One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.
The aim of writing is telling your reader something, not showing off your language skills. Many popular words, however, serve no purpose except burdening the reader with extra interpreting work and misusing resources – most crucial of which is the reader’s time. The reader clicks Back if after each sentence he pauses to convert your complex script to clear writing.
Does each word you write express a new idea? If not, it is clutter. Many managers and bureaucrats communicate in cluttered words, because a popular misconception is that the more puffed up your prose is, the more important it is. A note by a power-conscious manager to his subordinates goes like this:
The company, through this written communication, would like to bring to the esteemed consideration of its junior as well as senior employees that for the purpose that the company continue to operate with efficiency and consistency, the arrival and exit of its well-regarded cadre should be right according to the stipulated working hours.
This manager is telling the employees:
I request you to be punctual for office to maintain efficient work.
The first version is suffocating and seems to be typed by a robot. The second version is open and seems to be written by a human. For some stylish educationalists, however, the second version is very simple, so something has to be wrong with it. “But,” says William Zinsser in his book On Writing Well, “the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.”
If any word isn’t doing a new work, remove it – no matter how fashionable it appears. Pay particular attention to adverbs because often we unnecessarily fill them. Here are two examples:
He laughed happily. (‘Happily’ is clutter.)
She cried sadly. (‘Sadly’ is clutter.)
Additionally, there is no need to add phrases such as “In my humble opinion,” “It is to be noted,” “It is obvious” etc. Your writing style works as an intangible to tell what is humble, noteworthy, obvious etc. Don’t write “I would like to particularly add at this crucial juncture of conversation,” just add it. Don’t write “It is sad to note,” just make it sad. Don’t write “The important topic to be discussed by us today is child abuse,” just start discussing. People use words in excess (adverbs, adjectives and pompous phrases) because they are unconfident about the effectiveness of their piece. Writers don’t need extra words to influence their readers because their style does it.
Repeating the key points for the sake of emphasis is another problem. Tell the key point, move forward to touch a new one; if it carries weight it needs no emphasis. To check repetition, review your piece and copy the sentences expressing related points. Reread those points and see what can be cut to prevent repetition. From the previous paragraph I deleted “Extra words waste the reader’s time” because I had said it when in the first paragraph I wrote “popular words” do no work except “misusing resources – most crucial of which is the reader’s time.” (And I prefixed “Additionally” to slip to the next paragraph.)
Sometimes repetition is required in the end but before adding every new word the question must be: does each word you write express a new idea?
