ShmoopTube

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The Wizard tells us you came here looking for an unshmoopy question...

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Hit pause, look over this passage, and then have at it...

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Which of the following would improve the essay as a whole?

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And here are the potential answers:

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Okay, no way to approach this one other than to look at each answer choice individually...

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Let's start with A... "using the pronoun "he" less frequently."

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Not a bad idea. When you write an essay, you want to mix things up so it doesn't get

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dry and repetitive.

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Continually using the same pronoun over... and over... and over... and over...

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What about B... "combining sentence 4 and 5"?

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Honestly, each of these sentences is long enough on its own. There are no prizes for

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longest sentence, unfortunately. C suggests we "revise sentence 7."

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Um... why, exactly? It says something substantial, is written intelligently, isn't too over

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the top and doesn't repeat anything else in the passage.

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If it ain't broke, don't rewrite it. Finally, D wants us to "use Franklin Delano

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Roosevelt in every sentence."

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That's an awful idea. First of all, FDR hated being used.

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Second... we'd have the same problem we have with all those "he"s, except now...

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it's longer. A is our guy.

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As in, "All work and no play..."

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