leibovitz says the students are following an example that began in the eighteen seventies.

• Mr. Leibovitz and writer Matthew Miller joined forces to tell the story of the students in their book, “Fortunate Sons.” The book says China sent one hundred twenty boys to America to learn about developments that could help modernize their country.” (American Documents the Country’s First Exchange Students from China, Voice of America, learningenglish.voanews.com)
• “Illiteracy is a problem in many of the world’s poorest countries. Even in wealthier nations like the United States, many children struggle with reading and writing. But in 19 cities across the country [United States], the volunteers of Experience Corps are helping youngsters learn to read. The volunteers, all over 50, work with students in low-income areas.” (Older Volunteers Help Children Learn to Read, Voice of America, voanews.com)
• “Women entrepreneurs in the developing world often face challenges that limit their chances for success and growth. They often have less access to education than men and have difficulty getting financing on their own. But with an understanding of the essential aspects of doing business – such as planning, financing, networking and marketing – they can overcome those obstacles. That's where the 10,000 Women Initiative comes in. As Faiza Elmasry tells us, it's an investment in education with dividends that benefit the businesswomen, their local communities and their national economies.” (Goldman Sachs invests in Educating Women in Business, Voice of America, voanews.com)

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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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