ACT® · English: Knowledge of Language — Concision and Redundancy
Redundancy You Can Only See Across the Whole Sentence (KLA 502)
Some sentences say the same thing twice without ever repeating a word, because the second half just restates the first claim in new vocabulary. The fix is to cut whichever phrase adds no new information.
A word-matching check only catches a sentence that literally repeats itself, like 'first' followed later by 'first' again. But sentences hide repetition by swapping in synonyms or rephrasing a fact. 'He was the first one there before anybody else' never repeats a word, yet 'first' and 'before anybody else' are the exact same claim dressed in two outfits. To catch this, you can't scan for matching words. You have to scan for matching meaning.
The move is to strip the sentence down to its bare claims, one per phrase, and ask what new information each one adds. 'Arriving at 6 a.m., he was the first one there before anybody else' makes two claims: he arrived at 6 a.m., and he arrived first. 'First' and 'before anybody else' both just say he beat everyone else there, so one has to go. Once you've found the duplicate claim, cut the one that's stated in weaker or wordier terms and keep the tighter phrasing.
This sits right next to plain word-repetition redundancy, but it's the harder half of the skill, because you can't skim for repeated words, you have to track ideas. It also borders on a misconception worth guarding against: repetition itself isn't the crime. A sentence can repeat a word on purpose, to name two different things or to build a parallel structure, and that's not redundant at all. The test is always whether the second mention adds information or just restates what the first one already gave you.
Key terms
- Redundancy
- Saying the same claim more than once in a sentence, whether or not the wording repeats.
- Concision
- Expressing a complete meaning using as few words as the meaning requires.
- Claim
- One distinct piece of information a sentence asserts, which can be stated in different words.
- Word-matching check
- A surface scan for literally repeated words, which misses redundancy stated in synonyms.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow does an idea restated in fresh vocabulary hide from a word-matching check?
- How it worksWalk me through compressing a sentence down to its claims and finding two identical claims.
- Worked exampleFind the redundancy in 'Arriving at 6 a.m., he was the first one there before anybody else.'
- Common mistakeWhy isn't repetition always redundancy inside an ACT sentence?
Check yourself
End of topic.