ACT English: Cut Wordiness and Boost Clarity in Three Simple Steps

Wordiness is the top reason students miss ACT English questions. Use this audit: first, read a sentence aloud and ask "Does every word earn its place, or is something repeated?" Second, identify the core idea in fewer words. Third, compare your condensed version to the answer choices. The shortest grammatically correct answer is almost always right on ACT English, unless a longer answer adds essential information.

Example: "At the present time, the company is currently in the process of implementing new policies." Strip the bloat: "The company is implementing new policies." Both "at the present time" and "currently" mean the same thing. The phrase "in the process of" weakens the action. The tightened sentence is 60% shorter and 100% clearer. This is the exact skill ACT English tests.

Trap 1: Repeating the same idea in different words (e.g., "past history" or "end result"). Trap 2: Saying the subject twice (e.g., "The musician, she practiced daily"). Trap 3: Using vague phrases like "in a manner that" or "in a way that" instead of a single verb (e.g., "decided in a manner that showed confidence" vs. "confidently decided"). Trap 4: Adding qualifiers that weaken instead of strengthen (e.g., "somewhat unique" or "rather interesting"). Circle every phrase that takes more than three words to say one thing, and ask whether a single word works better.

On your next practice test, flag every sentence you miss and check whether the correct answer is shorter. You will discover that ACT English values precision and brevity above flowery language.

Sentence 1: "The process of writing involves putting words on a page." Edit: "Writing involves putting words on a page." Better: "Writing means arranging words on a page." Sentence 2: "In my own personal opinion, I think the plan is not unreasonable." Edit: "I think the plan is reasonable." Sentence 3: "The student continued to work on the assignment despite the fact that she was tired." Edit: "The student worked on the assignment despite her tiredness." For each sentence, remove every word you can without changing the meaning, then check that the result still sounds natural.

Repeat this drill with five sentences from a real ACT English section. You will notice that tighter sentences almost always match the answer key.

Approximately 10-15% of ACT English questions test conciseness and redundancy directly, but wordiness costs you points on almost every passage because you'll misread a bloated sentence or fail to recognize that a shorter option is correct. One week of focused wordiness practice yields measurable score gains because the skill applies to nearly every single question.

Set a daily habit: edit five sentences from news articles or textbooks, removing all unnecessary words. By test day, you will instinctively trim bloat and spot conciseness errors in the answer choices.