Techniques for More Concise Writing

Attention spans are shorter than ever. With all the information that the world has to offer, it’s difficult to compartmentalize what’s most important. Combine that breadth of information with wordiness and repetition, and important messages become invisible.

Purposeful Prose believes that it is possible to write concisely while drawing out your message. We communicate concisely because we want our audience to understand us fully and quickly.

Any thoughtful, substantive information that can supplement a concise message will, consequently, be easier to digest. We have four simple tips that will help you to self-edit for concise writing. It’s important to make sure you’ve said all you need to say and to give yourself room to expand.

1. Cut Redundancy and Wordiness

This is an easy roadblock to run into. There are ways to use repetition to great effect in writing, and it can help solidify a message. If you are overdoing it, becoming wordy in the process, a repetitive beat can feel monotonous. As such, this is always a great place to start your pruning.

Avoid redundancies: You never need to say “each and every.” Pick the one that best fits your sentence. “Each” best represents individual members of a group while “every” signifies a collective.

Cut modifiers:  There’s a reason why “Very,” “really,” “just,” “quite” exist. They’re useful words, and they can best describe the intensity of a situation. If someone is “very happy”, think about what “very happy” might mean to you versus “elated”. What intensity of mood are you trying to convey? That will help you decide whether your modifier is necessary.

Use caution with “filler” phrases: A commonly cut phrase is “in fact”. “In fact” is usually redundant. Its function is usually to emphasize what follows, but it doesn’t often execute on that function effectively. Be thoughtful about your language, but not so thoughtful that you load it with words that your message doesn’t need. You deserve better!

2. Know When to Use Active Voice and Passive Voice

Concise writing is usually in active voice.

Passive: “The report was written by the team.” (5 words)

Active: “The team wrote the report.” (4 words)

Passive voice will, likely, require more words, so it’s important to know when to use it and when to let active voice take the lead. Many writers default to passive voice, making the language more direct. This can be helpful.

When making your choice between active and passive voice, make that choice at the level of the sentence. More simply, decide which subject is better emphasized, and don’t force active voice when passive voice is the better fit.

Passive: “A new experimental surgery was successfully performed.” (7 words)

Active: “Surgeons successfully performed a new experimental surgery.” (7 words)

Be the judge.

3. Replace weak verbs with strong verbs

In Novelist as a Vocation, Haruki Murakami had this to say:

“If possible, I would like my readers to savor that same emotion when they read my books. I want to open a window in their souls and let the fresh air in. This is what I think of, and hope for, as I write—purely and simply.”

Murakami doesn’t know a weak verb because he knows how to use every verb. Beginning with “savor”, leading to the less intense but easy to hang on to “open,” every word appeals to the senses. 

Your verbs must thoroughly and accurately make your meaning visible. Use as simple or as complex language as you need, but make it evocative.

4. Split long sentences and paragraphs

Variety in sentence structure is a good thing. Sometimes, a sentence is just too long, too packed with clauses, to work. When this is the case, break it. The same goes for paragraphs. 

A single paragraph should do one thing, or cover one main idea. If your paragraphs are sprawling, your reader may get lost in the undergrowth.

Remember when we were talking about writing becoming monotonous? If your writing is solely composed of long block paragraphs, that can have a similar effect. Every word should matter!

Are you wanting to make your message clearer and more concise? Is there something going on with your writing that you want to work through? Let’s take a look at your prose together, and discuss where you can tighten things up for the strongest, clearest effect. Contact us anytime!