ENGLISH FOR FUN #7

The one with Dinh Thang IELTS - How to write a sentence in IELTS writing

1. How to paraphrase a sentence

Paraphrase - means you try to express the meaning of a sentence in a different way, especially in order to make it easier to understand. This is an obviously essential skill in English writing, but most students find it very hard with this skill.

Example 01: 

Many women are choosing to have children when they are older

There are some ways that can be used to paraphrase this sentence, as follows:

1.1 Replace a word with its synonym

Many - A large number

Choose - Opt

Have children - give birth

The sentence might look different a little bit compared to the original sentence:

A large number of women are opting to give birth when they are older

1.2 Modify grammar

The original mentioned the trend that women want to change the time when they have a birth

- Use a tendency phrase: There is a tendency for sb to do something

The original will look like this:

There is an increasing tendency for women to have children later in their lives

2. Diversify the sentence structure

For those who are just getting started with English must wonder how to vary the sentence structure so that the essays are less boring but still keep it simple. To get the answer to this problem, let's try to start a sentence with new different ways.

Example 01:

The original sentence

"The government should create more employment opportunities for young people"

Note: The more sentence structures you can learn, the more options you can have when you write an English sentence.

2.1 Start with "It"

It is important for the government to create more employment opportunities for young people

2.2 Start with "There"

There is a need for the government to create more employment opportunities for young people

2.3 Start with "With"

With the labor market becoming increasingly competitive, the government should create more employment opportunities for young people

So, at least there are three similar ways to rewrite a sentence with the same meaning

Note: the structure With S1 V1-ing..., S2 V2...

2.4 Start with a Verb-ing

Creating more employment opportunities for young people should be done by the government

This sentence isn't the same as the previous ones. The main Verb of this sentence is TO BE DONE BY instead of CREATE which is used in the original sentence.

2.5 Passive sentence

More employment opportunities for young people should be created by the government

-- Can add a phrase: AS A WAY TO

More employment opportunities should be created by the government as a way to support young job seekers.

--There is another way we can use the passive sentence, in this case, is that we move the "young people" to the front of the sentence

Young people should be given more job opportunities by the government.

2.6 Start with "As"

As the labor market becomes increasingly competitive, the government should create more employment opportunities for young people.

With this type of sentence, we could add "It is thought by some that" or " It is sometimes argued that" after the comma as a way to consider the problem in the given information - This could be used as an introduction sentence in an essay.

2.7 Start with "In order to"

In order to support young people, the government should create more job opportunities for them

Example 02:

The original sentence

We should recycle regularly in order to combat climate change.

- It is important to recycle on a regular basis as a way to reduce the effects of climate change.

- There is a need to make recycling part of our everyday lives in the fight against climate change.

- With climate change becoming serious than ever before, we should get into the habit of recycling regularly in order to address this issue.

Example 03:

When expressing a reason-result relation sentence, the easiest way is to use a condition sentence:

The original sentence

If children gain effective communication skills at school, they are more likely to be successful in their future careers.

There are two ways to paraphrase this sentence, as below

2.9 Using Noun phrases

Adjust S + V + O into Noun phrase. For instance:

- Children gain effective communication skills -> Effective communication skills

- They will be more likely to be successful in their future careers -> career success

So, a new sentence would be like this one:

Effective communication skills (gained from schools) may contribute to career success later in life.

2.10 Using a subordinate clause starting with HOW

The communication skills children gained at school may affect how successful they are in their future careers.

3. Some typically translating sentences and analyzing some of the common mistakes

3.1. Many students are struggling to land a great/ find a job after graduation

Some might translate this sentence like this:

Many students often meet difficulty after they graduate.(*)

Well, this is an incorrect sentence as the phrase "meet difficulty" doesn't exist. And the expression "after they graduate" make the sentence longer as this is a subordinate clause. Instead, it is better to replace it with a noun phrase, for example: "after graduation" or even you could make it better by changing the subject of the sentence with "university graduation" which is often used by the native English speakers.

So, to conclude you could rewrite this sentence as bellow:

- Many students often have difficulty getting a job after graduation
- Many students often have problems finding work upon graduation
- Many graduations struggle to find work

3.2. There are some benefits of arts subjects at school

Ex1: There are some benefits of arts subjects at school

Ex2:

- Replace the phrase "arts subjects" by Arts-based subjects
- Add the provision
- At the end of the sentence, don't mention only the phrase "at school". Instead, you might be able to expand the sentence by adding more information with a phrase like "within a school environment"

So, the sentence will be like this:

There are several benefits of the provison of arts-based subjects within a school environment.

3.3. In my view 

To be continued.