This guide shows a reliable way to look away from the page and rebuild a point from understanding, with an original worked example from our teachers and the habits that let copying creep back in.
What paraphrase is, and why lifting costs marks
To paraphrase is to say what a writer said, in your own words and ideally in your own sentence shape, while keeping the meaning exact. Several IGCSE English reading tasks ask for this directly with the phrase “in your own words”. Summary work depends on it throughout.
The reason is simple. A task that rewards your own words is testing understanding. A lifted phrase proves only that you found the right line, not that you understood it.
Copying does more than risk a penalty for lifting. It fails to earn the very mark the question was written to give.
This skill is used in First Language English and English as a Second Language. It protects you in every longer answer where you work from a source.
Rules on lifting and own-words credit differ by board and syllabus year, so we teach the current rules from each board’s official syllabus, summarised on our qualification pages. The technique below works whatever the details, because it changes how you handle the source.
Paraphrase versus copying: where the line sits
Imagine a line. At one end is copying: using the writer’s phrasing, even with a synonym or two swapped in. At the other end is true paraphrase: the meaning stays the same, but the words and the sentence structure are yours.
The danger is in the middle, the near-copy. The student changes “enormous” to “huge” and “swiftly” to “quickly” but keeps the writer’s sentence shape.
A marker spots this disguised lifting at once. The safe habit is to go further: understand the point, then say it as you would to a friend.
A reliable method for genuine paraphrase
- Read the sentence until you understand it. Understand the meaning, not just the words.
- Look away from the text. This one habit helps more than any rule, because you cannot copy what you are not looking at.
- Say the point in your own words, as if explaining it to someone who has not read the passage.
- Write down what you just said. Keep only the key terms you cannot replace.
- Check back against the source for two things. Is the meaning exact? Is your wording truly different, and not the writer’s sentence with a few words swapped?
A worked example from our teachers
The source and the paraphrase below are our own original writing, made for teaching only.
Source: The sudden downpour transformed the dry riverbed into a churning torrent within minutes, sweeping away the footbridge the villagers had rebuilt only the previous spring.
A weak, near-copy attempt reads:
The sudden rain changed the dry riverbed into a churning torrent quickly, sweeping away the footbridge the villagers had rebuilt the previous spring.
Almost all of the writer’s structure is still there. This is copying in a thin disguise.
A genuine paraphrase reads:
Heavy rain filled the empty river fast, and the rushing water destroyed a bridge the villagers had only recently repaired.
The meaning is the same, and the idea of speed is kept. But the sentence has been rebuilt in the student’s own words. That is the version the task rewards, because it can only come from understanding.
If this is where marks are going missing, a trial hour with an experienced teacher can work on it one-to-one.
Where paraphrase slips back into copying
- The synonym swap. Changing single words but leaving the writer’s sentence standing. A marker sees through it at once.
- Over-paraphrasing. Changing so much in the hunt for different words that the meaning drifts, and accuracy is lost.
- Keeping a special phrase because it “says it best”. Its very specialness marks it as the writer’s.
- Paraphrasing with your eyes on the text. The writer’s rhythm almost always leaks in.
The look-away habit fixes most of these, because it separates understanding from copying.
How can you practise paraphrasing?
Practise the look-away directly. Read a sentence, cover it completely, and write the point from memory. Then uncover it and compare.
Repeat this many times, and your mind learns to hold meaning, not words. If your version keeps coming out in the writer’s rhythm, slow down. Explain the point aloud first, then write what you said.
Try the two-version test next. Paraphrase one sentence badly by swapping only synonyms. Then paraphrase it properly by rebuilding it.
Put both beside the source. Seeing the near-copy next to the real version trains your eye to catch disguised lifting in your own work.
Last, check accuracy. Paraphrase a point, then ask someone who has not seen the source what it means. Did the meaning survive?
How our teachers help in 1-to-1 lessons
Students usually get stuck when they keep one eye on the text. The writer’s rhythm leaks into their sentence.
In 1-to-1 lessons, our teachers cover the source and ask your child to say the point aloud first. We then check the written version for exact meaning and for independence, and we mark the phrase that stayed too close to the original.
This skill supports our reading paper focus lessons. To see how it works for your child, book a paid one-hour trial lesson.
Paraphrasing is the base of a good summary. Next, try selecting points for a summary and writing a summary within the word limit. It also helps with embedding short quotations in literature essays.