Conciseness

Conciseness is the art of cutting overweight sentences down to size, with flair. Richard Lanham calls wordiness the "lard factor" in prose, and claims that most prose passages can be cut by at least 50%. He's probably right. The first question students usually ask is how long a paper should be. I refer them to a letter to the editor of Nature Magazine by Watson and Crick, explaining the structure of the DNA molecule, the famous double-helix. I tell them that if they can win a Nobel prize in a page and a half, I'll take it!

Quantity doesn't always equal quality in writing. Most often, it's the other way around. Yet years of writing 1,000 word themes or 12 page reports have conditioned students to pad papers with mindless phrases and huge sentences.

To review the basic principles of concise writing, go to the excellent Purdue OWL site listed below.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

If you think you understand conciseness, then go directly to the exercises listed below.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/Files/28.html

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Exercise: Comp 3150 and Comp 3160-Stress

NOTE: Some readers (a few) write TOO concisely. They try to pack too much into one sentence. If you suspect that might be your problem, go to the exercise on overloaded sentences. (Or read it just for fun. This is a popular passage used in the Comp 1120 Labs.)

Overloaded Sentences

REMINDER: Don't sacrifice clarity and redability for conciseness. Make sure the sentences flow smoothly as you cut unnecessary words and phrases.