1. For steps 2 and 3, you need to know how to choose and use a dictionary and thesaurus. Choose editions which are appropriate to your reading level and which have font styles and sizes that are easy to read. You may need to use a student dictionary instead of Google or the dictionary built into your computer or word processor.
2. For steps 2 and 3, you also need to understand the context of what you are paraphrasing: Read the whole sentence or several sentences of the passage to have at least a general understanding of the context in which words are being used. Make sure that the synonyms you use in your paraphrased version do not change the meaning of the passage.
3. In step 6, use “semantic” and “syntactic paraphrasing”. For “semantic” paraphrasing, use a thesaurus and/or your own knowledge to replace words in the passage with accurate synonyms. Be sure to check the part of speech of the word you are replacing. How a synonym is used can change the meaning of the word or sentence. For “syntactic” paraphrasing: In addition to replacing key words, change the structure of the original sentences by either inverting the order of sentence parts, breaking them into shorter sentences, or combining simple sentences into compound and complex sentences. Your last step is to rewrite the paraphrased version by combining the various changes noted above to come up with a passage in your own words.

 
Adapted from: "Summarizing and Paraphrasing", 67-68