TIP #4: How To Write Concisely (2nd instalment)
Most people want to write more concisely, but what exactly is ‘conciseness’?
It’s the ability to make your point in as few words as possible. And that means omitting redundant or needless words.
In my book (rhetorica® — a toolkit of 21 everyday writing techniques), I break needless words down into five discrete categories, the first of which (‘Waffle, Wordiness and Wind’) I shared with you in the last newsletter. Here are another two categories: tautologies and lazy superlatives.
Needless words, category 2: Tautologies
A tautology is the use of two different words or phrases to convey the same idea. For example:
A pair of twins: this is either redundant or ambiguous. Is it two or four people?
Blue in colour: as opposed to blue in weight? But as a client once said, it could be ‘blue in content’.
Seventeen years of age: thank you, but we know that years are a unit of age.
Totally unique: something is either unique or it’s not; it’s binary, like pregnancy or a switch. A woman can’t be ‘slightly pregnant’, nor can a light switch be ‘slightly on’.
Surrounded on all sides: surrounded means ‘on all sides’.
Close scrutiny: by definition scrutiny means close examination, so close is redundant.
Close proximity: as above.
Past experience: by definition, experience is always in the past.
Future plans: by definition, all plans are future-based.
Safe haven: if somewhere is unsafe, it’s not a haven!
A sudden bang: a loud bang doesn’t go off gradually; ‘Bang!’ is by definition a sudden, loud noise.
Needless words, category 3: Lazy Superlatives
Novice writers often think that they improve their writing by qualifying nouns with hyperbolic adjectives. Here are a few:
A grave crisis
(this is arguably a tautology too: you can’t exactly have a trivial or light-hearted crisis)
A bad accident
A severe problem
A terrible emergency
A superb decision
I call these ‘lazy superlatives’ because the writer is trying to add impact, but at the expense of more useful information. Good writers seek to inform, rather than emphasise:
An economic crisis
A road-traffic accident
A debt problem
A humanitarian emergency
A unanimous decision
In the next issue of Writing Tips for Top Consultants, we’ll put abstract nouns and needy verbs to the sword. Till then!
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Notes on these readability stats: my ASL (Average Sentence Length) is 12.8 words, outside the recommended range of 15–20, but that’s due to the short examples; only 4% of my sentences are in the passive voice, which is good news; my readability scores 64.1%, above the threshold of plain English, which starts at 60% FRE.
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Want to turbo-charge your writing? Then join us on the next
rhetorica® open course in February 2017
click here to find out more.
