Cut Out the Deadwood In Your Writing

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Short, clear and concise. No matter what you’re writing, that should be your goal.

Back when I was a journalism undergrad (we’ll just skip over exactly how far back that was) one of my professors made it her personal goal in life to eliminate the phrase “in order to” from my writing. She had good reason. I used the phrase everywhere, and it weighed down my pages. The phrase is deadwood, word clutter that can be cut out and thrown away because it doesn’t add anything but length.

It’s not hard to cut out the deadwood, you just have to learn how to spot it.

In the amount of…

Take, for example, the phrase in the amount of — put more simply, you say for (ie, “in the amount of $20” or “for $20”). Instead of four words, you’ve only used one. How about in the event of? I see that phrase in a lot of writing, but instead, try if. Again, one word for four. A lot of people are fans of advance planning which, is also just planning. You can also ask a question or you can simply ask. I can continue on with examples, or I can just continue. Phrases like in my opinion, as a matter of fact, type of — just for example — can usually be cut entirely without changing the meaning of your sentence.

Deadwood isn’t the only way writing can get weighty. A lot of writers sprinkle modifiers — adjectives and adverbs — throughout their copy, thinking it will make their writing sparkle. Instead, it only dulls. Don’t take my word for it. Mark Twain once wrote in a letter, commending a friend’s writing style, that he shouldn’t “let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them – then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together.”

Adverbs and Adjectives

It’s true. One specific, vivid adjective or adverb will do a better job communicating than two or three dull ones. Better still are precise nouns and verbs in the place of adjectives and adverbs. Take “He slowly walked.” Slowly is an adverb and, no, there’s nothing technically wrong with that sentence, but did he walk slowly, or did he saunter? Maybe he ambled? Meandered? Don’t those words feel a little more lively and clear than the original? Worse yet is “He walked very slowly.” Very is a very favorite of new writers and it’s almost always unnecessary clutter.

The same goes for adjectives. We really don’t need to read more sentences about the “hot, bright sun” because, frankly, we know the sun is usually hot and bright. If you feel you must use an adjective, tell us the sun is chilly or searing or something out of the ordinary (and even searing isn’t that unusual) and you might pique my interest.

The rule is simple: always strive to pick words that will convey your meaning in the clearest, most concise and simplest way. You’ll be glad you did. My professor went at my writing with red pen gusto, and I thank her for it because today, I can barely stand to type the words “in order to” in this post without hitting the backspace key. We should all feel that way.