Concise writing means to write directly and quickly. You don’t want to use extra words. Why is concise writing important? Because people do not have time to read extra information. Your readers want your writing to be as fast as possible. They want the main idea quickly.
You can use many tips and tricks to write more concisely. Most of all, you need to have the attitude to write concisely. Everything you do should be concise. The tips below will help you write concisely.
Nominalizations
Nominalizations are making nouns from verbs. Here is an example:
- Verb: Decide
- Noun: Decision
Try to use the verb as much as possible. Why? Because nouns take up extra space. Look at the examples above in sentences:
- I will decide soon.
- I will make a decision soon.
Notice how you needed to add an extra word (make)? That makes your writing less concise.
Follow this rule: Do not use the noun form when a verb is available.
Modifiers
Modifiers are almost always not necessary. They take up space and take away from the main verb or adjective. This is a sentence with a modifier:
- Clearly, we will not have time.
This sentence is fine without the modifier.
- We will not have time.
Here are some other examples you can eliminate.
- Obviously
- Easily
- Definitely
Phrases
Avoid redundant phrases. The phrases below are obvious or not needed:
- Each and every
- This day and age
- Absolutely necessary
- Advance warning
- Added bonus
- Brief moment
- Contributing factor
- The fact that
Notice how many of the phrases say the same thing twice. For example, “each” and “every” have the same meaning. Don’t waste your reader’s time with these types of phrases.
