If I can't put it into my own words, then I don't really understand it.
When I was teaching high school English, one of the ways I could spot plagiarism in a research paper was when a student started using words outside his normal vocabulary, typically in service of explaining some concept that I knew was beyond his understanding.
The student had found a good source and had somehow recognized the importance of the information on a gut level, but didn't really understand the point being made well enough to "put it into his own words". The only alternative was to lift words and sentences whole.
And pretend like he knew what he was writing about.
As a teacher, I came to realize that until a student could put an idea into her own words, she didn't truly understand it.
These days, as a pastor, I wonder how many professing Christians could put the gospel into their own words.
And one thing is obvious - you can't accurately communicate an idea which you can't articulate.
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