From the course: Writing with Impact
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Shortening each sentence
- Let's be honest, sometimes you're writing to fill space. A report needs to look impressively big, a webpage feels too empty. A client insists that more words means more importance. And we've all been mis-trained by grade school assignments like write at least two pages about your summer vacation. So there are times when such drawn out writing is appropriate. But in this course we're talking about impact, about getting in quickly and making a strong impression. Short punchy sentences are better for that. That means removing words, specifically the ones that don't contribute to the sentence. Words like really, very, or extremely are used to emphasize, but they often do the opposite. They make the reader wonder why the emphasis is needed. Wait, let me put that another way. They really make the reader wonder a lot just why the emphasis is truly needed. Hear the difference? I think the first one works better. Business writing is especially rich in meaningless words like world-class and…
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