We didn’t have much time on Sunday to talk about paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is the second skill in the Barron’s TOEFL book; taking notes is the first.
Paraphrasing is very important, and looks easier than it is. There is an old game called “telephone operator” that can help you understand paraphrasing.
In “telephone operator,” you whisper something to your friend. You can’t repeat it. You say it only once. Then they have to repeat it to the next person, and then the next, and then the next. Then the last person says out loud the answer they heard, and everybody laughs, because usually it’s not what the first person said.
If you change the rules a bit, “telephone operator” is just like paraphrasing: In the “paraphrasing telephone operator” game, each person repeats the same information, but has to use different words when they say it.
For example, if the teacher tells Yuki, “Chocolate is my favorite ice cream,” Yuki might tell Megumi, “His favorite ice cream is chocolate.” That’s a paraphrase. It’s the same information, but with his own words. And then the game would continue.
If the information changes, it’s not a paraphrase. If Yuki says, “His favorite is chocolate,” that’s not good enough. It left out the fact that we’re talking about ice cream, which is important.
A paraphrase is also not a copy. If Yuki said, “Chocolate is his favorite ice cream,” that would be a copy. Copying is not paraphrasing, since those are not your own words.
There are some easy ways to paraphrase — just change out words you know, or move parts of the sentence around. You can also explain some words, and use your explanation in the sentence. For example, Yuki might say, “Chocolate is the ice cream he likes the best.” That’s a great paraphrase.
Paraphrasing is important because some questions will ask you to report or explain the information you heard or read. If you just repeat the same sentences, it’s not a good explanation. If you say the same information in your own words, you’ll get a very good score.
But remember: Good paraphrasing still relies on good notes, since you need those notes to get the right information in the first place! 
Take a look in your book if you want to try more paraphrasing. Next week is a short quiz on the 地学 単語, and then we’ll talk about summarizing. The last Sunday this month is synthesis, where we put everything together at one time. Oh boy!
