ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by average people.

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Because the above average people are busy doing more important things.

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How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

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for a person who is average?

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The question asks us to keep an eye out for wordiness.

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Sentences that make use of too many words in order to relate the meaning that they would

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like to convey to their intended audience can sometimes be hard to follow and annoying

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to listen to for the audience for which they are intended because...

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OK, we'll stop.

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Choices (A) and (D) are first on the chopping block, since both are guilty of wordiness.

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"For a person who is average" and "when a person is average" both use too many words

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to get across a relatively simple idea.

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Remember, whenever possible, simpler is better.

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Choices (B) and (C) both keep it simple by using "average person."

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Though they may agree on this, they disagree on the use of the words "for" and "to."

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(B) claims that "to the average person" is correct, while (C) says "for the average person" is the way to go.

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It can sometimes be difficult to determine whether "for" or "to" is right in a sentence.

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We think of it like this: The passage is stating that plant classification is a difficult subject

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for the average person to understand.

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If it's rephrased in that way, "for" is the only word that fits. Therefore, we know that

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(C) is the correct answer.

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By the way, we chose a guy at random on the street, and he couldn't classify plants at

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all. So, in our experience, this totally holds true.

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