How to cut redundancy and wordiness on the ACT

When several answer choices are grammatically correct and mean the same thing, the ACT wants the shortest one. That preference for concision is one of the most reliable patterns on the English section, and once you trust it, a surprising number of questions get faster and easier.

Why the test loves brevity

Concision and style fall under Knowledge of Language, which makes up roughly 18 to 23% of the English section. The enhanced ACT increased the share of Knowledge of Language and Production of Writing questions compared with the older test, so these style judgments carry a little more weight than they used to. The underlying idea is simple: good writing does not say the same thing twice, and it does not use eight words where four will do.

Redundant pairs and repeated information

The most common version is two words or phrases side by side that carry identical meaning. Once you start noticing them, they jump off the page.

• Wordy: The two scientists collaborated together on the study.
• Better: The two scientists collaborated on the study.
• Wordy: The result was a completely unexpected surprise.
• Better: The result was a surprise.

Collaborating already means working together. A surprise is already unexpected. Other frequent offenders include past history, final outcome, each and every, basic fundamentals, brief moment, and close proximity.

Redundancy can also spread across a whole sentence, where a phrase repeats information the reader just received.

• Wordy: Because the river flooded in April, the spring flooding of the river forced the town to postpone its festival.
• Better: Because the river flooded in April, the town postponed its festival.

Read the full sentence, not just the underlined chunk. The repeated information is usually sitting in the part you are tempted to skip.

Puffed-up phrasing

A second family of questions has no repetition at all, just bloat. Phrases like due to the fact that, in order to, at this point in time, and for the purpose of studying can almost always shrink.

• Wordy: Due to the fact that the trail was icy, the guides made the decision to turn back.
• Better: Because the trail was icy, the guides turned back.

Notice that the shorter version is also clearer. That is the tell. If cutting words costs you nothing in meaning, the cut is right.

The DELETE option

When one choice says something like OMIT the underlined portion or DELETE the underlined portion, take it seriously. Students skip past it because it feels like giving up, but it is right far more often than random chance would suggest. Ask yourself directly: if I remove this, does the sentence still say everything it needs to and still work grammatically? If yes, delete it.

• Wordy: The mural, which is a painting on a wall, covers the entire side of the building.
• Better: The mural covers the entire side of the building.

The definition adds nothing a reader needs. Deleting it also removes a pair of commas you no longer have to worry about, which is one reason comma rules and concision questions often show up in the same neighborhood.

Shortest is not automatically correct

This is where the rule needs a guardrail. Concision only wins among choices that are equally correct and equally complete. A short choice is wrong if it breaks grammar, creates a sentence fragment, or strips out meaning the passage actually needs.

• Too short: Arriving before dawn, the boats already loaded.
• Correct: Arriving before dawn, the crew found the boats already loaded.

The shorter version saves words and loses a verb. Always confirm the sentence still stands on its own before you reward it for being brief.

Common traps

• A redundant word placed several words away from its twin, so the repetition is easy to miss on a quick read.
• Choices that all differ in length, tempting you to pick the shortest without checking grammar.
• Formal-sounding filler such as the reason being that, which reads like careful writing but is just padding.
• A DELETE choice buried at the bottom of the list after three plausible rewrites.

A quick drill

Take any paragraph you have written recently, for school or anything else, and cut it by a quarter without losing a single idea. Cross out redundant pairs first, then collapse phrases like due to the fact that, then look for sentences that restate the one before them. Editing your own writing teaches the instinct better than any list of banned phrases.

For test-shaped repetition, thirty-six has concept quizzes that concentrate concision questions so you can practice the shortest-correct judgment many times in a row. If you are working toward the top of the scale, precision on these is part of what a perfect English score requires.

This article offers general ACT prep guidance. The ACT can change from year to year, including its format, scoring, policies, test dates, and fees, so always confirm the latest details on the official ACT website at act.org before you make decisions. ACT® is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc. thirty-six is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ACT.