From the course: Business Writing Principles

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Making your writing concise

Making your writing concise

From the course: Business Writing Principles

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Making your writing concise

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- [Instructor] CEOs often tell their employees that they will read only one page. If you have only one page to give your entire message, each word has to count. So what exactly is wordiness? Various types of wordiness exist. Let's begin with wordy phrases: bad disaster, free gift, postpone until later, plan in advance. Do you recognize why they are all wordy? We don't have good disasters. Have you ever been asked to pay for a gift? Do we postpone to the past or plan after something is finished? Listen to this wordy sentence. The new desk will be red in color, round in shape, and arrive in the month of July. The reader will know that red is a color, round is a shape, and that July is a month. A more concise version is: The new red, round desk will arrive in July. The first version had 18 words. The revised version has nine words. Another kind of wordiness is meaningless expressions and words that you may have…

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