At the 130 level, students should not only be asking themselves “how can I express this idea”, but rather “how many different ways can I express this idea.”

The ability to paraphrase, or to express the same idea in a different way, is an essential skill for many reasons. For language learners, paraphrasing shows that you have understood the original sentence/s while also displaying the range of your vocabulary and grammar. For students in general, paraphrasing helps you to avoid plagiarizing another person’s sentence. However, paraphrasing does not mean changing every word in a sentence.

Paraphrase this sentence:

  • The student was unable to express the author’s main point, despite having read the article several times.

Use Synonyms


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