By taking out the unnecessary words the meaning is made clearer,
sharper and more direct.A small sign nailed to a village tree announcing where and when the
local village fête will take place might be giving just information, but
beneath it lies a covert appeal to come along and support local
causes in their fund-raising activities.Long sentences
With long sentences you run the risk of confusing, even losing, your
readers, who will then be unable to give you marks for your good work.
They may even lose patience with you as they struggle to find their way
through the unfamiliar terrain of your thinking. To guard against this,
cut up every long, complex sentence that can be reduced to two or
more shorter sentences.
For example, although it’s not impossible to understand the
following sentence, its meaning is difficult to track at times. But once
you’ve broken it down into three sentences, it presents no problem
at all.Appeals are made to some imagined social consensus, to ‘basic’ or
‘shared’ values, it’s assumed we all want to drive the latest and
fastest car on the road and our lives will be unfulfilled unless we have
a ‘multi-valve engine’ and ‘ABS braking’ and to sustain these appeals
myths have to be created by the media.Appeals are made to some imagined social consensus: to ‘basic’ or
‘shared’ values. It’s assumed we all want to drive the latest and
fastest car on the road and our lives will be unfulfilled, unless we
own a ‘multi-valve engine’ and ‘ABS braking’. And to sustain these
appeals, myths have to be created by the media.Long words
Much the same advice goes for long words, although they have a
different effect on your writing. They may not confuse your readers
quite as much as long sentences; nevertheless they can leave them
wondering whether you really meant to say what you did, and they will
often make your writing sound unnecessarily pompous. It makes sense,
then, wherever possible to replace long obscure words with short and
simple ones.Revising the Content 269HTW34 7/27/01 8:52 AM Page 269