Omit Needless Words: An Element of Style
Ah, the exquisite torture of Strunk and White’s slender manual. Though oft unloved by students, it befriends the ambitious entrepreneur, offering advancement in return for study. For instance, its dictum “omit needless words” can convert dry rambling to compelling communication.
In short: Say less, deliver more.
Many bemoan today’s short attention spans, but conciseness pleased even the ancients. Throughout history, brilliant writers echo:
- Brevity is the soul of wit (William Shakespeare)
- Good things, when short, are twice as good (Baltasar Gracian)
- If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought (Dennis Roth)
- The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do (Thomas Jefferson)
Unfortunately, being short is hard. Mark Twain: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
Fortunately, time and practice yield impressive results. Try these steps:
- Draft with abandon. Brevity is the work of revision. Censoring your thoughts during a first draft stifles creativity.
- Re-organize. Poorly organized communications repeat themselves. Use “copy” and “paste” functions to move blocks of text until they follow a logical order.
- Delete vigorously. The fact that you wrote it does not make it sacred. Having organized carefully, delete energetically.
- Remove “very.” Remove all forms of “very,” “really,” and related adverbs. For emphasis, choose strong verbs and nouns. For instance, convert “She very quickly read the proposal” to “She skimmed it.”
- Replace "is” with action. “She is ambitious and wants to be at the top” becomes “She ascends eagerly.”
- Use descriptive verbs. “He makes a final decision” becomes “He finalizes.”
- Use your thesaurus. Often a phrase can be replaced with a word.
- Rewrite. Again. Start with the first and last paragraphs, then the first sentence of each paragraph, then the remainder.
- Re-read. Again.
- When critical, hire a professional. Choose an editor or writer whose concise work you enjoy.
I follow my own advice. This article when drafted: 987 words. Now: 347. Which would you rather read?
