Small changes make a big difference in your writing’s clarity and brevity. One of the best professional writing tips is to simplify. Simpler is better for sentence structure, word choice, and document length.
The “8 Secrets” were developed by WordRake founder Gary Kinder, who has taught these secrets in over 1,000 writing programs for AMLAW 50 law firms, government agencies, and corporations. We’re excited to reveal these “8 Secrets” for better writing.
You should know these eight critical tricks for spotting verbose and unclear writing. Here’s what to watch for.
When it is followed later in a sentence with that (or who) you can often eliminate the lead-in phrase, replace it with a noun or remove both the it and that (or who).
Some common phrases to eliminate include:
You’ll also find this verbose writing style in the following sentence:
“It was McCann himself who initiated his dual membership status.”
Simplify the sentence by removing the it-that combo so the sentence reads:
“McCann himself initiated his dual membership status.”
Much like the it-that pairing, the there-that pairing often includes unnecessary words. The best way to make these sentences more concise is to remove there, the "to be" verb, and that (or who).
Let’s review an example:
“There are many technologies that allow us to improve healthcare outcomes.”
You can eliminate the there-that combo to make this sentence more concise:
“Many technologies allow us to improve healthcare outcomes.”
The word that isn’t all that bad. (See what we did there?) But if we removed it from the previous sentence, you’d still understand the meaning, so it's unnecessary.
When you see that in your writing, remove it mentally and see if the sentence still makes sense. If the meaning changes or is unclear, leave it.
Here's an example using the word twice—once usefully and once unnecessarily:
“That morning he said that the economy was fundamentally strong.”
The second that is removable without changing the sentence’s meaning or leaving the reader guessing.
The English language has over 100 prepositions. They can add information to a sentence or they can clutter it. Most often, in invites unnecessary phrases into a sentence. Whenever possible, delete in phrases. Some samples of common pointless in phrases include:
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When you see the word of, look to either side of it for unnecessary words. Unnecessary words can come before or after of. The preposition of often follows nominalizations and adds extra words. Let’s look at an example:
“The division conducted an audit of Nicor and issued a notice of assessment.”
Once you’ve removed the nominalization and the preposition of you have a clearer, cleaner sentence:
“The division audited Nicor and issued a notice of assessment.”
More samples of common pointless of phrases include: