rules against wordiness

adam — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 21:51:10 +0000

We sin: write the first thought, miss the best order, and then add is, was, of, by, to-be, there, there are, it is, which, who, whom.
Promote a noun into a verb.
Remove un-needed words (e.g. advance notice is notice, each separate incident is each incident).
Avoid passive voice (e.g. It has been decided that your draft…for) which sounds committee-ish.
Active voice is object-verb-subject (e.g. Joe was hit by the ball) NOT subject-verb-object (the ball hit joe).
Eliminate of’s and their nouns, change “which” clauses into particples (e.g. a car which was going south…is a car going south), change nouns into verbs.
Use (as a noun or verb) can be wordy.
Careful not to over modify the noun or use too many noun pairs (e.g. puzzling in nature is puzzling…of great importance is important).

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