Several months ago, we launched a new feature of brief Workplace Writing ‘Power Points’. Going forward, we’ll share more of these simple tips to help your writing pass the ‘7-C Test’ and become more Clear, Conversational, Concise, Consistent, Credible, Compelling & Correct.
For this month, let’s look at Concise:
Noun Phrases – trade for verbs whenever you can.
- Take the noun phrase ‘ … in the process of reaching a decision … ‘, cut anything that isn’t a root verb and wind up with a more action-oriented ‘ … decide .. .’
- Same for turning “…in the process of the investigation of…” into ” … investigating … “.
Unnecessary Words – cut anything not adding value.
- Turn “… in the amount of $2,300” into “… for $2,300”.
- Same for turning “At the present time …” into “Now …”.
- And “Despite the fact that” into “Although …”.
Redundancies – waste words and look lame.
- ‘Advance planning’ or ‘planning ahead’ can be easily replaced with ‘planning’. It’s a future activity anyway.
- ‘I will call you later’ doesn’t make sense as the verb ‘will call’ is in the future tense already.
- ‘Each and every’ both mean the same, so pick the one you like best.
- Why would we want to say ‘meet together’ as if we could meet apart? ‘Meet’ says is all.
So, use the ‘Power Points’ to harness WordPower and continually improve your workplace writing.