Lesson: Concision

Comment on Concision

A concise lesson on concision...thanks Brent!
gmat-admin's picture

thx!

Redundancy!

Can we say redundancy pairs to the words that you have highlighted with red to remove and make sentence more concise.
gmat-admin's picture

That's truly correct!!! :-)

[notice that the word TRULY is redundant]

Hi Brent,

What is the difference in terms of meaning between "while/at the same time/although"

Could you give please a few examples with explanations followed?

Thank you in advance
gmat-admin's picture

WHILE and AT THE SAME TIME sometimes have the same meaning.
For example:
Joe sang and washed the dishes AT THE SAME TIME.
Joe sang WHILE he washed the dishes.
Joe washed the dishes WHILE he sang.

Other times WHILE and AT THE SAME TIME can have different meanings.
For example:
WHILE many people enjoy hamburgers, Joe despises hamburgers.
In this case, WHILE sets up a contrast, so using AT THE SAME TIME would create a sentence with a different meaning.
In this regard, we can use ALTHOUGH (a contrasting word) to create a similar sentence:
ALTHOUGH many people enjoy hamburgers, Joe despises hamburgers.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Hi Brent,

In the following two examples, isn't using the past progressive tense a better option?
Joe sang WHILE he washed the dishes. ----> Joe sang WHILE he was washing the dishes.
Joe washed the dishes WHILE he sang. ----> Joe washed the dishes WHILE he was singing.

Does using the past progressive tense change the meaning of the sentence or does it make the sentence grammatically incorrect?

Thanks in advance.
gmat-admin's picture

All four sentences are grammatically correct, and each pair of sentences have the same meaning.

i faced many times this kind of confusing word mentioned in 1.37 on video.is there any list of this?
gmat-admin's picture

Sorry, but I don't have such a list. However, when you're answering a SC question in which there's a concision issue, there will be answer choices with more concise wording.

Office Hours

On December 20, 2023, Brent will stop offering office hours. 

Change Playback Speed

You have the option of watching the videos at various speeds (25% faster, 50% faster, etc). To change the playback speed, click the settings icon on the right side of the video status bar.

Have a question about this video?

Post your question in the Comment section below, and a GMAT expert will answer it as fast as humanly possible.

Free “Question of the Day” emails!