ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
ACT Videos 473 videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 1, Problem 3. Is that comma being used correctly?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 3. Where does the semicolon fit best?
ACT Math: Coordinate Geometry Drill 1, Problem 1. Which inequality is expressed by the number line?
ACT English 2.4 Style 234 Views
Share It!
Description:
ACT English: Style Drill 2, Problem 4. Which choice is the most concise way to properly write the sentence?
ACT English: Style Drill 2, Problem 4. Which choice is the most concise way to properly write the sentence?
Transcript
- 00:04
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by autobiographies. It's still incredible
- 00:09
to us that these books write themselves...
- 00:11
How would you correct the underlined portion below, if at all?
- 00:14
Jordan wrote and authored an autobiography of his life, even though he was only ten.?
- 00:19
Full Transcript
- 00:29
We're eliminating choice (A) right from the get-go; this first sentence is crammed with
- 00:33
redundancies.
- 00:34
If we wrote something, we authored it; if we authored something, we wrote it. Plain
- 00:38
and simple.
- 00:39
Choice (C) also uses both "wrote" and "authored," so we'll get rid of that one too.
- 00:44
The original sentence also modifies the noun "autobiography" with the prepositional phrase
- 00:49
"of his life."
- 00:50
This is redundant because every autobiography is the story of someone's life.
- 00:55
We see the same mistake in choice (D), so we'll eliminate it as well.
- 00:58
Choice (B) is correct because it eliminates both redundancies from the original sentence
- 01:04
by concisely stating, "Jordan wrote an autobiography, even though he was only ten."
- 01:08
But he didn't have
- 01:09
to cover as many years as most memoirists...
Related Videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 3. Where does the semicolon fit best?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?