Back to the full dot-point answer
SingaporeEnglish LanguageQuick questions
Comprehension Skills
Quick questions on Answering in your own words: N(A)-Level Comprehension
4short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is locate the answer first?Show answer
Before you reword anything, find the exact part of the passage that answers the question. Use the line reference or key words in the question to locate it. Underline the relevant sentence or phrase. You cannot reword accurately if you have not found the right place, so locating comes first.
What are change the key words?Show answer
Once you have the relevant text, replace the key words with synonyms (words of the same meaning). "Furious" becomes "very angry"; "reluctant" becomes "unwilling"; "vast" becomes "huge". These important content words are the ones markers check, so they are the ones you must change. Small linking words (the, and, because) can stay.
What is change the structure too?Show answer
As well as swapping words, you can change the sentence structure. Turn "Because of the storm, the ferry was cancelled" into "The ferry did not run as there was a storm." Changing the order and shape of the sentence, not just a word or two, makes the answer clearly your own.
What is keep the meaning exact?Show answer
The golden rule is that the meaning must stay exactly the same. Rewording is not the same as guessing or adding your own ideas. Check your answer against the passage: does it say the same thing, just in different words? If yes, you have done it correctly.
Have a question we have not covered?
This dot-point answer is short enough that we have not extracted many short questions yet. Read the full dot-point answer or ask Mo, our study assistant, in the chat for follow ups.