Exercise 13.

2 Wordiness

The sentences below use too many words. Edit them carefully to
reduce the number of words, but do not cut out important
information. If necessary, rewrite the sentence complete in the
space below the sentence.

1. Owing to the fact that the prerequisite courses had not been
taken by John, he was having a great deal of difficulty and had
to spend a lot of time figuring out his schedule for the semester
that is coming up.

2. There is little consideration given by our professors to the

very real problem that our textbooks are often extremely costly
and expensive.

3. Alex said that the thing to do if he wanted to improve his

writing would be to read as many good books as he could possibly
read in the time available to him.

4. Baseball has always been thought of as the national past-time,

but for all intents and purposes, football has replaced baseball
as the favorite sport for many people across this country.

 
 

5. During the period of time that included most of February,

Laura stayed cooped up in her room and tried to fight off the
effects of a very bad and debilitating cold.

6. Basically, I have a disinclination and a disinterest in

helping people who are not willing to do some things such as show
up for work on time and put forth the effort that it often takes
to succeed in this life.