Question

After sampling a few cake samples, the woman who is getting married picked the flavor of cake that she liked the best.

Which answer choice is the best revision of the sentence to avoid repetition?
A. After sampling a few cake samples, the bride picked the best flavor.
B. After tasting cake samples, the bride picked the best flavor.
C. After tasting the cakes, the woman getting married picked the best cake flavor.
D. The sentence is correct as written.

Answer 1

The answer is B) After tasting the cake samples, the bride picked the best flavor. In  every other answer choice (except for D) there is at least one word being used more than once. In choice B every word is used only once. :)

Answer 2

Correct answer is:

B. After sampling a few cake samples, the bride picked up the best flavor.

This option is the one that is being more effective in delivering a message with the least use of words. If you pay attention, it is delivering the exact same message as the original text but is not being repetitive in the sense that is not using words or terms that are similar to each other, which the other options do.

Repetition is great when the intent of the writer is to emphasize something within the text, but it had to be done carefully, otherwise is just a mistake that makes the reading experience a little bit clumsy. It is actually a very common mistake for the not so experienced writer, but nothing to worry about, there are many tips out there to avoid being repetitive, like reading what you wrote several times and trying to think if it could be said in an easier to understand way or really identifying when words that you are using are referring to the same concept and eliminate as necessary.