"Omit needless words," say Strunk & White. But how do we know what's needless? To give us all another break from virus news, here are four #writingtips on finding needless words, best used while self-editing drafts. 1/6
1. Review prepositions. If you snip one (of, for, from, etc.) you likely take other words with it. Even cutting just one word makes copy tighter. "Tariffs barred dairy products from Canada" can become "Tariffs barred Canadian dairy products." 2/6
2. Review verbs. Changing passive voice to active voice generally shortens a sentence by about a third. So unless it messes up your meaning, turn "The man was devoured by the lion" into "The lion devoured the man." 3/6
3. Review verbs, Part II. Look for places where two verbs do the work of one. These are easy to tighten. "He decided to put her in charge of leading the project" can be "He charged her with leading the project." 4/6
4. Review quotes. Read the sentence before each quote. Such lead-ins often give away what's in the quote and can be trimmed, thus making the quote more surprising and powerful. If the quote's really strong, cut the lead-in. (My writing buddy @Baxter uses this method.) 5/6
I know these trimming tips only tighten copy bit by bit. Sometimes you need to axe whole sentences and paragraphs. But these four methods help me satisfy word count limits all the time. Hope these are helpful, folks. Keep writing, be safe. 6/6
