Cutting Extra Words

• Recognize redundant phrases (e.g., 'past history,' 'return back,' 'true fact')
• Choose the most concise answer that preserves meaning
• Distinguish between necessary detail and unnecessary wordiness
• Apply the 'shortest answer' heuristic and know when it does and does not work
• Finish on one ACT-hard question and say what made it hard

The ACT values concise writing. If two words convey the same meaning, one should be removed: 'She was happy and joyful' is redundant. Common traps include 'in the event that' (just use 'if'), 'due to the fact that' (just use 'because'), and 'at this point in time' (just use 'now'). When answer choices differ mainly in length, the shortest one is often correct, but only if it preserves the full meaning of the sentence. The key principle: never add words that do not add meaning. The ACT asks these with named stems: 'Which choice is least redundant in context?' and 'Which choice best avoids wordiness and redundancy in context?'. 'In context' matters: the repeated idea may sit in another part of the sentence or in the sentence before, so read beyond the underline. When 'DELETE the underlined portion' is offered as a choice, it is the right answer more often than students expect. At the top-score level, redundancy is often not side by side: the underlined phrase can repeat an idea stated earlier in the same sentence or in the sentence before ('the annual festival, held every year'). Do not pick the shortest choice blindly; reject it if it drops meaning the sentence needs or creates a grammar error, because then a longer choice is correct. The ACT-hard version: the underlined phrase repeats an idea from the previous sentence, so it looks necessary when read alone, or the shortest choice drops a detail that the rest of the sentence depends on.

• If deleting the underlined portion is an option, seriously consider it. The sentence may be complete without the underlined portion.
• Beware of answer choices that sound 'fancy' but add no information.
• Two answer choices that mean the same thing but are worded differently are both wrong. Pick the one that differs.