Wasting words is a crime against good writing

We are familiar with the phrases war on terror, war on global terrorism, war on corruption and war on black money as they are used more frequently now than in the past.

Dr Albert P Rayan

We are familiar with the phrases war on terror, war on global terrorism, war on corruption and war on black money as they are used more frequently now than in the past.

I use the phrase war on wordiness frequently to tell my students that wordiness is a sickness and it kills good ideas.
Wordiness can be defined as using more words than necessary to convey something.
In the words of Thomas Jefferson, The most valuable of talents is never using two words when one will do. To make a piece of writing readable, the writer should carry out a surgical strike on wordiness.  

Wordy phrases in a piece of writing confuse the reader and reveal that the writer lacks clarity of thought. Look at the following sentences:

• I am of the opinion that the announcement on withdrawal of the legal tender status for five hundred rupee and one thousand rupee notes by the Prime Minister of India on the eighth day in the month of November came as a huge shock. (43 words)
•  I think the announcement of demonetisation of `500 and `1000 notes by the Indian Prime Minister on 8th November shocked us. (21 words)

The first sentence is wordy whereas the second one is concise. The phrases I am of the opinion, withdrawal of the legal tender status for five hundred rupee and one thousand rupee notes and the eighth day in the month of November are replaced by the phrases I think, demonetisation of `500 and `1000 notes and 8th November in the sentence to make it concise.

• It is commonly believed that the Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, took this bold and radical decision of demonetising high-currency notes on account of the fact that he had promised to root out corruption and black money during his election campaigns before the general election. (46 words)
• It is believed Prime Minister Modi took this bold decision of demonetisation because he had earlier promised to root out corruption. (22 words)

The third sentence is wordy but the fourth sentence is terse. There are wordy phrases such as bold and radical decision, on account of the fact and during his election campaigns before the general election in the third sentence.

Here are tips to eliminate wordiness:

• Avoid ‘filler words’. Example:  ‘commonly’ is a filler word in “they commonly believe”.
• Avoid redundancies. Example:  ‘verbose’ is redundant in “wordy and verbose paragraph”
• Avoid the overuse of qualifiers.  Example:  ‘very’ is a qualifier in ‘a very very important question’.

They talk most who have the least to say. – Matthew Prior

Dr Albert P'Rayan is an ELT Resource Person and Professor of English. He can be contacted at rayanal@yahoo.co.uk