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.