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