Restate

Importance of Restating

Restating information helps writers clearly communicate their ideas throughout a text. When a writer restates an important claim, they remind the reader of that point and help them understand it better through new words. Restating the main point of an essay at the end is also useful because it helps connect all the body paragraphs back to the thesis.

Restating claims to reiterate them is particularly important when writing an argumentative essay. When a writer needs to convince their reader of a point of view, restating that point of view and the supporting evidence helps influence the reader's perspective.

Methods to Restate

To restate a claim, writers should follow the following steps:

Choose Where to Restate Information

Writers should restate claims where it's appropriate. For instance, abruptly restating a thesis statement after including a quote from a secondary source might confuse a reader. Instead, writers will restate claims in their topic sentences and conclusion.

Consider New Ways to Express the Point

To restate a point, writers should consider how to express the idea again. It can be tempting to rearrange the exact wording of the original phrase when restating it. However, this can be challenging and lead to redundancy in writing. Instead, writers should reflect on the idea they are trying to express and come up with another way to articulate it.

If struggling to restate a concept, writers can ask themselves the following questions:

• What point am I trying to make?

• What are some synonyms for the words that describe this point?

• What are the reasons why I'm making this point?

Use Different Words

Restatements should not use the same exact words and phrases from the original text. For example, note the difference between this thesis statement and how the writer restates it later.

Fig. 2 - Using a thesaurus (a book of synonyms) can be useful when choosing different words for a restatement.

Use Different Sentence Structure

Restatements should also use different sentence structures, which is the arrangement of grammatical elements. For example, writers should strive not to put the subject and predicate in the same places in the restatement of an idea.

Example of Restating

Writers often restate the main point of their essay in the conclusion to ensure the reader leaves with a comprehensive understanding. For example, imagine a writer writes a paper with the following thesis statement:

The writer might restate this claim for emphasis at the start of their conclusion like this:

Note how the writer communicates the same idea in both sentences but in different ways. Presenting this material with different language avoids redundancy and thus keeps the reader engaged. Also, phrasing the points in different ways like "inhibiting creative expression" and "preventing students from expressing themselves" shows readers the same idea through different perspectives, which increases the likelihood that they will understand it.

Difference Between Restate and Paraphrase

The difference between restating and paraphrasing is that paraphrasing means rewording something to make it clear. When a writer paraphrases information, they condense the information to make it easier to understand. When restating something, the writer expresses the same point again but with slightly different words. For instance, the following example demonstrates the difference between paraphrasing and restating a claim about climate change.

Paraphrase:

Climate change will cause several challenges for humans, such as extreme weather conditions and conflict.

Restatement:

Humans will have to struggle with extreme temperatures, water levels, and conflict over natural resources, all because of climate change.

Writers summarize a topic when they want to craft a concise overview of it. While summaries communicate a source's main points in a clear, direct manner, they may omit information that is useful for readers who want a more in-depth overview. When writers want to communicate all the ideas of a text, not just the most important ones, they should use restatement instead of a summary.