Let the Air Outta That LINGO!
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Whether you’re writing a story, article, business letter or ad copy, it’s wise to keep in mind William Strunk’s advice (author of The Elements of Style): “Vigorous writing is concise writing.”
Does that mean you should always write short copy or articles? No. It means you should always write tightly. Here are a few ways to keep your writing “vigorous and concise.”
Shorten sentences: As the number of words per sentence increases, understanding decreases. Review long sentences. They may work better cut down to two or three shorter ones.
Shorten words: Don’t use a $10-word where a $1-word will do. Intellectuals won’t be insulted by short, simple words. But puff-speak puts readers off. You’ll lose their interest if your writing sounds high-handed. Plus, short words just Pack More Punch.
Lose the adjectives: Rather than string adjectives together, create a word picture when you want to describe something.
Instead of: Jane was a tall, thin, angular woman.
Try: Jane towered over most men, and filled out her size-six sweater like a plastic hanger.
Get to the point: We tend to “warm up” our writing with several paragraphs of unnecessary filler before we get to the meat. Go over your work. Does the real lead start in paragraph four? Then cut the first three.
Cut the fat: This applies to words we think sound “authoritative.” Words like utilize for use… facilitate for assist… impact for affect … interface (verb) for meet … methodology for rules … optimization for working … and so on.
Avoid cliches like the plague: Cliches are such a part of our language we hardly notice them. But they weaken your writing. Again, use a word picture instead.
Eliminate redundancies: These are phrases with needless repetition such as first and foremost (say first) … current trend (say trend) … exact opposites (say opposites) … or final outcome (say outcome).
Nix wordy prepositional phrases: Phrases like “in the near future”, “at a later date”, “in the event of”, muddy your writing and sound like puff-speak. Instead, be specific. Say next week, in two months, etc.
Be a little ruthless about editing out grandiloquence, and your words will ring with authority and honesty.
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