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University Cadi Ayad

Faculty Polydisciplainary Safi
English studies
MOD 01. Reading Comprehension
Prof. Ouatat. A

Techniques for Paraphrasing

The content in this document is adapted from: SFU.ca - Simon Fraser University site

Paraphrazing means RESTATING other’s ideas in your own words. That is, you
rewrite 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.

When paraphrasing: The process of paraphrasing involves:

 Don’t copy the original sentence •Identifying grammar structures and key
 Don’t use too many of the original words
words •Changing grammar structures
 Don’t change the meaning of the •Changing words
original sentence •Changing word order
 Don’t leave out important
information

EXAMPLE
Original text: 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.
 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.
1. Use synonyms: (Synonyms are highlighted in both texts)
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).
2. 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.

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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).
3. 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).
4. 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).
5. 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.

A detailed example to follow when paraphrasing:

Original text:
Those whose self-esteem is low do not necessarily see themselves as worthless or wicked,
but they seldom say good things about themselves. (Psychology by David G. Myers, page 608)
Grammar structures:

 adjective clause: whose self-esteem is low

 verb phrase: do not see themselves as worthless or wicked
 verb phrase: seldom say good things about themselves
Relationships between ideas
 There are people who have low self–esteem.
 They do not necessarily see themselves as worthless or wicked.
 They seldom say good things about themselves.
 Opposition : but
Key words:

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  self-esteem/ low/ necessarily/ see/ worthless /wicked /but/ seldom / say/ good

Synonyms:
 self-esteem: self-worth, self-respect
 low: poor, unfavorable, negative, bad
 necessarily: inevitably, automatically, inexorably, certainly, definitely
 see: view, perceive, describe, think of
 worthless: unworthy, useless, no-good, of little/no value, despicable
 wicked: evil, sinful, bad, immoral, corrupt, dishonorable, unethical, unholy
 but: however, although, though, even though, while, whereas
 seldom: rarely, hardly ever, infrequently
 say: talk, speak
 good: positive, nice, favorable
Possible paraphrases of the original text
1. People with low self-esteem don’t necessarily view themselves as evil or worthless;
however, they rarely talk positively about themselves.
2. Although they hardly ever speak favorably about themselves, people who have poor
self-esteem do not inevitably perceive themselves as useless or bad.
3. People with a low opinion of themselves generally describe themselves in negative
terms, even though they don’t think they are really bad.
4. People with low self-esteem may or may not think of themselves in strongly
negative ways, but they rarely say anything positive about themselves.
Paraphrasing # Practice
Paraphrase the following statements
Exercise 1

It is not illegal in some cultures to be married to more than one woman, but the monogamous
relationship is the most common.

Exercise 2
Some 10 million girls a year are married off before the age of 18 across the world, according to a
UNICEF report released this year.

Exercise 3
Japan has long had deep misgivings about immigration and has tightly controlled the ability of
foreigners to live and work here.