Rewriting sentences is one of the important skills to write the introduction of IELTS Writing Task 1 and Task 2. Many students often copy the question verbatim into their writing, which makes it easy for them to lose points in this part of the test.
If you are worried about how to rewrite sentences effectively, refer to the suggestions from British Council IELTS experts on sentence rewriting techniques below.
1. Use synonyms
The most common and important technique is to use synonyms for keywords in the question. With this technique, you need to note down important nouns and verbs in the question and find synonyms that fit the context.
For example: The diagram below shows t he process by which bricks are manufactured for the building industry.
Rewrite the sentence: The diagram illustrates the way bricks are made for the building industry.
In the above example, you can easily see that the writer has used three synonyms to effectively rewrite the sentence.
2. Change word type
Another way to rewrite a sentence is to change the word type used in the question. To do this, you need to equip yourself with a family of English words. With this technique, you can change nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns, adjectives into nouns…
For example: The line graph below shows the consumption of four kinds of meat in a European country from 1979 to 2004.
Rewrite the sentence: The line graph below shows how one European country consumed four kinds of meat from 1979 to 2004.
In the above example, we have changed the noun consumption into the passive verb consumed.
Làm thế nào để nói tiếng Anh thật tự tin? - sách hướng dẫn miễn phí - Mọi thứ bạn cần để giúp con mình tự tin khi nói tiếng Anh
Tải sách hướng dẫn
3. Movement from active to passive voice
We can easily change the grammatical structure of the question by changing it from active to passive voice.
For example: The real estate developers invested over $40 million USD into the development of a new senior living community.
Rewrite the sentence: $40 million USD was invested in the development of a new senior living community.
In the above example, we have changed the past tense active verb invested to the past tense passive verb was invested to rewrite the sentence.
4. Change the position of words in a sentence
In addition to the techniques of using synonyms, changing word types, and changing grammatical structures, sometimes you just need to change the position of words in a sentence to rewrite the sentence effectively.
For example: The line graph below shows the consumption of four kinds of meat in a European country from 1979 to 2004.
Rewrite the sentence: The line graph below shows how four different kinds of meat were consumed over a 25-year period in one European Country.
In the above example, we not only changed the position of the word, but also changed the verb in the sentence from active to passive. This leads to the fifth technique that will be discussed below.
5. Use a combination of techniques
Relying on just one technique can help you rewrite the sentence, but it is quite stressful and not very effective. For best results, try to use a combination of two or three of the above techniques, such as using synonyms combined with changing the grammatical structure or word placement, which will be very helpful in rewriting the sentence effectively.