Synonyms and Paraphrasing

Everybody welcome back to the course. Now in today’s live show we are going to look at something which I think a lot of students struggle with or at least it’s something that a lot of students think is very important in the exam and they’re right and that is paraphrasing and synonyms trying to avoid the repetition of vocabulary when writing our task to essay. So this lecture will talk about how to demonstrate a wide range of vocabulary to make sure that we’re achieving band 7 or above in lexical resource. But this lecture will talk about five different ways that you can paraphrase. So not just synonyms but lots of other ways that we can paraphrase as well so that you should have a great number of different ways that you can paraphrase. By the end of this lecture. So the first thing to talk about is the band descriptors. Just a quick reminder here of what the examiners are looking for. If you want to achieve a band 7 in lexical resource you must use a sufficient range of vocabulary to allow some flexibility and precision. The key word there is range a sufficient range an adequate range which is spanned 6 but a sufficient range so there must be enough range so to achieve a band aid in lexical rissoles you must use a wide range so not just enough but actually more than enough. Show you have a wide range of vocabulary. Basically the greater your range the higher your score. So let’s get started by looking at paraphrasing Tip number one. And of course it’s the most obvious one. Synonyms. Synonyms are basically words which are very similar to other words. Sometimes they mean the same thing. Sometimes they’re just very similar. So it’s important to remember firstly that there are many ways that we can paraphrase language synonyms are very useful and this is why AIST the saurus can be very helpful when you are practicing the sources is like a dictionary. But instead of definitions it just lists similar words or synonyms. Now if you don’t own a thesaurus you can use an online one. So try it. Now look up the word range and then the word synonym range synonyms. What do you find coming up. Have Ray assortment collection diversity mixture and variety. Just a few of the words that appear under the word range. Do make sure you are researching the appropriate context of the word range can have a couple of different definitions. So do make sure you’re looking at the right context of the word. So how can we use this when paraphrasing. Let’s have a look and an introduction here. Synonyms particularly important in the introduction. We know that we need to paraphrase when we write our introduction to the task. Here is a question a task to question. Some people believe that visitors to other countries should follow local customs and behaviour. Others disagree and think that the host country should welcome cultural differences. Plenty of words here that we can paraphrase. See how we’ve done so. Some people think not believe but think that tourists not visitors but tourists to other countries should abide by rather than follow local rules rather than customs and behaviour. Others dispute this instead of disagree and think that the host country should embrace rather than welcome cultural diversity rather than differences. Loads of different synonyms coming through here. Now you do need to be careful because sometimes you can’t just insert a synonym directly into the sentence. You do need to check that it makes sense. Certainly finding someone to correct your work a tutor or a native speaker can be the best way to do this. Also the above introduction is okay but clearly very reliant on a thesaurus. This can easily make language sound a bit unnatural. Now check out Joey from Friends letter. There’s a link in the resources to give an idea of how the source can be misused. Very funny video. It really does highlight why you shouldn’t be too dependent on a thesaurus. Now paraphrasing tip number two. Change up the word order. So the best way to paraphrase is to mix different paraphrasing skills together Don over use or only use synonyms but mix them with other techniques. One of those being changing the word order. Let’s look at that hask sentence again just the first sentence here. Some people believe that visitors to other countries should follow local customs and behaviour. How have we mixed up the word order. Well let’s have a look. Some people think that local customs and characteristics are still using those synonyms should be followed by tourists when they go to other countries. So what have we done here. Well we use a mix of synonyms think characteristics tourists and different world order. In this case we’ve moved part of the sentence into the passive voice. So instead of the active other countries should follow. We’ve turned that into the passive characteristics should be followed by tourists. That’s one way that you can change word order. English is fairly flexible not entirely flexible but fairly flexible. So think about how you can change world order when you’re looking at your tasks right. Paraphrasing tip number three word formation. Another way we can find greater range is to modify word formation discussed in a previous lecture. In fact the previous lecture to this one there are often a number of different words formations for a single word. Let’s have a look at the task again. Second Language A second sentence here. Others disagree and think that the host country should welcome cultural differences. Others dispute this still got those synonyms. Others dispute this and think that a variety of cultures should be welcomed by host countries. Now we can see here is yes again we’ve got those synonyms dispute and variety instead of disagreeing differences. But there’s also a change in word order. Again we’ve got the passive voice and a change in word formation instead of the adjective culturual we’ve been able to modify that expression and turned it into the noun culture. Sometimes you need to change in more than just the formation as probably all the time really. Because if you’re changing the word formation you’re likely to need to change the grammar to keep that in mind. But word formation. Another great way to find paraphrase paraphrasing take no for antonians. What are antonyms. Well again if you if you can’t think of a synonym of your struggling to change the world order of formation then you should consider the opposite of the word you’re trying to change the opposite of a word. It’s called an antonym a similar word is a synonym. The opposite is called an antonym. Let’s look at that first sentence again or second sentence. Others disagree and think that the whole country should welcome cultural differences. Others dispute this and think that the host nation should not reject cultural variety. Once again we have those synonyms dispute and variety but we also have an antonym reject. It’s the opposite of welcome and that is preceded by a negation not to welcome it is to not reject in a sense. But remember this is not quite as precise as using a synonym not rejecting something is not quite the same as welcoming. But it is again another way that you can find something similar in terms of paraphrase. So that’s a fourth way. That’s at a final way we can find opportunities to paraphrase. Thinking outside the box and this is not anything particular but let’s have a look at what I mean synonyms sentence reconstruction and changes in word formation as well as antonyms. These are all excellent ways of paraphrasing. Sometimes though is just useful to completely change the way an idea is communicated. While not changing the meaning. Let’s have a look at this. These days more and more people are going to other countries for significant periods of time either to find a job or to study new task here. Let’s have a look at how I paraphrased it in recent years. The number of people choosing to move abroad either for work or education has increased substantially. So much is going on here. There’s so much paraphrase but in essence more and more has been changed not with a synonym with the change of the way that the idea is communicated is change to the number of people has increased substantially. Then we’ve got a more general way of paraphrasing these days we are going. And in recent years instead moving the tenses has increased these days with the president. In recent years with the perfect so we have these synonyms again work education abroad instead of job and study and going to other countries. We also have a jainism world order. We have a tent switch present continuous to present perfect and a complete change in the communication of an idea. More and more was changed to the number of something has increased. This is probably the hardest way to paraphrase but it’s definitely the most impressive as well. So if you’re somebody that shooting for a high 7 or in a tree even a 9. This is what I would recommend that you practice. Now having said all of that and talked about the importance of paraphrasing I think it’s important to just scale back a little bit and give a bit of advice on paraphrasing which might seem a bit contradictory to what we’ve been discussing and that is although paraphrasing is an important part of achieving band 7 or above it is just one important part although it’s important don’t overdo it and don’t spend too long thinking about it. If you cannot think of a way to paraphrase within 10 to 20 seconds just use the original wording then underline that expression come back to it later. If you have time it’s much more important to finish the essay and have time to check it. Then to run out of time for the sake of one paraphrased expression. Okay so also read read read in English. Paraphrasing is not as easy as simply changing a few words around. As I mentioned earlier Joey from Friends you can see a great example of how using synonyms can be very problematic. If you read lots of English articles books novels etc you’ll see how this natural paraphrasing work shield understand collocation a bit better as we looked at earlier. So don’t be like Joey but do be careful with how you paraphrase. Finally be selective with paraphrase. There are only so many ways to say parents. For instance if you tried to paraphrase a word like this too much it’s inevitable that you will lead to unnatural or inaccurate or inappropriate language for example guardians may be seen as a synonym of parents but really it’s not a guardian is not the same as a parent. So be very careful and very selective with how you use paraphrase. So those are five ways that we can find paraphrase synonyms word formation word order. Antonyms and thinking outside the box. I hope that this lecture has given you a good idea and a bit more confidence about how to paraphrase so long that you to go away and try to practice this skill with sentences that you see out and about in novels in articles etc.. Even in the in in your practice and see how it works for you with these five tips. And that brings this section to a close. If you do have any questions about lexical resource about any of the skills that we’ve talked about please feel free to leave them in the comments and I’ll join you in the next section which will be on grammar or C there.