Study guide
3.7 Concision: Eliminating Wordiness and Redundancy
ACCUPLACER Suite Study Guide Exam
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1 Chapter 1: ACCUPLACER Suite Overview & Testing Mechanics
1.1 The ACCUPLACER Testing System & Computer-Adaptive Mechanics 1.2 Placement Policies, Score Scales & Institutional Cut Scores 1.3 Test-Taking Strategies, Tool Mechanics & Pacing
2 Chapter 2: Next-Generation Reading
2.1 The Reading Test Blueprint: Set-Based and Discrete Items 2.2 Information and Ideas: Close Reading & Central Themes 2.3 Summarizing and Understanding Relationships 2.4 Rhetoric, Text Structure & Author's Purpose 2.5 Analyzing Point of View and Authorial Purpose 2.6 Analyzing Arguments: Claims, Counterclaims, and Evidence 2.7 Synthesis & Paired Text Comparative Analysis 2.8 Vocabulary in Context & Figurative Language 2.9 Passage Genre, Content Area, Mode, and Text Complexity 2.10 Answer-Choice Traps and Evidence Discipline
3 Chapter 3: Next-Generation Writing: Expression of Ideas
3.1 The Writing Test Blueprint: Passage Sets and Content Distribution 3.2 Development: Proposition and Supporting Evidence 3.3 Focus: Adding, Retaining, and Deleting for Relevance 3.4 Organization: Logical Sequence and Paragraph Order 3.5 Introductions, Conclusions, and Transitional Cohesion 3.6 Effective Language Use: Precision and Word Choice 3.7 Concision: Eliminating Wordiness and Redundancy 3.8 Style, Tone, and Voice Consistency 3.9 Syntax: Sentence Combining for Rhetorical Purpose
4 Chapter 4: Next-Generation Writing: Standard English Conventions
4.1 Sentence Boundaries: Fragments, Run-ons, and Comma Splices 4.2 Subordination and Coordination 4.3 Parallel Structure 4.4 Modifier Placement: Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers 4.5 Inappropriate Shifts in Verb Tense 4.6 Inappropriate Shifts in Verb Voice and Mood 4.7 Inappropriate Shifts in Pronoun Person and Number 4.8 Subject-Verb Agreement, Pronoun Case, and Verb Forms 4.9 Possessive Determiners, Contractions, and Confusable Adverbs 4.10 Pronoun Clarity and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement 4.11 Frequently Confused Words, Noun Agreement, and Logical Comparison 4.12 Within-Sentence Punctuation: Semicolons, Colons, Dashes, and Apostrophes 4.13 Items in a Series and Nonrestrictive Elements 4.14 End-of-Sentence Punctuation, Hyphenation, and Unnecessary Punctuation
5 Chapter 5: Next-Generation Arithmetic
5.1 Whole Number Operations, Estimation & Multi-Step Applications 5.2 Fractions, Mixed Numbers & Operations 5.3 Decimal Operations & Place-Value Conversions 5.4 Percent Calculations, Increase, Decrease, and Applications 5.5 Number Comparisons and Equivalents Across Formats
6 Chapter 6: Next-Generation Quantitative Reasoning, Algebra, and Statistics (QAS)
6.1 Rational Numbers, Absolute Value, and Order of Operations 6.2 Exponents, Radicals, and Scientific Notation 6.3 Ratio, Proportional Relationships, and Unit Conversions 6.4 Creating and Evaluating Algebraic Expressions 6.5 Linear Equations, Inequalities, and Systems of Two Equations 6.6 Linear Applications, Functions, and Graphs 6.7 Probability and Sets 6.8 Descriptive Statistics: Center, Spread, and Graphical Displays 6.9 Geometry for Pre-Algebra and Algebra 1
7 Chapter 7: Next-Generation Advanced Algebra, Quadratics & Polynomials
7.1 Advanced Linear Equations, Systems, and Coordinate Geometry 7.2 Factoring Methods for Quadratics, Cubics, and Polynomials 7.3 Quadratic Equations, Vertex Form & Parabolic Functions 7.4 Polynomial Equations, Roots, and Graphs 7.5 Radical and Rational Equations and Functions 7.6 Geometry for Algebra 1 and Algebra 2
8 Chapter 8: Functions, Exponentials, Logarithms & Trigonometry
8.1 Function Notation, Transformations, Compositions & Inverses 8.2 Domain, Range, and Interpreting Functions in Context 8.3 Exponential & Logarithmic Functions, Laws & Modeling 8.4 Right-Triangle Trigonometry, the Unit Circle, and Radian Measure 8.5 Law of Sines, Law of Cosines, and Trigonometric Equations 8.6 Choosing Your Math Test: Arithmetic, QAS, or AAF
9 Chapter 9: WritePlacer & WritePlacer ESL Essays
9.1 WritePlacer Prompt Format, Planning, and the Writing Process 9.2 The WritePlacer Scoring Rubric & 6 Core Dimensions 9.3 Reading the WritePlacer Score Scale: What Each Band Demonstrates 9.4 Essay Architecture: Thesis, Evidence Integration & Structure 9.5 WritePlacer ESL Scoring Standards & Synthesis
10 Chapter 10: ACCUPLACER ESL Placement Suite
10.1 The ESL Placement Suite: Structure, Scoring, and Score Interpretation 10.2 ESL Reading Skills & Passage Comprehension 10.3 ESL Sentence Meaning & Context Clues 10.4 ESL Language Use & Grammatical Mechanics 10.5 ESL Listening Comprehension & Spoken Contexts
3.7 Concision: Eliminating Wordiness and Redundancy
Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI
The official Concision skill is improving the economy of word choice by eliminating wordiness and redundancy.
On concision items the shortest grammatically correct choice that preserves meaning is usually right.
Redundancy pairs restate a meaning already carried by another word, as in 'past history' or 'combined together'.
Empty scaffolding such as 'due to the fact that' and 'in order to be able to' can nearly always be reduced without loss.
Shortness never overrides meaning; a shorter choice that deletes required information or breaks grammar is wrong.
Last updated: August 2026
A Sub-Skill With a Usable Heuristic
Effective Language Use has four sub-skills: Precision, Concision, Style and tone, and Syntax. Concision is the one with the clearest official definition and the most actionable test strategy:
Concision: The student will revise text as needed to improve the economy of word choice (i.e., to eliminate wordiness and redundancy ).
Two distinct defects are named. Redundancy is saying the same thing twice. Wordiness is using more words than the meaning requires. They call for different repairs.
The Shortest-Answer Pattern
On concision items, answer choices are typically four ways of expressing the same idea at different lengths. Because economy is the scored quality, the shortest grammatically correct choice that preserves the full meaning is usually correct.
This runs against ingrained student instinct. Years of academic writing train people to associate length with rigor, so the elaborate option feels safer. On this test it is usually the trap.
The heuristic has firm boundaries, and stating them matters more than stating the heuristic:
The choice must remain grammatically correct .
It must preserve all necessary meaning . A shorter option that deletes a required qualifier is wrong.
It must fit the passage's tone . Extreme compression into telegraphic phrasing can break register.
So: shortest among the choices that are correct and complete — not shortest outright.
Redundancy Patterns
Redundancy occurs when one word already contains the meaning of another.
- Redundant Concise Why
- past history history History is past by definition
- combined together combined Combining is joining
- revert back revert Re- means back
- advance planning planning Planning precedes
- end result result Results come at the end
- completely eliminate eliminate Elimination is total
- unexpected surprise surprise Surprises are unexpected
- basic fundamentals fundamentals Fundamentals are basic
- collaborate together collaborate Co- means together
- free gift gift Gifts are free
- final outcome outcome Outcomes are final
- each and every each or every Same quantifier twice
A second variety operates across a clause rather than within a phrase:
The committee postponed the vote until a later date.
Postponed already means "moved to a later date." Repair: The committee postponed the vote.
The researchers repeated the trial again.
Repeated contains again .
Detection habit: for any modifier, ask whether the word it modifies could be otherwise. If a result cannot be anything but final, final is doing no work.
Wordiness Patterns
Wordiness uses grammatically sound but inflated constructions.
Empty Scaffolding
- Wordy Concise
- due to the fact that because
- in spite of the fact that although
- in the event that if
- at this point in time now
- for the purpose of to
- in order to be able to to
- has the ability to can
- is in a position to can
- it is often the case that often
- a large number of many
- in the near future soon
- on a daily basis daily
- during the time that while
- Nominalization
Burying a verb inside a noun forces extra machinery around it:
The committee made a determination that the proposal was inadequate. → The committee determined that the proposal was inadequate.
Implementation of the policy was carried out by the district. → The district implemented the policy.
Watch for -tion , -ment , -ance nouns paired with weak verbs ( make, carry out, provide, conduct, perform ). Restoring the verb usually removes three or four words.
Passive Padding
It was determined by the auditors that the figures were inaccurate. → The auditors determined the figures were inaccurate.
Passive voice is not an error and is sometimes preferable — when the actor is unknown or irrelevant. But it was determined by X that is padding whenever X is named.
Expletive Openings
There is , there are , and it is constructions frequently delay the real subject:
There are several factors that contribute to the delay. → Several factors contribute to the delay.
Worked Example
Due to the fact that the sensor array had a tendency to produce readings that were inaccurate in cold weather, the team made the decision to replace it.
Three separate defects:
Due to the fact that → Because
had a tendency to produce readings that were inaccurate → produced inaccurate readings (nominalization plus a stretched relative clause)
made the decision to → decided to
Because the sensor array produced inaccurate readings in cold weather, the team decided to replace it.
Twenty-eight words to seventeen, with no meaning lost.
When the Shortest Choice Is Wrong
The heuristic fails in three recognizable situations, and the test exploits all three.
1. Required information deleted.
Original: The district reduced bus routes in the three northern attendance zones. Shortest: The district reduced bus routes.
Shorter, grammatical — and it discards the specific scope. Wrong.
2. Grammar broken.
The district, reducing bus routes.
A fragment. Length is irrelevant once the sentence fails.
3. Necessary qualification removed.
Original: Preliminary data suggest the program may reduce absenteeism. Shortest: The program reduces absenteeism.
This deletes two hedges and converts a tentative finding into a fact. It is now a Precision error and a factual misrepresentation.
The operative order: correctness first, completeness second, brevity third. Apply brevity only among choices that have already passed the first two.