Fat-Free Writing
How, and why, one should eliminate the deadwood from their writing.
A powerfully written piece of writing is unpretentious, simple, concise and direct. A distinguishing mark of forceful writing is economy — using no more words than necessary. There should be no redundant words. When you trim your stuffy sentences, your writing becomes logical and clear.
Pompous words do not make a good writing. “Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage–to move in the opposite direction.” Words of the genius, Albert Einstein.
After you write a sentence, look it over and ask whether the sense would be damaged by judicious trimming. If not, start cutting, because the shorter version is usually better. Pascal once said, “The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter.”
“The point I wish to make is that the students studying at this school are in need of a much better building” is verbose and should be replaced by “Students at this school need a better building”.
Bureaucratic and academic writing pads every sentence with phrases like ‘It is important to note that’ or ‘it should be pointed out’. This slows down reading. Revise “There are two security guards at the gate” to “Two security guards stand at the gate”.
While making a public speech, do not say “I would like to thank”; instead, simply thank whoever you want to thank. Similarly, you will make a better impression on your interviewers if you don’t repeatedly say, “I’d like to say”; say what you want without such interjections.
Don’t you think ‘We decided that we would leave the meeting early’ is wordy? A better option would have been to write ‘We decided to leave the meeting early’.
A short list of some of the offenders that can be deleted (or replaced by): join together (join), in the event that (if), it can be seen that, prior to (before), owing to the fact that (because or since), it has been indicated that, basically, essentially, totally, completely, therefore, it should be remembered that, it should be noted that, it is imperative that, at the present moment in time(now), in order to (to), preplanning(planning – you always plan before the event), personal opinion (opinion – opinions are personal), new discovery, oral conversation, actual reality, free gifts, absolutely essential, advance warning, red in color (red), in a manner of speaking, associate together, all inclusive, ask a question, at this point in time, bare naked, basic fundamentals, component parts, empty hole/space, whether or not, surrounded on all sides, postponed until later, near vicinity, passing fad, sufficient enough.
Avoid these whenever you can.
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Tags: fat-free writing, writing tips
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March 5th, 2009 at 9:31 am
wow, i really like this post, very helpful. tnx for sharing this.
March 5th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Thanks for the reminder! I am one of the worst offenders in this category. Trimming the “fat” from my writing is a skill that I am working on.
March 6th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Excellent writing tips, a must read and book marked.
Monica
March 6th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Great article with lots of info. Thanks!
March 6th, 2009 at 7:23 am
nice write
March 8th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I’ve bookmarked this page, too, as I’m a big offender. Essenrially (ha ha!), I’m guilty of 80% of the caveats!
March 12th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
For those who craves for brevity it is ok.But it all depends upon what you write, its words limits and your style of writing etc.But one thing is sure. we should avoid redundancy.Thanks for your article.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:06 am
Ramalingam,
It’s not about any of the things you list in the beginning. It’s about clarity. Use of redundant words takes away the clarity. Notice some of the examples in the article:
new discovery – every discovery is new; else, it’s not a discovery.
advance warning – warnings are always given in advance; otherwise it becomes a report.
These examples are only meant to make you notice how you write. There are plenty of writing all over the media where verbiage merely makes the writing difficult to comprehend. If any sentence makes you re-read it, it definitely needs a revision.
March 22nd, 2009 at 1:25 pm
Great article, Umi,
And so true. Good writing arises from good editing–knowing when to cut out superfluous words.
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
This is excellent advice. Even veteran writers like myself need to be reminded of how easy it is to forget the need for clarity.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Uma, this is such good advice I had to read it again.
October 30th, 2011 at 4:46 am
nice write thanks
December 29th, 2011 at 5:27 am
nicely written thanks