CONCISION
To make sentences concise and thus more readable, eliminate the following as you proof:
A. Redundancy
1. redundant pairs
• true and accurate (true)
• willing and able (willing)
• first and foremost (first)
2. redundant modifiers
• completely finish (finish)
• past memories (memories)
• terrible tragedy (tragedy)
• personal opinion (opinion)
3. redundant categories
• period of time (time)
• large in size (large)
• green in color (green)
• honest in character (honest)
• unusual in nature (unusual)
B. Meaningless Modifiers
1. kind of
2. really
3. definitely
4. basically
5. virtually
6. generally
7. actually
C. Phrases for a word
1. due to the fact that (because)
2. considering the fact that (because)
3. on the grounds that (because)
4. the reason for (why)
5. despite the fact that (although)
6. in the event that (if)
7. it is necessary that (must, should)
8. it is able to (can)
9. has the ability to (can)
10.prior to (before)
11.subsequent to (after)
12.in the next section (next
13.the first point, first of all (first
14.in an honest way (honestly)
D. Unnecessary Relative Clause
1. The second reason is that (Second,)
2. There are three women who are (Three women are)
E. Unnecessary Passive
1. The holes must be aligned (Align the holes)
2. was given by him (he gave)
F. Unnecessary Reference to the writer
1. I think/feel/believe they are (They are)
2. In my own personal opinion they are (They are)
3. To me they are (they are)
(This does NOT mean you cannot use first person, just that you need to maintain control over point-of-view and refer to yourself where appropriate.)
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