3. Switching the Order of Clauses Take a look one of our earlier examples again:
Notice that in this paraphrase the second sentence from the original text has become the
first clause in the paraphrased sentence.
Notice also that there are some changes in the grammar of the sentence.
Example:
Original Source: Barack Obama says he wants to elevate the public discourse, yet here
he is, hosting the loons and the radicals, the pranksters and the protesters. Anyone with
Internet access can put a petition on the federal mainframe (Scherer 36).
7 Ways to Paraphrase / 4
Alexander College Writing & Learning Centres
Paraphrase: The government’s websites have attracted the attention of all sorts of
fanatics, activists and jokesters as a result of
President Obama’s desire to improve civic
dialogue (Scherer 36).
7 Ways to Paraphrase / 5
Alexander College Writing & Learning Centres Change the voice of the original sentences. If the voice is active try making the paraphrase passive. If the voice is passive try making the paraphrase active. Another way to change the voice in a paraphrase is to switch verbs in the original text to their noun forms in your paraphrase. You can also try switching nouns into verbs that have the same or similar meaning. Combining sentences from the original text, using conjunctions or relative clauses is another great way to preserve the original ideas, while changing the structure of the original material.
