Japanese tea house

The advice for writers to “omit needless words” (Strunk & White, 1959) is the classic final word on wordiness.

You can understand it. It is easy to apply. Hundreds of examples may be found in writer’s guides. You can apply it at 4 am, when your head is comatose and your body almost so.

If a word can be eliminated without changing the meaning, tone, or implications of the text, its omission will invariably make for better writing. That needless word is an obstacle, an obstacle the reader must step over or around, on the way to finding your meaning.

Examples of wordy phrases and their pruned equivalents:

a combined total ofa total of
official distributordistributor
black in colourblack
certain selectedselected
circular-shapedcircular
collaborate togethercollaborate
combine into onecombine
come to a decisiondecide
consensus of opinionconsensus
cost the sum ofcost
coupled togethercoupled
current trendtrend
different studies ofstudies of
each and everyeach OR every
empty cavitycavity
encourage and stimulateencourage OR stimulate
end resultresult
exact replicareplica
facilitates easierfacilitates
final outcomeoutcome
focus much of theirfocus their
follow afterfollow
from the time of inceptionfrom inception OR from the start
incidence rateincidence
join into onejoin
join togetherjoin
less well developedless developed
lighter in weightlighter
longer in lengthlonger
made out ofmade of
massive sizemassive
might possiblymight
mutual cooperationcooperation
needs some adviceneeds advice
nett resultresult
on a daily basisdaily
part and parcelpart
passing phasephase
past experienceexperience
period of timeperiod
potential riskrisk
predict in advancepredict
present incumbentincumbent
prevalence rate ofprevalence
probe intoprobe
reason is becausereason is
reason whyreason
refers backrefers
repeat againrepeat
shorter in lengthshorter
sole monopolymonopoly
still continuecontinue
still in its infancy stagein its infancy
still persistspersists
still remainsremains
straight linearlinear
subject to certain termssubject to terms
throughout the entire continentthroughout the continent
upgrade its existingupgrade its
true factsfacts
ugly in appearanceugly
used in conjunction withused with

Hopefully this list will give you an idea of the kind of words that can be eliminated. On that note, I exhort you, in the tradition of Strunk and White. Eliminate! Eliminate! Eliminate!

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