V Wordiness-When the Writer Uses Unnecessary Words Too Often in Their Writing

Eliminating Wordiness

v  Wordiness-when the writer uses unnecessary words too often in their writing.

Ø  To eliminate wordiness make sure every word tells something.

Ø  You do not have to shorten sentences. They can still be very long just make sure every word is adding something to the sentence.

v  Redundancy is the most common mistake

Ø  Make sure you aren’t saying the same thing twice.

Ø  Instead of saying “close proximity” you just need to say “proximity” because “close” should be inferred.

v  You can reduce clauses to phrases

Ø  “Citizens who knew what was going on voted him out of office” could become “Knowledgeable citizens voted him out of office” without loss of meaning.

v  Be on the lookout for phrases you can delete

Ø  Things like “in my opinion” or “as a matter of fact” don’t add anything to the meaning of the sentence.

Ø  Example:

§  In the event that enough people protest, it will probably be revoked.
If enough people protest, it will probably be revoked.

v  Other links

Ø  http://www2.gsu.edu/~accerl/wordiness/WO.html

Ø  http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/concise.htm