Paraphrasing

1. What is paraphrasing?
Paraphrasing is a skill that involves explaining something you have read or heard
using your own words while retaining the same meaning of the information read or
heard. The paraphrased context should provide a more comprehensive, simpler
explanation of the original context. Ability to paraphrase reflects one’s
comprehension and understanding of the context read or heard.

2. Content of paraphrased sentence

a. What needs to be included
i. Main ideas taken from the context paraphrased
ii. Usage of own words
iii. Significant restructuring of the sentences
iv. Citation of the original source (in-text citation)

3. How to paraphrase
The chunking method is advised to be adopted to paraphrase a passage or a
long sentence. This method is particularly helpful for longer passages. This
method is an approach in which the passage is divided into several
meaningful chunks. The chunks are then paraphrased using different Commented [T1]: What’s considered meaningful?

techniques and combined. The combination of chunks has to be revised in

order to ensure the paraphrased passage is cohesive and coherent.

Here are the steps that can be followed to paraphrase:

1. Read the passage several times to gain understanding of the context.
2. Divide the passage into several chunks based on main ideas. The chunks
should be focusing on PHRASES or CLAUSES rather than words.
3. Explain each chunk using your own words. This is the step in which you
will adopt the number of techniques that are explained later.
4. Combine and rearrange the chunks.
5. Make sure the end product (the paraphrased passage) retains the same
meaning while using different words.

EXAMPLE:

The objective of having these 18 mothers to breastfeed on the Hop On-

Hop Off bus around Ipoh was to sensitise our community about supporting
breastfeeding mothers to achieve at least six months of breastfeeding. The
support also emphasises the need to breastfeed babies up to two years.
(Roxanne Tai, 2019)
Let’s go through the steps to paraphrase again.
1. Read the passage several times to gain understanding of the sentence.
2. Divide the passage into several chunks: Commented [T2]: The chunk can either be divided based on a
phrase or a clause. A phrase is an incomplete sentence without a
verb while a clause is an incomplete sentence that is without a
The objective of having these 18 mothers to breastfeed on the Hop On-Hop subject.

Off bus around Ipoh (chunk #1) was to sensitise our community (chunk #2)

about supporting breastfeeding mothers to achieve at least six months of

breastfeeding (chunk #3). The support also emphasises the need to breastfeed

babies up to two years (chunk #4).

3. Explain each chunk using your own words.

There are a number of techniques that can be adopted to paraphrase a sentence.

Some of the methods that can be adopted to paraphrase are (1) using synonyms,
(2) changing the sentence structure from active to passive sentence (and vice
versa), and (3) changing the parts of speech of some of the words in the
sentence or passage. In order to paraphrase, more than one technique should be
adopted to ensure there is no word-by-word plagiarism.

3.1 Using synonyms Commented [T3]: Add more examples

Using synonyms is a technique in which you replace some of the words in the
sentence with other words. The synonym does not have to be extravagant; for
as long as it is simple and easy to be understood, you are good to go.

Chunk #1
Original The objective of having these 18 mothers to
sentence breastfeed on the Hop On-Hop Off bus around Ipoh...

Altered sentence The aim to have these 18 mothers to provide breast

milk for their babies on the Hop On-Hop Off bus
around Ipoh...’
 3.2 Changing the sentence structure from active to passive sentence
You can either change the sentence from active to passive or the other way
around. In order to ensure the sentence is correctly changed, make sure you
identify the correct subject, verb, and object in the sentence.

Chunk #2
Original ...was to sensitise our community...
sentence
Altered sentence Our community needed to be sensitised....

3.3 Changing the parts of speech

Some of the words can be altered by changing their parts of speech. For
instance, you can change an adjective to a noun, a noun to a verb, and an
adjective to a verb.

Eg:
Beautiful (adjective) Beautify (verb) Beauty (noun)
Chunk #3
Original ...about breastfeeding mothers to achieve at least six
sentence months of breastfeeding...

Altered sentence The mothers are encouraged to breastfeed their babies

for at least six months...

4. Combine and rearrange the chunks. Revise and change some of the words and
phrases if and when needed.

The aim to have these 18 mothers to provide breast milk for their babies on

the Hop On-Hop Off bus around Ipoh is to encourage these mothers to

breastfeed their babies for at least six months. In addition, our community

also needs to be sensitised about breastfeeding.

5. Revise your paraphrased passage and add in-text citation.

According to Tai (2019), the aim to have these 18 mothers providing breast

milk for their babies on the Hop On-Hop Off bus around Ipoh is to encourage
 mothers to breastfeed their babies for at least six months. In addition our

community also needs to be more sensitive about breastfeeding.

Before we proceed to paraphrasing sentences, let’s give this one a try:

When scientists first examined the human brain, they found it to be divided into two

halves, or hemispheres, which are nearly identical in appearance, mirroring each

other just as the two sides of the body do.

• Try and separate the sentence into smaller chunks.

When scientists first examined the human brain (Chunk #1), they found it to be
divided into two halves, or hemispheres (Chunk #2), which are nearly identical
in appearance (Chunk #3), mirroring each other just as the two sides of the body
do (Chunk #4).
• Explain each chunk using your own words. Try the synonym technique.

Original #1 When scientists first examined the human brain,

sentence
#2 they found it to be divided into two halves, or
hemispheres,
#3 which are nearly identical in appearance
#4 mirroring each other just as the two sides of the body do
Altered sentence #1 When scientists first studied the human brain,
#2 they found it to be separated into two parts,
#3 which appear to be similar,
#4 copying each other just as the two sides of the body do.

• If the altered chunks above are combined, the paraphrased sentence formed is still
considered as a word-by-word plagiarism. Therefore, other techniques should also
be used. Try and give changing the sentence from active to passive:

Altered sentence #1 When scientists first studied the human brain,

When the human brain was first studied by scientists,
#2 they found it to be separated into two parts,
#3 which appear to be similar,
#4 copying each other just as the two sides of the body do.
• Some of the chunks still have word-by-word plagiarism. Try altering the sentence
structure and rearranging the chunks.

The scientist found that the human brain is separated into two similar parts when
they first studied it. Both parts imitate each other like the two sides of the body do.

• Remember to continuously revise and edit your paraphrased sentence to ensure

there is no word-by-word plagiarism. Make sure the paraphrase retain the same
meaning as the original sentence.

Now that you have got the idea on how to paraphrase, try and give these
sentences a go. Remember to follow the steps and to use all the techniques
explained before.

1. “The injured victims were sent to the hospital for treatment and the families of the
injured and deceased were contacted the police.” Quoted from Roxanne Tai
(2019)

2. The university where He worked issued a statement that officials were “deeply
shocked” by the experiment, which it stressed was conducted elsewhere. Reported
by Rob Stein (2018)

3. Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years. He could have been a bitter and vindictive
man, but he chose not to. He believed in moving forward, in building bridges,
mending perceptions, and addressing bigotry. Adapted from www.thestar.com
(n.d.)

4. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a medical

student in search of what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a
neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity and finally into a patient and
a new father.

5. I would like to tell you about my hometown Hlatikulu, Swaziland. It is a small

town of only 8,000 people. The main industries there are farming and working for
the government, since it is the capital of the southern region.

6. Many people, when driving their cars, go over the speed limit in city centres. As a
way of solving this, the government should put more speed cameras on major
streets to put people off speeding. If this is done, more people who speed will be
caught and this problem will eventually be solved.
7. Laptops do not come in cheap, especially if you go for high end models that can
easily cost thousands of ringgits. However, it is definitely not worth losing a life
over, especially since recently, Malaysia was rocked by the death of a young cadet
who lost his life reportedly over a laptop dispute. Written by Pui Fun (2017)

8. Going to college can be expensive. Everyone knows that tuition and room and
board are not cheap but there are other expenses that make going to college even
more expensive. For instance, the cost of books and supplies is high. In addition,
there are all kinds of special fees tacked onto the bill at registration time. Students
usually have to pay for parking and even adding and dropping courses after
registration. The fees never seem to end.

9. Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn when he was still married to his first wife,
Catherine of Aragon. Catherine had failed to give him a son, so he divorced her to
marry Anne. Anne had a daughter called Elizabeth but no son. When Henry got
tired of her they found a reason to accuse her of crimes against the king. She was
found guilty and executed by having her head cut off.