ACT® · English: Knowledge of Language — Concision and Redundancy
Redundancy Contained Within a Single Phrase (KLA 401)
When two words in the same phrase say the same thing, the test wants you to cut one. The rule: delete the word only if its meaning is already locked inside the other word.
A phrase gets redundant when one word already contains the meaning of the word next to it. "Alarmingly startled" is the clearest case: to be startled is to be suddenly alarmed, so "alarmingly" isn't adding a new idea, it's just saying the verb's meaning again in adjective form. Two words, one idea, wearing two coats. The fix is never to swap in a fancier word. It's to delete the one that's already baked in and keep the one word that carries the full meaning on its own.
This holds even when the overlapping words aren't neighbors. "Started by reaching the point of beginning" scatters the idea of starting across four words before the real verb shows up. Strip it down: the person began. Distance doesn't protect redundancy, it just hides it inside a longer sentence, so when you're scanning an underlined portion, ask what the sentence is actually claiming happened, then count how many times it claims it. If the answer is more than once, cut until it's once.
The trap runs the other way too: not every adverb in front of a strong verb is dead weight. "Deliberately slammed" survives because "slammed" tells you the force of the gesture, not the intent behind it. A gate can slam by accident, in wind, or on purpose, so "deliberately" is doing real work the verb can't do alone. This is the same judgment call that runs through the whole concision unit: cutting is only correct when nothing is lost, and the single-phrase cases are where that judgment gets tested in its purest, smallest form.
Key terms
- redundancy
- saying the same idea more than once using different words.
- concision
- expressing a complete meaning in the fewest words possible without losing information.
- modifier
- a word, like an adjective or adverb, that adds detail to another word in the sentence.
- overlapping meaning
- when two words share enough of their definition that one already implies the other.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do two words whose meanings overlap stack into one idea wearing two coats?
- Worked exampleWalk me through cutting 'started by reaching the point of beginning' down to a single verb.
- Going furtherWhat happens when the two overlapping words are separated by three other words?
- Common mistakeWhy isn't an adverb redundant every single time it sits in front of a strong verb?
Check yourself
End of topic.