What Should You Actually Change When You Paraphrase IELTS Task 1?

If this is something you do or struggle with, don’t worry. Paraphrasing doesn’t mean changing every word in the question. You don’t need to use difficult vocabulary, and you definitely don’t need to make your English sound complicated.

So what should you actually change?

Before we look at that, it’s important to understand what your paraphrase is supposed to do. Your introduction introduces the topic of the visual to the reader. Imagine that the reader cannot see the graph, chart, table, or diagram. After reading your introduction, they should still understand what the visual is about. For this reason, you need to keep the important information from the original question.

Most Task 1 statements tell you what, where, and when.

For example:

The graph below shows the number of people who travelled by train in the UK between 1990 and 2010.

Here, the what is the number of people who travelled by train. The where is the UK, and the when is between 1990 and 2010. When you paraphrase this sentence, you can change the words and the structure, but the reader should still understand all three.

For example:

❌ The graph illustrates how many people travelled by train.

This sounds like a reasonable paraphrase, but we have lost the where and the when. Someone who cannot see the graph would not know where or when this happened.

A better version would be:

The graph illustrates how many people travelled by train in the UK from 1990 to 2010.

Now the reader has all the important information. With that in mind, let’s look at some simple ways you can paraphrase. One of the easiest things you can do is delete words that you don’t need.

Look at this example:

The chart below shows the percentage of people who used different forms of transport to travel to work in 2020.

Do we really need “below”? No.

The chart shows the percentage of people who used different forms of transport to travel to work in 2020.

You want to remove unnecessary words, not important information. Remember the purpose of your introduction: the reader should be able to understand the topic even if they can’t see the visual. You can also change some words naturally.

For example:

The chart shows the percentage of people who used different forms of transport to travel to work in 2020.

We could change “shows” to “illustrates” and “percentage” to “proportion”:

The chart illustrates the proportion of people who used different forms of transport to travel to work in 2020.

We could also change “travel to work” to “commute to work”:

The chart illustrates the proportion of people who used different forms of transport to commute to work in 2020.

But notice that we haven’t changed everything. We don’t need to.

Words such as people, transport, work, and 2020 are perfectly fine. There is no reason to replace them just because you are trying to paraphrase. This is where students often get into trouble. They look for more complicated alternatives because they think complicated English means a higher IELTS score.

For example:

❌ the quantity of individuals

is not better than:

the number of people

And:

❌ railway transportation

isn’t automatically better than:

train

A good paraphrase isn’t about making your English look impressive. It’s about saying the same thing naturally in a different way.

Another option is to change the grammatical structure.

For example:

The chart shows the percentage of people who used public transport in four different countries in 2020.

We could write:

The chart compares the percentages of people using public transport in four different countries in 2020.

Here, we haven’t simply replaced individual words with synonyms. We’ve changed the structure of the sentence. “Shows the percentage of people who used” has become “compares the percentages of people using.”

This can be particularly useful when you can’t think of a good synonym. Instead of asking yourself, “What other word can I use?”, ask yourself, “Can I express this idea using a different structure?” You can also sometimes change the way you express time.

For example:

between 1990 and 2010

can become:

from 1990 to 2010

But don’t feel that you have to change it. If the original expression is already natural, you can keep it. And this is really the main point I want you to remember.

You don’t need to change every word.

Look at this example again:

The graph shows the number of people who travelled by train in the UK between 1990 and 2010.

You could write:

The graph illustrates how many people travelled by train in the UK from 1990 to 2010.

We’ve changed shows to illustrates, the number of people who travelled to how many people travelled, and between to from. But we haven’t changed people, travelled, train, or UK. And that’s completely fine.

Trying to find a synonym for every word can actually make your writing worse:

❌ The graph delineates the quantity of individuals who utilised railway transportation...

It may look complicated, but it doesn’t sound natural. A much simpler sentence is better:

The graph illustrates how many people travelled by train in the UK from 1990 to 2010.

And remember why you’re writing this sentence in the first place. Your paraphrase is there to introduce the topic to the reader. If the reader couldn’t see the graph, they should still understand what it is about. So when you paraphrase, don’t just think about how many words you can change. Think about whether you have kept the important information and whether your new sentence sounds natural.

Ask yourself: What is it about? Where? When?

Then look for simple changes. Maybe you can remove an unnecessary word such as “below.” Maybe you can change one or two words. Maybe you can change the grammatical structure. Maybe you can change the time expression.

You might use one of these techniques, or several of them. There is no rule saying you have to change a certain number of words. The goal is simply to say the same thing naturally in a different way.

I’ve recently developed a free IELTS Writing Task 1 Paraphraser to help you practise this. Instead of simply memorising long lists of synonyms, you can practise changing Task 1 questions and learn some of the basic ways to paraphrase them.

👉 Try the free IELTS Task 1 Paraphraser here:
https://ielts-time.com/task-1-paraphraser

Try the question yourself first, then use the tool to check your paraphrasing and learn from it. Keep the important information. Keep your English natural. And don’t feel that you have to change every word.

I learned English as a second language too, so I know how stressful this test can feel. If you want clear, practical IELTS help, subscribe to IELTS TIME on YouTube and check out the study materials and free tools on IELTS TIME.

Talk soon,

Iman