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Difficulty: HardEliminating Wordiness

The following passage is an excerpt from an essay about the invention of Morse code.

In the 1830s, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail developed the electric telegraph, a device that revolutionized long-distance communication. To represent letters, Vail assigned the shortest codes to the most frequently occurring letters, [a decision that was made to increase] transmission speed. By analyzing quantities of metal type in a local print shop, he determined that the letter 'E' was used most often, so he gave it the simplest code: a single dot.

Which of the following choices for the underlined portion most effectively eliminates wordiness and maintains grammatical correctness?

  1. A
    NO CHANGE
  2. increasingAnswer
  3. C
    which was a choice that increased,
  4. D
    this choice increased

Answer

The correct choice is 'increasing', which provides the most concise, active, and grammatically correct phrasing.
The phrasing 'increasing' is correct because it is the most concise and direct way to express the action. It forms a grammatically sound participial phrase that avoids the wordiness and passive voice of the original text.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the underlined portion within the context of the sentence to identify wordiness and structural redundancy.
The original phrasing 'a decision that was made to increase' is excessively wordy and passive.
Identifying stylistic inefficiencies helps determine the need for a more concise revision.
2
Evaluate the options for conciseness while ensuring grammatical rules are not violated.
The phrasing 'increasing' is highly concise and grammatically correct as a participial phrase. The phrasing 'this choice increased' creates a comma splice, and 'which was a choice that increased,' introduces a punctuation error by placing a comma before the direct object.
Selecting the option that balances brevity with proper grammar is required to solve the question.

Key Concept

Eliminating wordiness and passive constructions to improve sentence flow and conciseness.
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Topics

Eliminating Wordiness

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