Concise Writing
Have you ever read a text or instructions that were so wordy you wanted to give up?
Concise writing is a gift to the reader. One of the challenges of good writing is clarity. While the initial draft may be wordy, it is possible to revise in a clearer fashion so as not to leave your reader in the dark.
Wordy and inflated phrases include “as a matter of fact” and “at this point in time.” Others include “because of the fact” or “by virtue of the fact that.” While these phrases are meant to convey a serious tone, they make the reading more difficult and the meaning harder to access.
When you delete phrases that make a text wordy — that doesn’t add to the meaning — it’s easier for the reader to grasp the meaning quickly. English as a second language readers will also benefit from a clear statement.
In Joanne Buckley’s book Checkmate, there is a whole list of such empty and inflated phrases in the Usage chapter.
Here’s an example of a statement with these phrases and its clearer option:
“Because of the fact that the funding at the current time is limited for the organization, there will be no extra activities that add cost to the overall budget.”
Try this instead:
“Because of current budget limitations, there will be no new activities that bear additional cost.”
Laura Mondragón, a writer online for Medium, came up with this list of wordy and redundant phrases. It may entertain you as well as being helpful. Bookmark it and refer to it whenever you’re unsure if your writing is too complex for your readers.
Keep your reader onboard with clear writing for memoir, nonfiction, and instructional texts. Your reader will thank you and they will get the meaning quickly.
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“My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.” — Ernest Hemingway