3.4 Understanding Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is another way of presenting ideas from source material in your own words, but without the condensing that happens in a summary. Instead, paraphrases stay approximately the same length as the original source material being paraphrased.
Most IELTS Reading questions paraphrase the original text. Naturally, it helps to have a huge vocabulary; but vocabulary size is not everything. Recognising paraphrase begins with knowing which words are most likely to be paraphrased: conceptual words like find/discover, avoid/prevent, and theory/explanation are typically paraphrased, while more technical naming words such as infectious disease, volcanic eruption, or silicon chip are likely to also feature in the text. Your study of vocabulary should concentrate on the conceptual words, many of which appear in the Academic Word List.
IELTS Reading: paraphrasing practice
Let’s look at some examples of paraphrasing, using the text below.
What is an ‘elevator pitch’?
An “elevator pitch” is an overview of a product, service, person, group, organisation or project, and is often part of a fund-raising, marketing, brand or public relations program. The name “elevator pitch” reflects the idea that it should be possible to deliver a short but effective presentation in the time span of an elevator ride from the ground floor to the directors’ boardroom on the top floor of a building.
An elevator pitch is often used by an entrepreneur pitching an idea to an investor to receive funding. Venture capitalists often ask entrepreneurs to give an elevator pitch in order to quickly weed out bad ideas and weak teams. Other uses include job interviewing, dating and professional services. Proposals for books, screenplays, blogs and other forms of publishing are often delivered via an elevator pitch, which may be presented in oral, written or video formats.
Which words or phrases in the passage are similar to those below?
- a summary
- succinct
- gain financial backing
- eliminate
- spoken