Be clear and concise for writting

The first key to being concise is eliminating unnecessary information. Stepping away from your document and coming back to it later can help you be more objective about what is and isn’t needed to convey your message.

The second key is eliminating unnecessary words. Qualifiers such as very, fairly, and quite rarely add meaning. In fact, because they’re so overused, they often have the opposite effect.

Many commonly used phrases include useless words. Some wordy phrases and their replacements are listed below:

Replace:	With:
along the lines of	like
a majority of	most
a majority of the time	usually
as a general rule	generally
as per	as, according to
as soon as	when
at your earliest convenience	soon or by x date
as you may or may not know	as you may know
at a later date	later
at all times	always
at this point in time	now
avail oneself of	use
by means of	by
can be in a position to	can
due to the fact that	because
during the time that	while
for the purpose of	for
free of charge	free
have a tendency to	tend to
inasmuch as	because
in accordance with	according to
in advance of	before
in all probability	probably
in connection with	about
in many instances	often
in order that, in order to	to
in reference to, in regard to	about
in spite of the fact that	although
in the amount of	for
in the event that	if
in the matter of	about
in the near future	soon
in this day and age	nowadays, now
in view of the fact that	because
make a recommendation that	recommend
of a confidential nature	confidential
on account of the fact that	because
on the grounds that	because
owing to the fact that	because
perform an analysis of	analyze
pertaining to	about
prior to	before
pursuant to	since
the question as to whether	whether
regarding the matter of	about
subsequent to	after, since
the writer, the undersigned	I, me
up to this writing	until now

Other phrases are redundant:

Replace:	With:
absolutely perfect	perfect
actual experience	experience
adding together	adding
advance planning	planning
and et cetera	et cetera
any and all	all
at about	about
basic essentials or basic fundamentals	basics, essentials, fundamentals
both together	together
cancel out	cancel
check into	check
close proximity	near
combine into one	combine
complete stop	stop
completely full	full
consensus of opinion	consensus
continue on	continue
cooperate together	cooperate
current status	status
customary practice	practice
desirable benefits	benefits
each and every	each or every
end result	result
enter into	enter
exactly equal	equal
final outcome	outcome
first and foremost	first
first priority	priority
free gift	gift
future projections	projections
goals and objectives	goals
group meeting	meeting
honest truth	truth
joined together	joined
new innovation	innovation
no doubt but	no doubt
one and the same	the same
outside of	outside
over with	over
past experience	experience
past history	history
personal opinion	opinion
point in time	time
range all the way from	range from
the reason is because	the reason is or because
reduce down	reduce
refer back to	refer to
repeat again	repeat
resume again	resume
small/large in size	small/large
totally empty	empty
this particular instance	this instance
3 a.m. in the morning; 3 p.m. in the afternoon	3 a.m., 3 p.m.
whether or not	whether
young in age	young

The third key to being clear and concise is using short sentences and paragraphs. Try to keep sentences to between 20 and 25 words. Or simply break up sentences that extend more than two lines.

In general, no paragraph should include more than one or two ideas, and a paragraph of more than six sentences or 10 to 12 lines is almost always too long. When in doubt, split paragraphs in two at logical breaking points. The same goes for sentences.

You don’t want your writing to sound stilted. Varying sentence length and structure can help prevent this. Read your writing out loud to make sure it sounds natural.

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