Ever been told your writing needs to be more concise? Yeah, me too. Here’s what I discovered: Less is more. Shorter is better.
Why? Fewer words mean a clearer and more direct message, which is your main goal as a writer.
Here are five ways to help you achieve that goal. Tip #1: Avoid “Nouning.” What is Nouning? It's when a noun hides a verb.
Here are some common examples: “The driver gave assistance to the injured pedestrian.”
Note the verb that is buried in the noun “assistance.” Pull it out and the sentence becomes
“The driver assisted the injured pedestrian.” Here's another example: “The scholar conducted an investigation into the causes of
genocide.” Aren’t all investigations perforce conducted? You see, the sentence is academic puffery for:
“The scholar investigated the causes of genocide.” These nouns ending in “shun” whether it's -tion or -sion, often hide verbs.
Here’s another example. “Memorial Hospital made a decision to close its trauma center.” I bet you can spot it right away.
You can replace three weak words--made a decison-- with one strong verb: “Memorial Hospital decided to close its trauma center.”
Simple. Direct. By all means, write freely. Let the words flow. But then know that you've got to go back
and dig out verbs in your sentences that are hidden by nouns.
Tip #2 – Watch out for expletives. Expletives are phrases like "there is" and "it is" and they're great ways to emphasize something by putting
it later it in the sentence. For example, “There are three qualifications all applicants must possess: experience, credentials, and desire.”
And “It is essential that we restore faith in our entire judicial system.” You see how "It" really helps with placement there by putting
the essential elements later? But, when overused, these same helpful expletives can really muck up our sentences.
Here's some examples:. “There are a dozen students who volunteered for the experiment.” There's really no need for the "there is."
It can be easily edited back to “A dozen students volunteered for the experiment.”
Here’s a typical example from academic writing: “There are many cases in which politicians fail to connect with voters.”
Ok. Let’s edit it down from 12 words to 7 by simply eliminating “there are” and its support words.
“Politicians often fail to connect with voters.” Likewise, the empty “it” also often hides the real subject and adds needless words:
The example we have here is: “It is necessary for Americans to understand multi-culturalism.”
The “It is” construction there requires five extra words for an otherwise simple thought that could be addressed directly:
“Americans today must understand multi-culturalism.” Short, direct, simple. In this next academic example,
you'll see two expletives at work: both the “it” and te “there.” Ready?
“It has been argued by Stenson that there is no topic in education today on which there is greater agreement.”
Whew! Let's deflate this academic puffery simply by eliminating the expletives:
“Stenson argues that no topic in education today has greater agreement.” Isn't that a lot more clear and direct?
Don't you wish all academicians would write that way? Well, don't wait for them. You can do it. OK.
Tip #3 Don’t Let It Be. Apologies to Paul McCartney. “Be” has many forms (is, am, are, was, were, be, being).
And all of those forms when used alone can weaken your sentences. OK, let's compare two sentenes and you'll see what I mean.
“Amanda is running marathons for weight loss.” Compare that to “Amanda runs marathons for weight loss.”
Do you see how “is running” is less visual than “runs.” It's the same thing for this example: “Paul is blogging for a living.”
Versus: “Paul blogs for a living.” Sure, some uses of “be” are necessary. But challenge yourself.
Because many times that "be" can be revised to include action verbs instead. An example I like is: “Mom’s blueberry pie is delicious.”
Well, Mom might be more activated by your complement if you wrote, "Mom’s blueberry pie tastes delicious.” She would really like that.
Dr. Seuss would also be thrilled if instead of writing “Dr. Seuss was the creator of the Grinch,” you simple wrote:
“Dr. Seuss created the Grinch." There you see more action because it's not a "be" verb.
Another common “be” verb trap that I bet you've been told about before is the passive voice.
Here's a common example: “The speeding van was stopped by the state trooper.”
Make it active first by removing the “be” and then simply showing the actor performing the action:
“The state trooper stopped the speeding van.”
Tip #4: Avoid Weaklings. You see, the filler words like “really” and “very” are quite common in our first drafts. I almost said "very common."
But revision is the time when you can strengthen them. So, “The really bad news” becomes “The terrible news” or
“The frightful news” or “The disturbing news.” Depending on what can kind of bad new it was.
You see how all of those help you get closer to your true and precise meaning?
Did you know that many editors actually prohibit the use of the word "very" entirely in their publications.
They make all writers, all editors replace "very" with a more precise word.
So, “very afraid” becomes “terrified” “very neat” becomes “immaculate” and “very dirty” becomes “filthy.” You see what I mean?
There's a book I really like called The Synonym Finder and in it you can quickly find alternatives like these that strengthen your prose.
I did this as an exercise for this video. Here's a sentence: “The senator’s speech helped the bill’s passage.” I took that sentence,
I found it online and I went to the Synonym Finder and I looked up “Helped.” It's a good word, but it's non-specific.
So you ask yourself, well, how did the senator’s speech actually help?
And you find that there are real alternatives to help you clarify your meaning. “The senator’s speech guaranteed the bill’s passage?”
That's a possibility. “The senator’s speech accelerated the bill’s passage?” That's another possibility.
“The senator’s speech paved the way for the bill’s passage?” Each of those says a slightly different thing and helps you get
closer to your precise meaning, if you use tools like The Synonym Finder.
OK. Let's talks about imprecise words. You've probably used them. I certainly do.
Words like “things” and “a lot of” --one of my favorites. But these are also weaklings and they need to be revised:
Here's both of them at once from an actual student sentence that I came across:
“Students can use a lot of things to improve their grammar.” Well, I advised that student to replace "A lot of" and "things" with something
that would make the thought more clear. The student--well done student--came up with:
"Students can use a variety of online tools to improve their grammar." Good job. OK. Last tip.
Tip #5: Chop that deadwood. Let's face it: wordy phrases are usually the first ones that come to us.
They're like drilled into our brain or something. But when you can back and revise you can find that a lot of those wordy phrases can be
replaced by one word, or two words, or sometimes no words at al. Here are some examples:
“Due to the fact that harvesting takes time ” can simply be, “Because harvesting takes time . . .”
So you delete that bloated phrase. Here's another: “The fact of the matter is that our experimental progress depends on technology.”
Well, let's turn that into normal human speech: “Our experimental progress depends on technology.”
Other examples of deadwood include: “During the course of” which can be reduced to “during.” “Take into consideration,”
which can be replaced with “consider” and “With the exception of” to simply “except.”
OK. That's all for right now. Thank you very, very much for watching. I really hoped these tips helped, let me know and if so,
I've got more and I'll share more another video. In the meantime, be sure to pound, tickle, punch, or caress, being specific,
that like button. It really helps. OK. Talk to you later!