Unlike L2 paraphrasing at the vocabulary level, L3 teaches advanced paraphrasing techniques that change the structure of the entire sentence.
Basic Rules
① Active ⇔ passive:
- Active: “Many people use smartphones daily.”
- Passive: “Smartphones are used daily by many people.”
② Direct ⇔ indirect speech:
- Direct: “He said, "I am tired."”
- Indirect: “He said that he was tired.”
③ Relative clauses ⇔ participles ⇔ other structures:
- Relative clause: “The student who studies hard succeeds.”
- Participle: “The student studying hard succeeds.”
- if-clause: “If a student studies hard, they will succeed.”
④ Rewriting comparative structures:
- Superlative: “Mt. Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan.”
- Comparative + any other: “Mt. Fuji is higher than any other mountain in Japan.”
- Negative + as ~ as: “No other mountain in Japan is as high as Mt. Fuji.”
⑤ Noun phrases ⇔ verb phrases:
- Noun phrase: “Her arrival surprised us.”
- Verb phrase: “When she arrived, we were surprised.”
⑥ Rewriting cleft sentences:
- Emphatic: “It was the dog that bit me.”
- Ordinary: “The dog bit me.” (Remove the emphasis.)
⑦ Changing the position of negation:
- “I don't think she will come.” ⇔ “I think she won't come.” (The meanings are similar but the nuance differs; the former is more natural.)
- “It is impossible.” ⇔ “It can't be done.”
Original: Climate change is causing serious problems in many countries.
① Passive: Serious problems are being caused by climate change in many countries.
② Noun phrase: Climate change is the cause of serious problems in many countries.
③ Cleft sentence: It is climate change that is causing serious problems in many countries.
④ Participial construction: Causing serious problems, climate change affects many countries.
Points to Note
① The subject changes: Changing an active sentence into a passive one changes the subject. Choose the subject by considering what the context focuses on.
② Omitting relative pronouns: An object relative pronoun in a restrictive clause (whom/which/that) can be omitted. “The book (that) I read” ← Remove that.
③ Inverted conditionals: Omit the if-clause and use inversion as an advanced paraphrase. “If I were rich → Were I rich” “If she had known → Had she known”
④ Limits of paraphrasing: Preserving the meaning completely comes first. If changing the expression causes the meaning to shift, the original expression is better.
⑤ Practice method: Make a habit of paraphrasing one sentence in five ways each day to expand your vocabulary and range of sentence structures.
- Switching between active and passive voice
- Direct ⇔ indirect speech
- Relative clauses ⇔ participles ⇔ if-clauses
- Three ways to rewrite comparative structures
- Changing noun phrases ⇔ verb phrases
- Practice paraphrasing one sentence in five ways
Practice
- Rewrite the following sentence in the passive voice: The committee approved the new policy.
- Paraphrase “Mt. Everest is the highest mountain in the world.” using a comparative + any other.
- Rewrite the following relative clause as a participial phrase: The girl who is sitting on the bench is my sister.