8 steps to more concise writing

1. Remove redundancies.

Avoid double-teaming terms like “a period of one week,” “end result,” “free gift,” and “personal opinion.” Watch for phrases that echo the quality in question: “oval in shape,” “larger in size,” “shorter in duration,” and the like. Omit redundant words that are already implied as part of an abbreviated term, such as machine in “ATM machine.”

2. Reduce phrases to words.

Replace a descriptive phrase following a noun with a one-word adjective that precedes the noun: “People who are experienced at traveling know better than to label their luggage,” for example, can be revised to “Experienced travelers know better than to label their luggage.”

A modifying phrase, similarly, can be reduced to a simple adverb: “Sympathizing with her concerns, he nodded in response to her complaint,” for instance, is more concisely expressed as, “He nodded sympathetically in response to her complaint.”