What is the best way to battle wordiness in your writing?

Answer 1

Eliminate useless words and phrases, negative statements, and unnecessary adverbs, and express one idea at a time.

Breaking a sentence into two or more sentences is often a good technique, as is rephrasing what you are trying to say.

Answer 2

Think of the simplest way to say what you need to say without repeating yourself. Be direct.

I saw a great book on this subject (unfortunately, I can't remember the name, but it was something like Plain English for Lawyers). It suggested just writing as if you didn't care about wordiness, then going back through your writing and high-lighting "working words." Ask yourself what function a word is performing in a sentence. If you could erase it, and still convey the same information, then erase it. Go through each sentence and see how many words you can cut out and still have a meaningful sentence. I think you'll be amazed at how well this works.

Answer 3

Eliminate useless words and phrases, negative statements, and unnecessary adverbs, and express one idea at a time.