Introduction

The Importance of Being Concise

 

Conciseness is an important element of verbal and written communication that allows us to easily and effectively convey information. Our access to technology and wireless communications has revolutionized the way we communicate with others. In a business environment it is important to be concise because your boss and co-workers most likely interpret a lot of information on a daily basis. By being concise you are making it easier for them to comprehend what you want to communicate and also saving them (and yourself) valuable time. Doesn't it just irritate you when you are talking to someone and they go on-and-on-and-on-and-on about whatever it is they are trying to tell you? Then when they're finally finished you have no clue what they just said, so you just nod and smile. Your mind begins to sift through that big ugly mess of words to identify the main points of what you just heard.

Nacho Libre (2006, June 16). Nacho being confronted [Movie screenshot]. Retrieved from http://media.photobucket.com/image/nacho%20libre%20smile/sassybree95/2006_nacho_libre_013.jpg?o=1

How to Be More Concise

Trimming the Fat

Concise writing can be compared to the concept that trim sentences, like trim bodies, usually require far more effort than flabby ones. So how do we get our sentences into shape? Well, we trim the fat.

Photographed by Vojtech Vlk, Fotolia. (2009). Lose Weight [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://us.fotolia.com/id/25323556/ Copyright 2009 by Vojtech Vlk, Fotolia.

By putting in that extra bit of effort, we can eliminate typical mistakes made that add unnecessary clutter or "fat" to our writing. These mistakes include:

1. Fillers
2. Long Lead-Ins
3. Redundancies
4. Compound Prepositions
5. Empty Words 

I will be discussing how these mistakes can be corrected and avoided altogether.




Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.

Removing Fillers

Would You Like Fries With That?

Fillers are words that fatten sentences, similar to how a burger with fries affects us. The phrase "There is" is a common filler that serves no purpose to the sentence and usually indicates the uncertainty of the writer.

Man eating burger [Picture]. Retrieved from http://itola.com/business/new-mississippi-law-no-fat-people-allowed/

Here are some examples of how I removed the fillers from these sentences to make them more concise:

Wordy:

     There are four sous chefs who report directly to the head chef.

Concise:

     Four sous chefs report directly to the head chef.

With the fillers removed, the sentence is refined and is able to convey the same message more effectively.

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.  

Deleting Long Lead-Ins

Get to the Point!

Deleting unnecessary introductory words is imperative if you want your writing to be more concise. The "meat" of the sentence usually comes after the words that and because. Long lead-ins do not contribute to the effectiveness of your writing and often state the obvious. 

Here is an example of how you can eliminate long lead-ins:

Wordy: 

     I am sending this message to inform all of you that our new store hours are now 10:00a.m to 8:00p.m. 

Concise: 

     Our new store hours are 10:00a.m to 8:00p.m.

By getting to the point, you are able to keep the reader engaged and important information is picked up quicker.

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.  

Eliminating Redundancies

Making Things Perfectly Clear

Another way we can be more concise in our writing is by eliminating redundancies. A redundancy is an expression that contains words that carry similar meanings or words that are unnecessary. For example, saying unexpected surprise is like saying “surprise surprise” because these two words have similar meanings. Unnecessary adjectives, adverbs, and phrases also create redundancies. It is important to eliminate these from your writing if you want to be more concise because they identify a writer as inexperienced.

Here is a list of some common redundancies that you should try to avoid:

Redundancies to Avoid

advance warning 

alter or change

assemble together

basic fundamentals

collect together

consensus of opinion

contributing factor

dollar amount

each and every

end result

exactly identical

few in number

free and clear

grateful thanks

great majority

integral part

last and final

midway between

new changes

past history

perfectly clear

personal opinion

potential opportunity

positively certain

proposed plan

serious interest

refer back

true facts

visible to the eye

unexpected surprise 

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd.  

Reducing Compound Prepositions

Burning Calories

At this point in my blog, I would like to discuss compound prepositions. In case you don’t know what a compound preposition is, the opening sentence is a great example. Instead of using the phrase “at this point in my blog”, I could substitute it for the word now and place that now after “I would” to create the sentence “I would now like to discuss compound prepositions.” As you can see, I have eliminated the compound preposition by using a single word, which is often how this problem is resolved. By using a single word, I am able to convey the same meaning more efficiently.

Some other examples of compound prepositions are:

Wordy Compound Preposition	Shorter Form
as to whether or not	whether
at a later date	later
at this point in time	now
at such time, at which time	when
by means of, in accordance with	by
despite the fact that	although
due to the fact that, inasmuch as, in view of the fact that	because
for the amount of	for
in advance of, prior to	before
subsequent to	after
the manner in which	how
until such time as	until

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd. 
 

Purging Empty Words

No More Empty Calories

From the Los Angeles Times article Bellying up to Kentucky Fried Chicken's double down. (2009). KFC's Double Down [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dailydish/2009/08/bellying-up-to-kfcs-double-down-.html

Finally, we can be more concise by purging empty words. Many of the phrases we use contain words that are expendable. Some of these words include: case, degree, the fact that, factor, instance, nature, and quality. 

The following sentences will show you how you can rid of empty words to make your writing more concise:

In the case of WestJet, the airline improved its in-flight services.

Notice how much better the following sentences sound when we remove all the empty words:

In the case of Maclean’s, the newspaper improved its readability.

Because of the degree of active participation by our sales reps, profits soared.

We are aware of the fact that many managers need assistance.

Except for the instance of Toyota, Japanese Imports sagged.

She chose a career in a field that was analytical in nature. (Or, she chose a career in an analytical field.)

Student writing in that class is excellent in quality.

Avoid stating the obvious; the following sentences are great examples:

When it arrived, I cashed your cheque immediately.

We need printer cartridges; therefore, please send me two dozen laser cartridges.

Clauses that begin with that, which, and who can be shortened without loss of clarity. Such phrases can be reduced to a single adjective or adverb, such as apparently.

Changing the name of a ^successful company that is successful is always risky.

All employees who are among those completing the course will be reimbursed.

Our ^final proposal which was slightly altered in its final form, won approval.

We plan to schedule ^weekly meetings on a weekly basis.

Reference:

Guffey, M.E., Rhodes, K., & Rogin, P. (2008).  In A. Williams (Ed.), Writing Process Phase 3: Revise, Proofread, Evaluate. Business Communication:  Process and Product, Sixth Canadian Edition (pp. 175-181). Toronto, Ontario: Nelson Education Ltd. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, these are some of the main steps we can follow to ensure our writing is direct. By being more concise, otheres will be able to understand us quicker as there is less comprehension involved. I believe that we can avoid these mistakes altogether, which would make it a lot easier for us when it comes to editing. Now that you are aware of these common mistakes you will be able to identify when you have accidentally used one of them and correct it immediately. 

Besides the main points I have mentioned above, are there any other methods you can think of that can be used to make our writing more concise?

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope I was able to teach you something new about being concise!

Happy cat [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://terriblycute.com/10-very-happy-animals/

More Information

This video reviews some of the topics I covered and will help you to remember them:

You can also visit this website, which goes more in depth on the methods covered, gives you more examples, and mentions a couple of other ways to be more concise. There are also some fun practice sentences and quizzes at the end!