Relationships & Partners and Writing Skills Tips. (A Writing Advice Guide Book

Wordiness and Word Economy

Wordiness: Become A Wordsmith
"Wordsmith" is informal for "editor." A wordsmith's job is to hunt down bad language.
Now it's your turn to fine-tune your editing skills by becoming a friend's wordsmith.

This assignment has two parts and requires a partner. First, each person writes a long paragraph describing his or her favorite movie. The compositions should be full of inexact words and redundancy.

Afterwards, exchange papers and go to work! Rewrite your partner's description, making it sparkle with newness.

Writing Practice Prompt
Invite a professional editor to your classroom. (Ask a best friend to look over your work doesn't have to be a complete professional-Lumna10)
Before he or she arrives, brainstorm a list of questions about Editing.

Wordiness & Word Economy
Have you ever been offered a "free gift?" Have you ever read about "past history" in a textbook?

Aren't all gifts free? Isn't all history in the past? As you can see, both expressions are examples of overdone phrases, or wordiness. Wordiness can come in many forms, including redundancy, overdone phrases and empty expressions. Regardless, it's an enemy of good writing. Using too many words is like adding water to soda—it dilutes the flavor. A well-written sentence should contain no unnecessary words, just as a well-written paragraph should contain no unnecessary sentences. Thus, we have one of the cardinal rules for writing: omit all unnecessary words or phrases. This is called word economy.

Writing Prompt
Let's begin by taking a look at a list of overdone phrases. On a separate sheet of paper, write down the corrections for each. For example, "an unexpected surprise" is simply "a surprise."

at the present time
due to the fact
end result
large in size
past history
climb up
red in color
refer back
thought to myself
the honest truth
usual custom
repeat again

Sometimes Empty Expressions.
Empty expression are word phrases that add little to the meaning of a sentence. (I wouldn't worry as much about this one especially if the book is heavily based round math and science these phrases will consistently pop up and are used well in crime stories. -Lumna10. The other section is easier to narrow down and stop when it's getting ahead.)

due to
I think that
in my opinion
there seems to be
in order to
it seems to me
no doubt that (that one's just clumpy, clunky and cluttery, honestly.)
on account of
resulting from
with regard to
the fact that (the one below this better than the first it has more depth and is something Tecna would interchange with fact and result every once in a while, Skylights.)
the reason that
there is/there was/are (these are impossible to erase in first third and second person point of view regardless if you write from an animal point of view or a human's point of view. But I will say the Brothers' Grimm started their stories with the phrase, "'Once there was," way too many times. Yes they didn't coin the phrase once upon a time because they never used the phrase all. See my reference book for that truth to be found with your own two eyes you use to read, Skylights.)
What I mean is.
The thing is (okay this one can get seriously nagging and redundant but the other one's as long as they are well spaced out they can be used. -Lumna10)

Writing Exercise Prompt
The following paragraphs contain plenty of overdone phrases and empty expressions. Not all of them appear on the lists.) Economize the language by omitting unnecessary words and phrases.
A doctor by profession, Dr. Buckwalter received an unexpected surprise when his neighbor, Mrs. Smithers, brought her sick dog into his office. Due to the fact that he had patients waiting in the waiting room, he asked Mrs. Smithers to postpone her visit until later. Mrs. Smithers started a ruckus! The end result was that Dr. Buckwalter attended to Mrs. Smithers' dog. All in all, it was an uncommonly strange situation!

At the present time, I am not going to buy the restaurant. There seem to be too many questions as to whether it will be successful or not. In the event that the restaurant did poorly, I would lose all my savings that I've saved up over the years. To tell you the honest truth, I'm not sure I'd like that to occur. So, with all due respect, I'd like to thank you for your most kind offer.

Wordiness & Episode Revision
One fun way to learn how to avoid wordiness is by being wordy! By deliberately using overdone phrases and empty expressions, you can recognize them more easily when they creep into your writing.

This is a two-part assignment that will require a partner. First, write a half-page description of an event that took place in the past week. Add lots of wordiness to the first draft. Now read it aloud to someone. You'll probably get plenty of laughs!

Next exchange your paper with your partner's. Rewrite each other's descriptions, eliminating unnecessary words and phrases. How much shorter did your piece become?

(My Mom made me laugh so many times when rewriting and rewriting school essays that I lost complete track of how many times back in high-school I laughed because she read my stuff out loud to me and I could hear and realize how truly silly some of the random jargon in my brain truly was. My Mom will be my top editor for any of my original stories cause I trust her deeply, Skylights. -Lumna10)
I've finished the third quarter of this book being this is chapter 150 and I have 50 chapters left to go. Only a quarter left of the book to publish, enjoy. —Lumna10.