Chapter 1

Vocabulary for Sentence Correction:

1 Redundancy means repetition of linguistic information, excessive
wordiness, or repetition in expression.
Example: An example of redundancy is using both and and also in
the same sentence.
Redundant means characterized by similarity or repetition.
Example: Adding the word also after the word and is redundant as
they both have the same meaning.

2 Concise means expressing or covering much in few words. It is the

opposite of redundant.
Example:
A concise sentence is a sentence that contains no unnecessary
words and expresses the maximum meaning with the minimum
number of words.
The word concise is important for Sentence Correction questions. A
correct answer to a Sentence Correction question should be not only
grammatically correct but also concise.

3 The word ambiguous means capable of being understood in two or

more possible senses or ways.
For example, the following sentence is ambiguous:
John is playing with the boy because he wants to.
It is unclear whether he refers to John or to the boy.

Ambiguity is the noun, and it means uncertainty or lack of clarity of

meaning.
Example:
The ambiguity of the above sentence means that different people
might understand it differently: some will claim that the
word he refers to John while others will claim that he refers to the
boy.
Ambiguity is one of the two stylistic GMAT mistakes (the other
one is redundancy).

Unequivocal means leaving no doubt, clear, unambiguous.

Unequivocal is the opposite of the word ambiguous.
Example: The language of the law should be plain
and unequivocal.
The correct answer to a Sentence Correction question should be
clear and unequivocal.