Grammar and reading terms · SAT Reading and Writing, ACT English, ACT Reading
Concision
Concision: Expressing an idea clearly in as few words as needed, without redundancy or wordiness.
By the CollegePrepRoom editorial team · Updated · How we write and check these pages
What it means
Redundant phrases repeat meaning ('past history', 'completely finished'), and wordy phrases add nothing ('due to the fact that' for 'because'). When answer choices say the same thing, the shortest grammatically correct one is often best.
Concise writing keeps all the information the sentence needs.
Example
Wordy: 'At this point in time, the committee made the decision to postpone.' Concise: 'The committee decided to postpone.'
On the exam
ACT English frequently tests concision and redundancy, including 'DELETE the underlined portion' choices.