Words And Concise Writing

Words: the first key to concise writing
Think of keeping your writing cheap. You want to avoid the most expensive words and use the least expensive words.

·       The least expensive words are verbs.

·       Then nouns.

·       Then adjectives.

·       Then adverbs.

·       Make long words into short words. If you can say someething with fewer words, say it with fewer words.  

 

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Fat Version	Lean Version
12 midnight	midnight
12 noon	noon
3 am in the morning	3 am
absolutely spectacular/phenomenal	spectacular/phenomenal
a person who is honest	an honest person
a total of 14 birds	14 birds
biography of her life	biography
circle around	circle
close proximity	proximity
completely unanimous	unanimous
consensus of opinion	consensus
cooperate together	cooperate
each and every	each
enclosed herewith	enclosed
end result	result
exactly the same	the same
final completion	completion
frank and honest exchange	frank exchange or honest exchange
free gift	gift
he/she is a person who . . .	he/she
important/basic essentials	essentials
in spite of the fact that	although
in the field of economics/law enforcement	in economics/law enforcement
in the event that	if
job functions	job or functions
new innovations	innovations
one and the same	the same
particular interest	interest
period of four days	four days
personally, I think/feel	I think/feel
personal opinion	opinion
puzzling in nature	puzzling
refer back	refer
repeat again	repeat
return again	return
revert back	revert
shorter/longer in length	shorter/longer
small/large in size	small/large
square/round/rectangular in shape	square/round/rectangular
summarize briefly	summarize
surrounded on all sides	surrounded
surrounding circumstances	circumstances
the future to come	the future
there is no doubt but that	no doubt
usual/habitual custom	custom
we are in receipt of	we have received

Edit the following to be more concise:

1. He's just about the way coolest personI know. 
2. Summarize the following briefly. 
3. I don't know. He's just very very, you know, smart. 
4. I think this reading assignment goes back to the stupid one we had last week. 
5. In spite of the fact that there was a shooting at Sandy Hook, doesn't mean that we should ban guns.