Say It Don't Slay It

In our last class, we discussed some simple steps that editors use to eliminate wordiness. Wordiness in a paragraph basically slays your ideas. It bores readers and sometimes causes laughter. So remember these three steps.

The first step is simply to scan the paragraph you are working on, underlining any occurrences of the verbs to be, to have, and to make. So if you see the words am, are, is, was, were, have, has, make, etc., you underline them and move on. Once you finish the scan, you can go back and look for ways to improve these verbs by using more accurate active verbs.

Once you complete that step, you scan again, but this time you search for negatives. Underline every negative you see. When the scan is complete, you go back and consider revising your sentences to eliminate the negatives.

Then, in step three, you read the paragraph carefully as you seek and destroy circumlocutions and redundancies.

Practice and follow these steps and you will see your writing improve. And if you have specific questions, bring them to class.