The partial truth of “shortest answer wins” on ACT English and SAT Writing and Language

Both the SAT and the ACT contain a test of grammar rules.  As any parent can attest, the days of diagramming sentences and learning parts of speech are gone, and many students confess that the only English grammar they know comes from what they learned in foreign-language classes and then applied to English.

Consequently, simple strategies like “always choose the shortest answer” appeal, since this strategy requires no specific grammatical knowledge and can be applied instantly.  Both the SAT and the ACT prize conciseness and test it in a variety of ways.  While it is fair to say that the short answer is often correct, it is not entirely accurate to say that it is always correct.  Here is a typical example of the shortest answer as the correct one:

  The Ballets Russes first performed the Rite of Spring on May 29, 1913 in Paris, in the twentieth century.

A. NO CHANGE

B. marking the first performance of this work.

C. in France.

D. DELETE the underlined portion and end the sentence with a period.

The correct answer is D, because answer choices A, B, and C all contain redundancies which make D the only grammatically correct answer.  A student may or may not see these redundancies or may not understand that such redundancies are grammatical errors.  As a result, a student who does not understand the grammatical issue but applies the general principle of shortest is best will still choose D and earn the point.    

There are, however, times when the shortest answer will not be correct.  If you are looking for a perfect or almost perfect English score, learn these exceptions to help you refine your strategy.

Clear pronoun use:

Both SAT and ACT test pronoun clarity, meaning a pronoun must always clearly refer to its “antecedent,” or what it replaces.   For example, in the sentence “I tried to balance my coffee cup, my pencil case, and my daily planner, but I tripped and dropped it.”, the pronoun it can refer to the cup, case, or planner.  To fix this sentence, it must be replaced by a specific item, which will necessarily make the sentence longer.  Here’s what this question would look like in test format:

I tried to balance my coffee cup, my pencil case, and my daily planner, but I tripped and dropped it.

  A. NO CHANGE

B. that.

C. the one.

D. the planner.

D is the correct answer here, even though it’s the longest.

Parallel construction:

 Both SAT and ACT test parallel construction, which requires that phrases or clauses within a sentence follow the same format or structure.  Consider the sentence “I prefer the books of JK Rowling to Ernest Hemingway.”  The comparison intended here is one between books of one author and books of another author, yet what is actually compared here are JK Rowling’s books and Ernest Hemingway as a person.  A correct version of this could be “I prefer the books of JK Rowling to those of Ernest Hemingway.”  Here’s what this question would look like in test format:

  I prefer the books of JK Rowling to Ernest Hemingway.

A. NO CHANGE

B. the books of Ernest Hemingway.

C. him.

D. those.

B is the correct answer here, even though it’s the longest.

“Shortest is best” is a powerful strategy, especially if a student is guessing at an answer.  However, the examples above show that the strategy deserves a bit of refinement for those students who want the highest scores in English and Writing and Language.