Concise is beautiful: Words

I found the following online advice on “concise writing.” Read it quickly: 

Academic writing in the social sciences often examines abstruse topics that require in-depth analysis and explanation. As a result, a common challenge to writing college-level research papers is expressing your thoughts clearly by utilizing language that communicates essential information unambiguously. When you proofread your paper, critically review your writing style and the terminology you used throughout your paper. Pay particular attention to identifying and editing the following categories of imprecise writing… 

https://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/writingconcisely  

Now tell yourself what it said. 

You almost certainly couldn’t. 

Now read this revision quickly:  

Academic writing in the social sciences requires analysis and explanation. The challenge is to express your thoughts clearly and plainly. When you proofread, review your sentences and word choices. Remove these types of wordy writing: … 

Now tell yourself what it said. 

You likely did better this time. 

It took effort to get it to 35 words, but at half the original length, you can get the meaning quickly.  

Clear writing is concise 

Clear writing is concise: Write fewer, clearer words and your reader has less fog to look through.  

If your reader is marking your assessment, they might enjoy it and not get a headache. If they are not obliged to read you, they might even finish it. And if they are your flock, they might have energy to ponder and apply your message. 

Open

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So how do we write concisely? 

With time and effort. As a student said to me recently, “It’s ironic that writing fewer words takes longer.”  

Attitude 

I read a lot on how to write. There are consistent tips, but little on attitude. Attitude is vital: 

The attitude we need is humility, shown as: 

1. My reader is the most important person in my writing. 

2. I must struggle to be clear. 

3. Clear writing helps clear thinking.  

Let’s consider these in turn: 

1. My reader is the most important person in my writing. 

When I write, I should consider my audience more important than myself. Never succumb to the pride that says I am too important or too busy to be clear, or it’s OK if they struggle to understand me. Adopt the humility that says that I should struggle so they don’t. 

2. I must struggle to be clear. 

I know what I intend to say, so my writing always makes sense to me. 

Humility reminds me that I am not automatically clear. My first draft always needs more work, whether it is an essay, a sermon, or a Bible study. Even professional writers need sub-editors. 

3. Clear writing helps clear thinking.   

I won’t write clearly if my thinking is muddled. But my efforts to write concisely force me to think more clearly. And that clearer thinking leads to clearer writing. 

Open

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Useful tips: 

A commonplace among all writing experts – and they are worth reading and heeding – is to cut out all unnecessary words. At first we struggle to see them; later they jump out at us. 

Good tips for concise writing are many, but few things are necessary: 

1. Cut most adjectives 

2. Cut adverbs 

3. Cut big words  

4. Cut vague words 

5. Struggle to find precise words 

6. Cut long sentences 

7. Get rid of most relative clauses 

8. If it sounds academic, it is probably just pretentious 

9. Use technical language sparingly in anything other than academic writing 

10. Use technical language for precision only – and never to impress – in academic writing. 

Points 1-4 are unnecessary if you find the precise words of Point 5. A precise word is gold. 

Points 6-7 force you to carefully think and then focus your words. You are not an inspired biblical writer, so don’t excuse your dense writing as ‘Pauline.’ 

Points 8-10 fight our tendency to pompous, inflated language that points to us. We might think it makes us intellectual or academic, but it really makes us obscure and frustrating. 

To see these points in action, consider our opening extract on concise writing: 

1. Consider each word that I struck out. Removing each takes nothing away from the text and focusses the reader on my meaning. 

2. Consider each Italicised word. The simpler words are clearer. 

Recognising and eliminating unnecessary words takes time. Great writers toil at writing, rewriting, and deleting much that they have written. You, like them, write under constant pressure and deadlines, so you can’t polish everything you write for hours. But you can start now and start writing more clearly tomorrow. In a few months, you will be a better writer.  

Over the years to come, you will grow into a better communicator and thinker. 

Who’s going to work hard? 

Related Moore College blog posts: 

Essays: Fusilli not Spaghetti 

Write fast to write better 

Academic Writing 

Two excellent, easy-to-read blogs on concise writing: 

10 tips for more concise writing from Katherine Firth of Melbourne. While this is written for research students (think MTh and PhD), it applies easily to academic writing here at College. 

Writing Concisely from the Writing Center at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Always a good site. 

For your classic movie pleasure, Cool Hand Luke and a failure to communicate.