Overwriting a sentence is a mistake in written english. A sentence should not contain more than one word or
phrase that means exactly the same idea, even when worded a little differently. Unnecessary words clutter
a sentence, and on the GMAT should be fixed.
Example:
Tom loves art class. Today Tom's assignment is to create and build a soldier from clay.
The words create and build are trying to tell the reader that Tom is supposed to use clay to construct
a figure that resembles a soldier. Both words aren't necessary because the reader will understand the assignment
from either word.
Today Tom's assignment is to create a soldier from clay.
Today Tom's assignment is to build a soldier from clay.
Conciseness / Word Reduction
A sentence may be built with too many words in order to get the author's point across. Conciseness is the
opposite of wordiness, and is usually achieved by eliminating the redundancies found in a sentence.
Example:
The trip to Atlanta that has been canceled will need to be rescheduled for another day.
The clause that has been canceled should be reduced.
The canceled trip to Atlanta will need to be rescheduled for another day.
Ellipsis
There are times when a sentence might have words omitted without changing the sentence's meaning.
When a sentence you come across on the GMAT has an elliptical, or incomplete, clause you need to figure out
if the words omitted from the sentence make the sentence unclear.
Example:
Words in bold can be omitted from the following sentences.
My brother is a better photographer than you [are].
While [he was] waiting for a taxi, he ate a sandwich.
