Lesson 2: Paraphrasing Techniques

🟦 Introduction

Paraphrasing is the heart of summary writing.

In the WASSCE Summary section, you’re not allowed to copy exact sentences from the passage. Instead, you must restate the ideas in your own words—accurately and briefly. This skill shows that you’ve truly understood the passage.

In this lesson, you’ll learn:

• What paraphrasing is (and what it’s not)

• Useful strategies for paraphrasing clearly

• How to avoid repetition and plagiarism

• Practice exercises to test and improve your skills

🟩 Key Concepts and Explanations

1. What is Paraphrasing?

🟨 Paraphrasing means rewriting someone else’s idea using your own words and sentence structure, while keeping the original meaning.

📘 Original: “Deforestation leads to a decrease in biodiversity.”
✍️ Paraphrased: “Cutting down trees reduces the variety of living organisms.”

2. What Paraphrasing is Not:

🚫 Copying the original sentence word-for-word
🚫 Replacing only a few words with synonyms
🚫 Changing the order of phrases without changing the structure

❌ “Deforestation causes less biodiversity.” – This is too close to the original!

3. Why is Paraphrasing Important in WASSCE?

✔️ Shows real understanding
✔️ Helps avoid lifting (copying directly, which loses marks)
✔️ Essential for writing concise summaries
✔️ Helps you compress ideas into fewer words

4. Paraphrasing Strategies

🟨 Important: Avoid changing technical or key terms (e.g., “climate change,” “malaria,” “photosynthesis”).

🧭 Step-by-Step Walkthrough

🔸 Sample Sentence:

“Overpopulation in urban areas has led to a rise in housing shortages and poor living conditions.”

Step 1: Identify the key ideas

• Overpopulation in cities

• Causes housing shortages

• Leads to poor living conditions

Step 2: Rewrite in your own words ✔️ “Too many people living in cities has caused not enough houses and bad living conditions.”

Now polish it for clarity: ✔️ “Urban overcrowding has caused a lack of housing and worsened living conditions.”

🔸 Another Example:

“Exercise not only improves physical health but also boosts mental well-being.”

Paraphrased:
“Working out benefits both the body and the mind.”

🟨 Practice Exercises

Exercise A: Paraphrase These Sentences

1. “Polluted water can spread diseases such as cholera and typhoid.”

2. “Lack of access to education limits job opportunities for young people.”

3. “Technology has changed how people communicate with one another.”

✅ Suggested Answers:

1. Contaminated water may cause illnesses like cholera and typhoid.

2. When education is unavailable, it becomes harder for youth to find jobs.

3. People now interact differently because of technological advances.

Exercise B: Rephrase for Conciseness

Original: “Due to heavy rainfall, many roads in the area were flooded, and as a result, traffic was delayed for several hours.”

Try:
“Heavy rains flooded roads and delayed traffic for hours.”

Original: “Because of their importance in agriculture, bees must be protected from environmental harm.”

Try:
“Bees are vital to farming and should be protected from harm.”

Exercise C: Spot the Weak Paraphrase

Which of these is too close to the original?

Original: “Global warming causes ice caps to melt, which leads to rising sea levels.”

A. Global warming melts ice caps and raises sea levels.
B. The heating of the Earth results in melting ice and higher sea levels.
C. Global warming causes the ice caps to melt, which leads to sea levels rising.

✅ Answer: C
Explanation: Option C copies the original too closely, especially the structure.

🔁 Recap

You’ve now learned that:

• Paraphrasing means rewriting ideas in your own words without changing the meaning.

• It’s essential for summary writing in WASSCE, where direct copying loses marks.

• Strong paraphrasing requires using synonyms, changing structure, and shortening long ideas clearly.

🪞 Reflection Prompt

Pick a paragraph from a textbook, blog, or news article.

• Try paraphrasing it in 2–3 sentences.

• Did you keep the original meaning?

• Could someone reading your version understand it without seeing the original?