How to Write Concisely: Tips for Clear Writing
Sometimes when you solve one problem, you create a new one.
When Google rolled out the Panda update in 2011, it helped move the SEO industry away from link farming, keyword stuffing, and cloaking and toward longer, “useful” content.
It was (probably) the lesser of two evils, but it brought its own problems. (A bit like vaping.)
Copywriters were asked to write 1,000-word blog posts, often on topics they knew little about. Instead of saying the most in the least amount of space, their default mode was, “How can I pad this to meet the word count?”
As writers, this goes against everything we are taught. Thankfully, Google has (for the most part) become a bit more sophisticated about the content it deems useful. But more importantly, users don’t want a waffle. Therefore, to capture and retain your audience’s attention, it is important to get your point across succinctly.
That doesn’t mean you can’t add color or flavor, but you don't need 50 words to express what you can do in 20 words.
Here are nine tips for a concise presentation.
1. Prepare yourself. If you’ve fully researched your topic, you’ll usually end up with more to say than you can fit in – forcing you to go back, edit all the nonsense, and really think about what’s coming into play. If you’ve written a 1,000 word article that needs to be 600 words, there’s a good chance it’ll end up being a better article.
If you have planned the structure of your article in advance, you are less likely to jump back and forth between topics.
2. Every sentence should say something new. The easiest way to write concisely is to make sure each sentence or paragraph offers something different. Just rephrasing the previous point irritates the reader (you often see this with AI-generated content).
When you repeat yourself, your writing loses pace and readers start to lose track of where you’re going.
If you only consider one of these nine points, let it be this one.
3. Use active voice instead of passive voice. Active voice generally makes your texts easier to understand, less complicated and more concise. Sentences usually start with the action – for example, “Write more succinctly so that readers can better understand your content” rather than “If the content is written more succinctly, readers can understand it better.”
If using the active voice doesn’t come naturally to you, writing tools (e.g. Grammarly) can help you learn the passive voice and suggest alternative wording.
4. Eliminate redundant pairs. Redundant pairs are two words commonly used together that have roughly the same meaning. My least favorite is “anyone and everyone.” Not only is it unnecessary, it just feels sick (a bit like vaping mentioned above).
5. Avoid filler words. This won’t dramatically reduce your word count, but it can have a big impact on the reading style of your text. “That” is a bugbear of mine. For example, I could say, “I think it’s important to write succinctly,” but “I think it’s important to write succinctly” serves the same purpose and sounds less clunky.
6. Think about contractions. Another way to avoid sounding clunky and childish is to embrace contractions. Sometimes people think they shouldn’t use them, especially in B2B environments, but that’s an outdated view. Using contractions just helps your text flow better, which can only be a good thing.
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7. Delete unnecessary modifiers. A modifier describes or qualifies another part of a sentence. Whether or not you keep a modifier is a choice, but simply being aware of it is a good place to start. For example, my original title was “How to Write More Concisely,” but I decided the “More” wasn’t necessary.
8. Remove anything that doesn’t add something. Challenge yourself to remove as much as you can from a paragraph or sentence without changing its meaning. If it doesn’t add anything, be it new information or a bit of personality or humor, leave it be. Be ruthless.
When you feel more comfortable with this, copy and paste your “finished” article into a separate document and then start cropping.
9. Read it out loud. When you think you’re almost done, read your text out loud. If sentences are still a bit clunky or wordy, you’ll recognize it. (Be warned, this step may take some getting used to!).
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If you’ve spent hours creating content, you may not want to spend more time cutting it in half, but brevity is a highly underrated writing skill and your writing will benefit from it.
More writing resources
How to Make Your Content Work Better: Seven Bold Phrases to Avoid When Writing
The Writing GPS: A Writing Framework That Makes Your Writing Incredibly Good
Seven Points and Seven Years Ago: Writing Lessons We Can Learn from Lincoln’s Masterpiece
29 Ways to Improve Your Writing Skills and Avoid Mediocre Content (Infographic)