Eliminate wordiness from "summary" of The Only Grammar & Style Workbook You'll Ever Need by Susan Thurman
In this workbook, readers can learn how to write efficiently and effectively by reducing wordiness. It provides tips and strategies to make sentences concise and to the point, without compromising on the clarity of the message.- Simplify lengthy phrases by looking at them objectively and shoehorn their meaning into clear lines if possible. Rephrasing them, to make them more comprehensible, is also another approach which can help get your point across without being so verbose.
- Try to avoid sentences starting with conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘but’, and ‘so’ as this in itself doesn’t add any value to what’s already been written and often tells nothing new about the subject. Instead use active statements which say exactly what you want, without having to lexically embellish it.
- Exploring ways to eliminate wordiness will help you write better and hone your skills as an author. Learning to remove redundant words or phrases can make your writing more concise and much stronger.
- Removing clauses from complex sentences is another tactic one could employ to reduce word count. Condensing decent lengths of text into simple sentences is an excellent way to hone your ‘less is more’ craftsmanship.
- Being straightforward with your words, rather than being too verbose or flowery, makes for a clearer message for the reader. Editing out needless words is equivalent to giving a decluttered presentation that is easier to digest and immediately gets to the point of your ideas.
- Seeking out alternatives of commonly used phrases which don’t really add any clarity, but just increase page length, can be worthwhile. Then using any replacements sparingly and only when necessary ensures that the true power of your writing emerges while avoiding filler-words or vague tangents.
- Each sentence should unfailingly carry its own distinct point and purpose, where it stands authentically alone alongside others. Disregard any passages which don’t have a clear meaning of their own after cutting out unnecessary phrases.
- Once the editing and refinement process has finished, review your work to ensure that the narrative still runs smoothly. Punctuate correctly and check phraseology for relevancy and the conveyance of intended meanings.
