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 Wordiness -- To avoid.

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URP(Syndicate)
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Join date : 2009-04-18
Age : 27
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Wordiness -- To avoid. Empty
PostSubject: Wordiness -- To avoid.   Wordiness -- To avoid. EmptyThu May 14, 2009 2:32 pm

PS: Notice how this text is not written in my style. That's because I just directly copy-pasted it from a site that shows how to deal with Wordiness. The link is: http://web.uvic.ca/~gkblank/wordiness.html


“They have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps."

—Shakespeare (Love’s Labour’s Lost, act 5, sc. 1, ll. 36-7)

The world has only so much space. When you write, your job is to use that space carefully. I can offer some quick tips: find the right word and use it; when in doubt, cut it out; edit your work like it was written by someone you don’t like. But in the end, the general principle is simple: if you’ve heard a phrase more than a couple of times, and it isn’t key wording, essential in carrying meaning, or a definitive phrase, try to get rid of it.

While you work on that one, you can get a good start by avoiding "there is/are/was/were," “it is/was," “that is/are/were," and “which is/are." You can also try to dump what I call “wazzle" (waffling and fuzzy) words, like “actually," “aspects," “basically," "definitely," “quite," “really," “situation," “truly," "ultimately," and “very. " Actually, these are basically fruity habits, and they can truly go in most situations. "Could," "should," and "would" are also famous wazzlers.

Let me try an analogy. Think of your writing in the same way you think about all the stuff you own. Now think of having a garage sale. What you put into your garage sale is the useless junk that has been hanging around for a long time. At first you feel a little remorse in seeing it all go, but then, with your new, uncluttered world, you feel light, clean, and fresh, just like they say in the soap commercials. Apply this to your writing. Keep the good stuff, and get rid of the useless clutter that’s been hanging around in your writing.
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