Concise Writing Practice

Eight sentences riddled with wordiness or redundancy are rewritten and explained by students, with a full answer key providing one accepted revision per sentence.
Grades
Grades 5–7
File type
PDF
Preparation
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Updated Sep 27, 2026

Subject
Writing, ELA
Topic
Writing Practice, Literacy
Resource types
Worksheets
Preparation
Print ready

From the author

About this resource

The Concise Writing Practice Worksheet will give students practice with wordiness and redundancy.

There is one completed model followed by seven sentences for students to revise and explain.

Answer key included.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

  • Identify wordy or redundant phrasing within a sentence (e.g., 'due to the fact that,' 'teasing and making fun of')
  • Rewrite a wordy or redundant sentence in fewer words while preserving its original meaning
  • Explain in writing why a specific revision eliminates unnecessary words

Teaching tips

  • Work through the two provided examples as a class before releasing students to the remaining eight sentences, since the format repeats exactly.
  • Use the answer key as a model rather than the only correct answer, since students' rewrites may legitimately differ in wording while still fixing the same problem.
  • Point out to students that the answer key's own instructions add a labelling step (wordy vs. redundant) not stated on the front worksheet, so decide in advance whether to require it.

Skills covered

  • Concise writing
  • Editing
  • Sentence revision

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

Do any of the eight sentences have more than one acceptable rewrite?

Yes — for example, sentence 3's 'starving and hungry' could correctly drop either word depending on the tone a writer wants, so the sample rewrite provided is one valid option rather than the only one.

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