Simplifying Linear Expressions

Key concepts students will learn:

• •

  When simplifying algebraic expressions with parentheses, always use the distributive property to remove the parentheses before combining like terms.

• •

  When using the distributive property, be sure to multiply the term outside the parentheses by each term inside the parentheses, paying attention to signs.

• •

  When writing simplified expressions, variable terms are typically written first, in order from greatest to least exponents, and then constant terms are written last.