📝 Avoiding repetitions

This is what we need when we write for exams. The main way many people rely on is synonyms—a valid way, but not the only one. What else is there?

Since I am a teacher through and through, I prepared a great exercise (in my opinion, at least) for my writing students.

1️⃣
I took a paragraph from a New Scientist article and removed all the good ways, adding repetitions instead. I asked students to rewrite the paragraph, making sure to avoid repetitions.

"Another idea that purports to explain our love of the wild is known as attention restoration theory. In a nutshell, it says that our ability to pay attention is restored by time in nature. Attention can be divided into two types of attention: involuntary attention, in which our attention is captured by intriguing or important stimuli (an intimate conversation between a couple sitting at a table behind you in a cafe, for instance), and directed or voluntary attention, where you actively pay attention to something (the book you were trying to read before you started eavesdropping). Voluntary attention requires what psychologists call top-down control, which means that our thoughts are regulating our actions."

2️⃣
And here is the original.

"Another idea that purports to explain our love of the wild is known as attention restoration theory. In a nutshell, it says that our ability to concentrate is restored by time in nature. Attention can be divided into two types: involuntary, in which our attention is captured by intriguing or important stimuli (an intimate conversation between a couple sitting at a table behind you in a cafe, for instance), and directed or voluntary attention, where you actively focus on something (the book you were trying to read before you started eavesdropping). The latter requires what psychologists call top-down control, which means that our thoughts are regulating our actions."

So, what ways does the original writer use? Would you have paraphrased some phrases differently?

📝 This just a tiny little glimpse of what we do in my "Writing with New Scientist" course. We learn from professional writers and build the writing skill thoroughly, with carefully crafted exercises.

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☂️ Link to the article "Blue Therapy" ☂️