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".