The Concise Blog

When I was writing my posts in this blog, I found it hard to be concise when I was writing about how to be concise. It was astonishing to me that when I was writing about redundancies, for example, I would be using empty phrases in my explanations. I would catch myself in my writing sounding very wordy and have to delete and change my previous sentence. I have learned a lot about my own writing style through this blog; my tendencies and habits. It has been a learning experience for me in writing this blog and I am very happy I chose the topic. My work right now requires me to send business e-mails to managers, co-workers and clients almost every day. I now know the techniques for concise business wiritng and I am excited to apply them in the workplace.

Redundancies

Redundancies convey the same meaning twice in a single phrase. Most are quite easy to spot but I found a list from the Nelson textbook Business Communication - Process and Product that outlines some common redundancies used. Here are some of the ones I liked:

1. Advance warning
2. Basic fundamentals
3. Collect together
4. Dollar amount
5. Each and Every
6. End result
7. Exactly identical
8. Great Majority
9. Last and Final
10. Past history
11. Perfetly clear
12. Personal opinion
13. Positively certain
14. Refer back
15. Unexpected suprise

Long Lead-Ins

Long lead-ins are introductory words that say what is obvious and can be ignored. They often end with that or because. The interesting thing about this habit is the difference in word length between having a long lead-in and not is enormous. You can really trim your sentence down by getting rid of the long lead-in.

Some examples:

I am writing you this letter to let you know that I am resigning.
Revised: I am resigning

This is to inform you that your flight has been delayed by two hours.
Revised: Your flight has been delayed two hours.

Being Concise in Social Media

When using Twitter or Facebook you have few characters to work with to get your message across. This forces the writer to be direct in their writing. Whether its an advertisement about a promotion from a company or just a comment on someones wall, we are forced to practise techniques of being concise. This can take place with someone who does not really understand the concept of concise writing. But they practise it every time their writing is restricted.

Essays vs. Reports

Throughout this blog I have stressed how important it is to be concise in the workplace. As a student I understand that we have to write essays and research papers. In this scenario it is not necessary or even suitable to be concise. In fact, it is actually better to elaborate and stress points where needed. The "extra padding" can go a long way in making the paper more interesting. When writing concise the paper can seem very boring and more like a report. While this may be good for detail it makes it hard for the reader to enjoy the paper.

In business, reports are meant to be concise. Editing to "trim" the report is essential and can help your document get the point across effectively.

An interesting example of articles that have to be enjoyable but also concise are in newspapers. The columnists for newspapers are given only a certain amount of room to write their article. This make it tough for the writer to make the newspaper a good read while staying under the maximum allotment of space.

The IN Preposition

When the preposition "in" is used in a phrase to describe something, it can be dubious. Let me explain further with an example:

"We received a cheque in the amount of $1000" can easily be replaced with "We received a cheque for $1000".

"In the amount of" was an unnecessarry phrase, used to pad the sentance.

Here are some other examples:

"In the absence of Jody as supervisor, Gerrard was left in charge".
Revised: "Without Jody as supervisor, Gerrard was left in charge".

"She will invest in the near future".
Revised: "She will invest soon".

"In terms of reducing costs, the strategy has been a failure"
Revised: "The strategy has been a failure in reducing costs".

"You will notice these side effects in some instances"
Revised: "You will sometimes notcie these side effects".

Cliches

Cliches are unnecessary in business writing and used much to often. Cliches just add words to enhance meaning but the enhancement is perfectly expendable. Here are some of my favourite overused business cliches:

1. Thinking outside the box
2. Win-win situation
3. Low-hanging fruit
4. Going forward
5. Take it to the next level
6. Drop the ball
7. Bring our 'A' game
8. At the end of the day
9. Let's hit the ground running
10. 24/7
11. The bottom line
12. Ballpark figure
13. Putting lip-stick on a pig
14. Step up to the plate
15. Now more than ever
16. Gotta raise the bar
17. Perfect Storm
18. Elephant in the room
19. Team player
20. Throwing him under the bus

Time is Money

The purpose in all communication is to convey a message to another party. The efficiency of that message can depend on a number of different things but the most important is clarity. You cannot convey a message efficiently if you are not clear.

The best way to be clear?

Start writing and communicating concisely.

Once you have achieved this way of writing; not only will your message get across quicker but it will also have a smaller chance of being misunderstood. This saves a lot of time in a busy work environment and we all know (thanks to Benjamin Franklin) "time is money".

Specefic Techniques to Become More Concise

This is a video I found on YouTube about different techniques you can use to be more concise.

1. Eliminate any Redundancies

• This is the biggest problem I have when I'm writing and it begins to sound to wordy.
• I find that it is hard to spot repetition when it is not necessarily repeating in the same words.
• Also, especially for the last example, I find that through this your leaving out details that may be important to the message. Couldn't Helen be a man?
• There is a fine line between being redundant and giving necessary details. Helen is probably not a man, but what if the name was Tracy or Logan?
• It depends on who you are sending the message to (i.e. How much the receiver knows about you and the subject of the message).
• The "medium" of the message is also important.
• In certain mediums like newspapers details are very important. However if this was a business e-mail sent internally to someone who knows Helen, then it would not be necessary to state that she is a woman.
• P.S. Do you see whats wrong with the first example?
• It says John was employed and now works for Levis Strauss.
• When he revises the sentence it never says anything of past employment.
• Is that important to the message? Or is it just an error from the video?

2. Avoid Unnecessary Repetition of Words

• This technique is more obvious to spot, some proofreading should get this issue sorted almost every time.
• Revision, especially in business e-mails and letters, is very important. Every time you send a business e-mail or letter there is a reflection and opinion made of you once it is read. Being concise can help you maintain a professional reputation throughout your career.

3. Get Rid of Empty or Inflated Phrases

• This is the most common error when trying to stay concise. Strictly because it is so easy for the writer to want to inflate the phrase.
• The common error is that when a sentence is longer; it sounds "smarter" or more professional.
• The fact of the matter is, being concise and to the point is more professional because it cuts out the "fluff".
• Revised: Being concise is more professional because it cuts out the "fluff".

4. Reduce Clauses to Phrases, and Phrases to single words

• This is cutting your sentences down by using the tools in the English language.
• In the first example he cuts out two words with a comma. It shows the versatility of the English language.
• I don't know any other languages yet, but I am curious to see if other languages have rules like English. Can they shorten their sentences to say the same thing but in fewer words?
• Please comment below if you do know another language that can shorten their sentences like  English.
• Notice the joke he made in the last example?

5. Use Active Verbs

• This technique has to do with past tense.
• It is replacing words with two letters on the end of another word in the sentence.
• Proofreading should catch this mistake without too much trouble, it is an obvious switch that makes the sentence sound "cleaner".

Concise Defined

Dictionary.com: "expressing or covering much in few words; brief in form but comprehensive in scope".

Business Communication - Process and Product (Nelson): "Expressing a message in as few words as possible".

Askdefine.com: "expressing much in few words".

Etymology: From Late Latin concisus ("cut short").

Synonyms:

abridged, boiled down, breviloquent, brief, compact, compendiary, compendious, compressed, condensed, curt, epigrammatic, in a nutshell, laconic, lean, marrowy, meaty, pithy,succinct, summary, synoptic, terse

Concise in Different Languages

Czech: stručný

Dutch: beknopt

Finnish: ytimekäs,lyhytsanainen

French: boncis

Hebrew: תמציתי (tamtzity) , תמציתית (tamtzityt)

Italian: conciso

Spanish: conciso

Swedish: koncis,kortfattad