{"id":4481,"date":"2017-05-07T13:02:05","date_gmt":"2017-05-07T17:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/?p=4481"},"modified":"2017-05-08T22:16:31","modified_gmt":"2017-05-09T02:16:31","slug":"how-to-write-more-simply-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.servsig.org\/wordpress\/2017\/05\/how-to-write-more-simply-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"How to… Write More Simply (part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article is part of the How-to… series brought to by Emerald Group Publishing. The other parts of the series you find here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"write_simply_infographic\"<\/h5>\n
\u00a0Avoiding wordiness<\/h5>\n

There are many ways of avoiding wordiness. A few basic guidelines are given in this section.<\/p>\n

Cut the clutter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Good writers develop a concise style, which avoids redundant words. A good tip for editing a draft is to go through it and cross out any words which don’t add to the meaning, while at the same time looking for more concise ways of saying the same thing.<\/p>\n

Original version<\/p>\n

Vocabulary acquisition is naturally a basic skill for all language students and much research has been done in this domain at all levels from ab initio to advanced study (Chesters\u00a0et al., 1992; Meara, 1997). A group of academics within the French Department decided upon the idea of designing a micro-computer program that would allow students to learn French vocabulary in such a way, that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the learning would be faster<\/li>\n
  2. the lecturer input would be less<\/li>\n
  3. the effectiveness of learning would be enhanced<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Edited version<\/p>\n

    Vocabulary acquisition is a basic skill for all language students, and is the subject of research at all levels from ab initio to advanced study (Chesters\u00a0et al., 1992; Meara, 1997). A group of academics within the French Department decided to design a micro-computer program to help student to learn French vocabulary faster, more effectively, and with less lecturer input.<\/p>\n

    Avoid circumlocutions\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    A\u00a0“circumlocution” is the use of many words when just a few will do \u2013 an easy trap to fall into when trying to make a point a little more forcefully! Here are some examples, together with simpler ways of expressing the same idea:<\/p>\n