Concise Writing

Combine sentences

Some information does not require a full sentence, and can be easily inserted into another sentence without losing its value.

Omit redundant categories

Specific words imply their general categories, so we usually don't have to state both. For example, large in size, often times, of bright color, heavy in weight, period in time, round in shape, at an early time, economics field, of cheap quality.

Change phrases into single words and adjectives.

The employee with ambition--> The ambitious employee.

Conciseness

The goal of concise writing is to use the most effective words.

Change unnecessary that, who, and which clauses into phrases.

The report, which was recently released--> The recently released report.

What is the purpose of concise writing?

To replace several vague words with more powerful and specific words.

Avoid overusing noun forms of verbs

Use verbs when possible rather than noun forms known as nominalizations. The current focus of the medical profession is disease prevention--> The medical profession currently focuses on disease prevention.

Omit repetitive writing

Watch for phrases or longer passages which repeat words with similar meanings.

Avoid overusing expletives at the begging of a sentence

It is the governor who signs and vetoes bills--> The governor signs and vetoes bills. There was a big explosion, which shook the windows, and people ran into the street--> A big explosion shook the windows, and people ran into the street.

A list of unnecessary words that can be eliminated in most sentences

Kind of, sort of, type of, really, basically, for all intents and purposes, definitely, actually, generally, individual, specific, particular.

Interrogate every word in a sentence

Make sure every word is providing something unique and important to the sentence, if it's not, you can delete it. Eliminate unnecessary modifiers and determiners that do not actually add to the meaning of the sentence.

Omit redundant pairs

Many pairs of words imply to each other. Finish implies complete, so the phrase completely finish is redundant in most cases. Some more examples are, true fact, various differences, end result, past memories, each individual, terrible tragedy, unexpected surprise, free gift, and basic fundamentals.