I didn’t even remember typing it. But I noticed this phrase when editing something I wrote this morning.
I changed it to a more concise “now.”
That got me thinking about other wordy phrases I use…without even noticing them. I could have used my memory. But at my age, that’ll fail me.
Instead, I looked at the discussion boards in my classes because it is about as close to a transcript of a conversation I have…without actually having a conversation. And, save spelling errors, I do a minimal amount of editing.
There’s one. I do a minimal amount of editing. Instead of, I do minimal editing.
Here is a list of unnecessary words. – Followed by the better way.
- I do the exact same thing!!! – I do the same thing!
- In my opinion, it’s a bad idea. – It’s a bad idea. Or, if I want to hedge, I think it’s a bad idea.
- Can you summarize briefly what happened? – Can you summarize the results?
- This is really good stuff. – This is fantastic.
- This is a statically insignificant event that almost never happens. – This seldom happens. Or, this is a rare event.
Is anyone hurt by throwing in an extra word every now and then? No
Does the reader know what I meant? Yes.
But if you can say something with fewer words, why not?
Many have used a version of this, but Thomas Jefferson said it best, “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”