Use Fewer Words

I’m going to throw myself under the bus.

At times, I’ve been accused of being a bit wordy. Sometimes it’s when I talk, other times email, and yet other times it could be a presentation. In my defense, I lean towards wordiness for the sake of being thorough, but can see how fewer words benefit the recipient.

Case in point, I recently drafted the following for an email:

“Below is who has signed up so far. If you know of others that are interested, but not in this list, please forward their information to me and we’ll be sure to include them.”

It felt wordy.

I spent about 30-seconds and ended up with this version:

“Below is who has signed up. If you know others that are interested, please forward their information and we’ll include them.”

Upon further analysis, I was able to reduce words and characters up to 38%. Extrapolate that over a presentation, report, speech, or email and think about how much can be spared!

Here’s the catch. It takes longer to write this way. Mark Twain famously said he would have written a shorter letter if he had more time. How true.

Where can you start? Two things to look out for:

Deadwood Construction

Unnecessary words that do not add value (below, in blue).

Stating the Obvious or What is Implied

Restates what the reader already knows (in red).

Take a couple of minutes and reduce your words. Your readers will appreciate the extra time.

BTW…this article started as 1,500 words and ended up being  just over 300. See what a difference that made?