Concise rule

The concise rule shows up in the ACT English section perhaps more than any other rule. Fortunately, it’s also the most simple (yes, even easier than punctuation questions if you know where to look).

It boils down to this: The fewer words the better.

Longer writing does not mean better writing

Many students share the mistaken idea that longer is better in writing.

This leads to a lot of ridiculous fluff and a lot of poorly written essays.

Perhaps students believe this due to the word count students are assigned in their writing assignments. It could also stem from the fact that many students are reading more complicated literature in high school and then try to mimic the longer, more complicated writing styles they’re reading. Perhaps a student is just not a precise communicator and so naturally uses a bit more words than necessary to get their point across.

Use as few words as possible

The goal with writing is to say as much as possible in as few words as possible. Therefore, here’s the rule you should be looking for as a guiding principle in every ACT English question:

The shortest, clearest answer is correct.

I want you to read that line again, out loud. Go ahead.

The shortest, clearest answer is correct.

Thank you. Now, you’ll notice that what you read did not say always pick the shortest answer. That is not true, nor was it what we wrote. We want you to pick the clearest and shortest answer.

You should not go through the test picking the shortest answer every time. A short, wrong answer is still a wrong answer.

Here’s the distinction:

Put these together and you’ve got…

Remember to use the clearest short answer on test day, and you’ll be in great shape.

Conciseness with other question types

Also, remember that this will sometimes overlap with other question types. You might see a subject-verb agreement question, for example, that has two answer choices that fix the subject-verb agreement issue, but one of them will be written wordy and long, and the other will be written concisely and to the point.

Remember that there should be no redundancy. Redundancy means words that mean the same thing. The ACT English section will use redundancy by using multiple unnecessary words that mean the same thing in a sentence.

It will be your job to pick the answer that uses as few words as possible but still clearly communicates the meaning the author is trying to convey.

So here’s your process for every question on the ACT:

1. Eliminate redundancy
2. Select the clearest short answer

Conciseness exercise

Let’s take a look at an example.

Dillon thought doing his chores quickly might be the best option to obtain and get his parents’ permission to take their car for the weekend.

A. NO CHANGE
B. To obtain and get his parent’s
C. To obtain his parents’
D. To obtain his parent’s

Here, the Concise Rule is embedded in a question about apostrophes. Let’s go through our process:

1. Eliminate redundancy

We definitely have one. “To obtain” means the same thing as “to get.” We certainly don’t need both.

2. Pick the clearest short answer.

Well, in this case, it really just comes down to whether we want “parent’s” or “parents’.” The pronoun “their” indicates that Dillon has more than one parent. If the word is plural, then, we want the apostrophe after the “s.”

So, do you know the correct answer?

Always, always, always, pick the clearest short answer on the ACT English section. This applies when all the answer choices mean the same thing—pick the one that expresses it in the fewest words.

Tattoo this in your brain, and you’ll knock these questions out of the park on test day.