We intend these samplesin most cases, taken from ford school student writingto be considered in. Keeping your paper concise strengthens its clarity and gives it a smooth flow. Examples of policy writing david morse and elena delbanco. Editing for wordiness school of liberal arts iupui. Essay writing companion for ged or other writing practice.
Business writing primer the short primer distills the essential characteristics of business writing. American journal of business education fourth quarter 2008 volume 1, number 2 85 using rubrics to assess accounting students writing, oral presentations, and ethics skills joseph s. Sometimes we overload our sentences with unnecessary words and phrases, perhaps because we have come to believe that more is better as writing is in action films. For the next phase of the writing test, you are asked to edit the following news release for distribution to the national business and financial media. Wordiness also tends to occur when were struggling to clarify our ideas or when were tired and not thinking clearly. For general instructions on how to apply for financial aid, please visit the office of undergraduate financial aid website. A less wordy way to describe wordiness is using too many words. Wordiness occurs when a writer uses more words than necessary to express a thought. Writing concisely center for writing and speaking at some point in your educational career, youve probably received feedback on a paper that says something like too wordy or be more concise. Eliminating excessive, confusing, or redundant words from sentences can oftentimes make. Wordy sentences use too many useless words that clutter writing. Here are some tips to help keep your writing to the point. Sometimes repetition or wordiness causes minor disruptions in the flow of the essay. A ctive voice concise m y assistant photocopied the documents.
One contributing factor to wordy writing is the addition of unnecessary words, phrases, and ideas. Techniques for reducing wordinessnew macalester college. Recognize your own wordy sentences and know how to edit them to be. By eliminating wordiness, you can clarify your meaning.
Umc writing center handouts this handout is adapted from materials originally created by shelly powers of the university writing center at the university of texas at austin uwc. Get to the heart of your argument so that your readers will not get lost. Eliminating excessive, confusing, or redundant words from sentences can oftentimes make meanings. You may have been struggling to think ideas through as you wroteand piled up alternative wordings.
This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. Jun 19, 2019 sending files in pdf format is very common for most of us. Sometimes we overload our sentences with unnecessary words and phrases, perhaps because we. There are different versions of free pdf writer for each operating system, depending on the users requirement. If youre struggling with adding text to a pdf file, like filling out a pdf form that doesnt have interactive fields or writing comments on a document shared with your friends, there are several useful tools that can help you do this easily. Your goal is to make the text as clear and concise as possible, using the strategies discussed in class. For most writing, its best to avoid unnecessary phrases. There are several reasons that wordiness impacts clarity. Although such words and phrases can be meaningful in the appropriate context.
We take you, stepbystep, through the writing process. Staar english i expository writing score point 1 the essay represents a very limited writing performance. Burning words dont have to be a bad thing effective writing is succinct enough that it engraves itself in the. How to avoid wordiness linkedin learning, formerly. This lesson gives tips on how to identify and reduce wordiness.
Explores weak words, redundancy, cliches, wordy phrases and more. Techniques for reducing wordiness try not to use i and we in a formal paper. Students are walked through meaning, examples, and have opportunities to dissect sentences. The writing center writing concisely what this handout is about this handout helps you identify wordiness in your sentences, paragraphs, and essays and offers strategies for writing concisely. David morse and elena delbanco, ford school writing instructors. Avoid overusing it is, there is, and there are weak expletives at the beginning of sentences. Summarizing a research article university of washington.
Wordiness, says robert hartwell fiske, is arguably the biggest obstacle to clear writing and speaking 101 wordy phrases, 2005. The student wants to write on a pdf but he cannot do it. You are wordy when you are redundant, such as when you write, last may during the spring, or little kittens or very unique. Eliminating excessive, confusing, or redundant words from sentences can oftentimes make meanings much clearer. Burning words succinct writing effectively engraves are good. Rewrite the following sentences in the space provided. Join judy steinerwilliams for an indepth discussion in this video, how to avoid wordiness, part of writing in plain english. This is in contrast to analytic or pragmatic forms of writing. Wordiness means stating ideas, concepts, andor thoughts in an excessively lengthy, redundant, and verbose manner.
The use of more words than necessary to effectively convey meaning in speech or writing. Thus, the phrase quality of content refers to the significance of the. Regardless of the reason for padded writing, we can achieve concise writing if we incorporate several strategies during the writing process and if were aware of the individual patterns of wordiness typical of our own writing. The writer develops the essay in a manner that demonstrates a thorough understanding of the expository writing task. Concise writing expresses ideas without unnecessary wordiness. The business writing guide was created to help business students write more professional documents. Writers who overload their sentences with nominalizaons tend to. You are instructed to correct grammatical and associated press style errors, simplifying phrasing, and reduce wordiness to improve readability. For writing or editing documents, you may think that ms office is the primary application you need. The overuse of words is a very problematic issue in any form of writing. As we turn to the next topic, we realize that we must.
Wordiness is one of the most common esl mistakes and happens when a writer, either intentionally or unintentionally, uses far too many words or unnecessarily complex or abstract words. The purpose of expository writing is toexplain something, that is, to provide readers with information worth knowing and thinking about. Ergo, he is not using any app and is not currently writing on pdfs. Wordiness is the tendency to use more words than necessary. Responding with the question which app are you using to write on pdf files totally begs the question. Being concise can be a difficult task, in part because concision is difficult to explain or define. The symbol indicates work that you should turn into your teachermentor in addition to your actual finished piece of writing. Using three simple strategies will help avoid wordiness and thus make sentences more concise, more effective, and easier to understand. It takes planning and hard work, but writing is a skill, and like any other skill it involves learning the steps, learning how to apply those stepsand lots of practice.
This powerpoint is a great addition to a research or formal writing unit. A lesswordy way to describe wordiness is using too many words. Writing style the style requirements in the manual are intended to facilitate clear communication. Wordiness not only increases the length of your work without adding meaning, but also makes your writing harder to understand. Do you know that you create a persona with the voice and tone of your writing. Pdf is not reading the case, so reading as you have fce research source for each page. Let students have some writing fun as they learn how to be concise in their writing. Wordiness worksheet one good way to make your writing more energetic is to eliminate excess verbiage. This powerpoint walks students through what it means to be concise writers by using wordiness and redundancy examples. Suggested revisions are provided on the last page of this handout. Some examples of how you can condense and thus strengthen your writing follow. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences. American journal of business education fourth quarter 2008. This can make sentences confusing, obscuring meaning, slowing down the reader, and distracting from the overall message.
Danger signals and ways to react one of the most efficient ways to improve your writing is to edit it for conciseness. Passive voice wordy the documents have been photocopied by my assistant. Robinsonrevised winter 2009 1 learning centre avoiding wordiness in both academic and business writing, conciseness is important. Avoid distracting wordiness exercise a revise these sentences to eliminate distracting wordiness.
Eliminating wordiness although adding words helps fill pages, information that doesn. Editing for wordiness words are like acid the more theyre condensed, the more they burn. This genre includes poetry, fiction novels, short stories, scripts, screenplays, and creative nonfiction. In the event that fire breaks out, leave the files behind. The purpose for this style guide is to provide both an introduction and a reference for military broadcast journalists. How to sample essay without losing wealth in absolute sense it sample be very impractical to. The chapters and sections, outlined below, provide useful guidelines and strategies for a range of writing components. This 4page printable resource includes an introductory page with explanations and examples of problems with wordiness in writing 40 examples of inflated commonlyused phrases that students improve with shorte. Verbosity excess word use is often a result of idea generation, and wordy sentences and paragraphs, especially in early drafts. Most inexperienced writers use only the voices within their. Humorous, animated presentation about writing concise sentences and avoiding wordiness. Use a formal voice when writing paragraphs and essays. Revision practice writing concisely palomar college.
Wordiness read over your compositions, and, when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. If fire breaks out, leave the files behind in terms of should usually be revised out of your prose. The primary audience is dinfos students at all levels. Eliminating wordiness from your writing at the present time in the present circumstances at this point in time use now or today or nowadays. Policy contributes to global warming, not accounting for my opinion that u. Some steps toward concise writing eliminating wordiness is a crucial part of revising prose. If you find yourself sticking closely to the original language and making only minor. Contrast with conciseness, directness, and clarity. Wordiness can seriously detract from the coherency and quality of your writing and will likely frustrate your readers.
Trim the fire was a terrifying situation and a depressing experience for all of us. Though writing is easier for some than others, its important to know that anyone can write well. Strengthen your prose, making it sound more authoritative and confident. How can i write with a stylus on a pdf file with surface rt. This guide walks you through writing a timed paper, but it can also be used for general writing practice. Eliminate unnecessary determiners and modifiers writers sometimes clog up their prose with one or more extra words or phrases that seem to determine narrowly or to modify the meaning of a noun but dont actually add to the meaning of the sentence. The writing center offers the following handouts, many of which include exercises and answer keys. Succinct writing effectively engraves itself in the readers memory.
The beautiful, majestic, breathtaking city of rome was visited by many tourists from america during the hot summer. As strunk and white tell us in the elements of style 4th ed. This can make sentences confusing, obscuring meaning, slowing down the reader, and distracting. Use of languageconventions the writers word choice is purposeful and precise. Write about literature in the present tense and use the active voice. However, as pdf format becomes more and more used, free pdf writers also becomes increasingly popular. The role of chinese efl learners rhetorical strategy use. Creative writing definition of genre creative writing, a form of artistic expression, draws on the imagination to convey meaning through the use of imagery, narrative, and drama. Keeping your paper concise strengthens its clarity and gives it. Repetitive sentences, colorless word choices, and deadweight, filler phrases can bore your readers so much.