Streamline Your Writing; Improve Readership

Whatever it is you write—your blog, a tweet, an article, a book, a newsletter, web content, or even a good, old-fashioned letter, memo, or email—you want the reader to easily GET what you are saying and act on it.

To accomplish this, you need clarity. And, these days, you need brevity.

One of my favorite bloggers, Dianna Huff, has a terrific blog post called Pruning Deadwood From Your Copy. Of her 5 tips, #3 is my favorite:

Hunt down redundancies. When I write fast and without effort, I find my copy is full of useless words that I use over and over and ideas that I communicate two or three or four times (just like this sentence, ha!).

Here is how I can edit this sentence: When writing fast and without effort, my copy becomes bloated with useless words and repeated ideas.

I love how she illustrated her point. I see redundancies in my work when I rush and almost always in a first draft or braindump. Calling myself out on it more often, I really notice it now in other people's writing.

Dianna's post is for EVERYONE. It is a quick read and worth printing and tacking to the wall!

Comments

[Dianna Huff]

Michelle,

Thank you for writing about my post. I wrote it because I have been editing my own wordy copy and needed to remind myself why taking the time to edit is important.

[Chris Zdunich]

Clarity and brevity are achieved by multiple reviews of your material. Not back to back reviews, but, depending on the piece you are writing, maybe over several days. Breaks and personal moods also determine the clarity and brevity.

[Uninvoked]

oooh, I bet my noveling blog is full of redundancy. I shall have to go check now. Thanks so much for the link!