Exercise on Wordiness and Conciseness

Exercise on Wordiness and Conciseness

Dual Credit English

Name______

Exercise One---Rewrite and trim down the size of these phrases.

1. 12 midnight

1. 3 am in the morning

1. absolutely spectacular/phenomenal

1. a person who is honest

1. biography of her life

1. circle around

1. close proximity

1. completely unanimous

1. consensus of opinion

1. cooperate together

1. exactly the same

1. in the event that

1. there is no doubt but that

1. we are in receipt of

1. one and the same

Exercise Two—Phrases you can omit. Draw a straight line through any phrases you could OMIT or change the wording.

1. All things considered, Connecticut's woodlands are in better shape now than ever before.
2. As a matter of fact, there are more woodlands in Connecticut now than there were in 1898.
3. As far as I'm concerned, there is no need for further protection of woodlands.
4. This is because there are fewer farmers at the present time.
5. Woodlands have grown in area because of the fact that farmers have abandon
6. Major forest areas are coming back by means of natural processes.
7. Our woodlands are coming back by virtue of the fact that our economy has shifted its emphasis.
8. Due to the fact that their habitats are being restored, forest creatures are also re-establishing their population bases.
9. The fear that exists among many people that we are losing our woodlands is uncalled for.
10. The era in which we must aggressively defend our woodlands has, for all intents and purposes, passed.
11. For the most part, people's suspicions are based on a misunderstanding of the facts.
12. Many woodlands, in fact, have been purchased for the purpose of creating public parks.
13. This policy has a tendency to isolate some communities.
14. The policy has, in a manner of speaking, begun to Balkanize the more rural parts of our state.
15. In my opinion, this wasteful policy ought to be revoked.

Exercise Three—Sentence Awkwardness—Rewrite the following sentences making them less awkward. You may change them in any way you wish.

1. She has no reason to grieve in sorrow when she has no one to blame but herself.

1. Based on the fact that he is pessimistic and feels life is not worth it, he is forgetting about his loved ones whom he said he did not want to hurt.

1. Though he is trying to argue that they do not have the right to say he cannot choose if he wants euthanasia, he does not have the right to tell his family they have suffered enough.

1. For example, people sometimes get so angry that they would like to take someone else's life and murder them.

1. After reading this statement, I interpreted that civil rights and the hiring policy should not be taken in the consideration for the hiring of homosexuals.
2. Well, all the civil rights cases concerning African Americans was based on allowing blacks to become part of the modern lifestyle.

1. Many men were taught that this was not masculine of them.

1. For example, a person who has many problems, such as financial issues, can't exactly practice euthanasia.

1. Everyone portrays a unique situation and no religion or law can say what is appropriate for every woman.

1. To take the side that they did the writers of this article should have given better solutions to these very serious problems.

Exercise 4—Vocabulary Enhancement—For each word listed below, give a better, more college writer oriented word.

1. confused

1. simple

1. a lot

1. good

1. important

1. things

1. almost

1. seem

1. used to

1. think

1. interesting

1. said

1. great

1. big

1. everything