WRITING WITH PRECISION FIVE PRINCIPLES OF CONCISION 1

WRITING WITH PRECISION

FIVE PRINCIPLES OF CONCISION 1. DELETE WORDS THAT MEAN LITTLE OR NOTHING 2. DELETE WORDS THAT REPEAT THE MEANING OF OTHER WORDS 3. DELETE WORDS IMPLIED BY OTHER WORDS 4. REPLACE A PHRASE WITH A WORD 5. CHANGE NEGATIVES TO AFFIRMATIVES

REDUCING WORDINESS— REMOVE DEAD WORDS THERE IS/ARE; IT IS Ø REPLACE WITH MEANINGFUL WORDS IN MY OPINION Ø YOU WROTE THE PAPER; THE ENTIRE I THINK; I BELIEVE PIECE IS YOUR OPINION Ø YOU WROTE THE PAPER; THE ENTIRE I FEEL TO BE HONEST FOR THE PURPOSE OF MY ESSAY… PIECE IS YOUR OPINION Ø USE ONLY WHEN DESCRIBING PHYSICAL SENSATION OR EMOTIONS Ø YOUR PAPER IS FACTUAL; HONESTY SHOULD NEVER BE QUESTIONED Ø YOU DON’T HAVE TO TELL US THAT YOUR WRITING HAS PURPOSE

REDUCING WORDINESS— CHANGE NEGATIVES TO AFFIRMATIVES Not different Similar Few Not many Not allowed Prevented Rarely Not often Not noticed Ignored Continue Not Stop

REDUCING WORDINESS— REPLACE WORDY PHRASES At. Always all times At that point in Then time Due to the fact Because that At the present Now time In this day and Today age In spite of the Although fact that To to In order If In the event that On a daily Daily basis Since Being that

ACKNOWLEDGING THE AUDIENCE— IDENTIFYING TRITE LANGUAGE Ø ALSO REFERRED TO AS “CLICHÉ LANGUAGE” It remains to be seen Thanks in advance Breathed a sigh of relief Ø OFTEN USED IN SPEAKING BUT SHOULDN’T BE USED IN WRITING ØW AND PHRASES THAT ARE STALE FROM FREQUENT USE For all. ORDS intents and As I was saying Few and far between purposes Ø SUGGESTS LAZINESS AND A LACK OF CREATIVITY It is what it is Your guess is as good as mine Last but not least Better late than never Sad but true Trials and tribulations

ACKNOWLEDGING THE AUDIENCE— REMOVING COLLOQUIALISMS WHAT IS SLANG? AN INFORMAL LANGUAGE CONSISTING OF WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS CONSIDERED APPROPRIATE FOR CASUAL, FRIENDLY, AND EVERYDAY USE. WHY DO WE USE SLANG? IT’S INFORMAL. IT ASSOCIATES YOU WITH A SPECIFIC REGION OR COMMUNITY. IT EXPRESSES YOUR PERSONALITY AND BACKGROUND. WHY SHOULD SLANG BE REMOVED FROM FORMAL WRITING?

WRITING SPECIFICALLY— REPLACING VAGUE WORDS How. Amany? lot What? Thing To Good/Bad what extent? How much? Really How. Very much? What? Stuff

WRITING SPECIFICALLY— WORD CHOICE AND USING A THESAURUS Get Obtain, acquire, achieve, attain, procure Let Allow, enable, permit, assist, authorize Make Compose, formulate, create, construct, build Talk about Discuss, mention, reveal, debate, deliberate